A First Glance at the Big Picture: Estimates of the Number of New Crime Victims Each Year
To start to bring the big picture in focus, a first step would be to look up how many Americans reveal that they were victims of street crimes each year.
The absolute numbers are staggering: Police forces across the nation learned about nearly 1.25 million acts of “violence against persons” during 2013, according to the FBI’s (2014) annual Uniform Crime Reports. In addition, over 9 million thefts were reported to the police (however, some were carried out against stores or offices, not individuals or families). The situation was even worse, accord- ing to the BJS’ National Crime Victimization Survey. It projected that people 12 years old and over suf- fered an estimated 6.1 million acts of violence, and households experienced close to 16.8 million thefts during 2013 (Truman and Langton, 2014).
Some individuals and households are victim- ized more than once in a year, so the number of incidents might be greater than the number of peo- ple. Then again, in some incidents, more than one person might be harmed, so the number of people could be larger than the number of criminal events. Either way, it is obvious that each year, millions of Americans are initiated into a group that they did not want to be part of: They join the ranks of those who know what it is like from firsthand experience to endure crime-inflicted injuries and losses.