Describe the International Crime Victims Survey and International Self Report Delinquency Study. What is the survey design of each? Who is sampled for each survey? When would it be appropriate to use each of these surveys?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

International Crime Victims Survey (ICVS), which was created to provide a standardized survey instrument to compare crime victims’ experiences across countries. Five waves of data collection starting in1989 up until 2005. Respondents are asked about 10 different types of victimization that they could have experienced: car theft, theft from or out of a car, motorcycle theft, bicycle theft, attempted or completed burglary, sexual victimization (rapes and sexual assault), threats, assaults, robbery, and theft of personal property. This survey has provided estimates of the extent of crime victimization in many countries and regions of the world. In addition, characteristics of crime victims and incidents have been produced from these surveys. While initially designed to collect comparative data on juvenile delinquency among adolescents residing primarily in Europe, the International Self Report Delinquency Study (ISRD), has been expanded to include questions pertaining to victimization. The ISRD has undergone three waves of data collection. The ISRD is administered to adolescents in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grade via pencil-and-paper surveys or electronically via computers. A total of 67,883 questionnaires were collected as part of the ISRD-2 study. While the ISRD-1 did not include questions on victimization, four questions were added to the ISRD-2 questionnaire. Students are asked to recall victimization experiences that happened to them in the past 12 months.