Bulletin Reports 

Violent Crime 

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) presents Violent Victimization Committed by Strangers, 1993-2010, which presents findings on the rates and levels of violent victimization committed by offenders who were strangers to the victims including homicide, rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault. It includes annual trends and compares changes across three 6-year periods in the incidences and types of violence committed by strangers from 1993 through 2010. The report describes the characteristics of victims and circumstances of the violent crime. The nonfatal violent victimization estimates were developed from the BJS’ National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which collects information on nonfatal crimes against persons age 12 or older from a nationally representative sample of U.S. households. The homicide data are from the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR) for 1993 through 2008.

In 2010 strangers committed approximately 38 percent of nonfatal violent crimes, including rape and sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault. From 2005 through 2010, about 10 percent of violent victimizations committed by strangers involved a firearm, compared to 5 percent committed by offenders known to the victim. Of the homicides reported to the FBI from 1993 through 2008 with a known relationship between the victim and offender, strangers committed between 21 percent and 27 percent, and offenders known to the victims caused between 73 percent and 79 percent. For additional information go to http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4557, report number NCJ 239424.