Crime Victimization About the Same as Last Year

Date: November 03, 2003
Source: gallup.com

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%).

Please tell me which, if any, of these incidents have
happened to you or your household within the last 12 months?

%

%

%

%

A home, car, or property owned by you or other household
member vandalized

15

15

11

12

Money or property stolen from you or another member of
your household

14

12

11

14

Your house or apartment broken into

5

5

3

4

A car owned by you or another household member stolen

3

4

3

4

You or other household member mugged or physically
assaulted

2

3

3

3

Money or property taken from you or another household
member by force, with gun, knife, weapon or physical attack, or by threat of
force

2

1

1

2

You or other household member sexually assaulted

1

2

na

1

Net Percentage of Households Experiencing Violent
Crime

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.

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.

CRIME INCIDENTS
COMPARED BY SELECTED DEMOGRAPHICS

(Percentage
Experiencing Any Crime During Past Year)

%

%

%

%

18-29

41

43

30

39

30-49

26

25

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