(Authored for the Vera Institute.)

The narrative that the United States is in a historic violent crime wave has landed with some voters and reflects how media coverage of crime shapes public perception and people’s sense of safety. The most frequently cited national crime data comes from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), though it is not the only government data source. As many researchers and journalists have cautioned, the FBI’s police-reported crime data is troubled by inaccuracies and incomplete coverage. This brief explains why the FBI data is an inconclusive measure of crime in the United States and presents analysis of an additional, less-discussed source of crime data: the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).

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