Crime Victimization About the Same as Last Year

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup's annual update on crime in the United States shows that 26% of all households experienced some type of crime during the past year, with 14% mentioning one incident and another 12% mentioning two or more incidents. The poll also shows that 32% of crime incidents in the past year were not reported to the police.

A similar poll conducted a year ago found virtually the same level of victimization (25%), along with a slightly higher rate of reporting the crime to the police (71%, compared with 68% this year). The differences in victimization and reporting rates are well within the poll's margin of error.

As shown in the table below, the two most frequently mentioned crimes in four polls Gallup has conducted since 2000 were having one's home, car, or property vandalized (11% to 15%) and having money or property stolen (11% to 14%).

Five percent of respondents this year say their house or apartment was broken into, 3% that a car owned by someone in the household was stolen, 2% that someone in the household was mugged or physically assaulted, and 2% that someone in the household was robbed. Another 1% say that someone in the household was sexually assaulted. A net total of 5% of all American households experienced one or more violent crimes.

Internet Crime

For the first time, Gallup asked about Internet crime. Six percent of all respondents report that they or someone in their household was the victim of a "computer or Internet-based crime, such as fraud or computer hacking, while using your home computer."

The net effect of adding Internet crime to the crime rate is to increase the overall incidence of household crime from 26% to 30%.

Crime Highest Among the Young and Nonwhites, Least Among the Elderly

While there are some variations over the past three years, the table below shows that the highest rates of victimization continue to be among young adults. Also, nonwhites experienced much more crime than whites. People 65 and older are by far the least likely of any demographic groups Gallup measured to report any experience with crime.

Major findings:

• Last year, the most pronounced difference in the crime rate from the previous year was found among younger Americans, who experienced a significant increase in crime -- from 30% in 2001 to 43% in 2002. The rate among younger Americans remains at this elevated level -- 41% this year.

• Differences among the four regions of the country are reduced. Last year, the South reported the lowest rate (20%) and the West the highest rate (33%) -- a difference of 13 points. This year, the lowest rate is in the East and Midwest (24% each), with the South and West reporting somewhat higher rates (27% and 28%, respectively) -- a difference between the highest and lowest of just four points.

• Urban households continue to report the highest crime rate (29%), but suburban households are not far behind (27%), while rural households again report the lowest rate (19%).

• Nonwhite households report about the same level of crime as last year (37% vs. 36%, respectively), which remains somewhat higher than the rates in 2001 (32%) and 2000 (31%).

• The gap in crime rates between white and nonwhite households remains substantial -- 14 percentage points the past two years (37% in nonwhite, 23% in white households in 2003).

• For the past two years, women have reported slightly higher rates than men (28% vs. 23% this year). In 2001, the rates were about equal, while in 2000, men reported a higher rate than women.

Survey Methods

The results reported here are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected sample of 1,017 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Oct. 6-8, 2003. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.