The Bureau of Justice Statistics report on Criminal Victimization, 2007 is out. These data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) provide a useful cross-check on the FBI numbers, which report only crimes known to the police. The survey does not include homicide, however, as the respondents are only asked about crimes against themselves, not other members of the family. The overall numbers are not much changed from 2005. The data do indicate that rape is way up and aggravated assault is way down between the two years, but the report cautions that this may be a methodology issue rather than a real change.

Overall, violent crime fell 43% from 1998 to 2007.