Barbados

The Victimization Survey of Barbados (BARCS) measures the level of crime experienced by a household. The first BARCS was carried out in 2002, interviewing 8,000 people. The BARCS used the same questionnaire that was administered in the many of the 34 countries (The International Crime Victims Survey – ICVS).
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Brasil

Survey conducted in 2009 by the Ministry of Planning and Management and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. National Survey for household. Victimization characteristics and justice access in Brazil.
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The survey conducted in 2002 by the Insitutional Secuirty Cabinet of the Presidency, USP/FIA and ILANUD. The questionnaire was administered to 2,800 interviewees, 16 years or older, who were residents of the cities of São Paulo, Río de Janeiro, Recife and Vitoria. The questionnaire and methodology of the investigation was taken from the suggested methodology of the UNODC (The International Crime Victims Survey).
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Canada

In 2004, the Government of Canada (Statistics Canada ) conducted a survey of victimization, the public perception of crime and the justice system. Past surveys were conducted in 1988, 1993 and 1999. For the 2004 survey, they conducted 28,000 surveys over the phone with approximately 24,000, older than 15 years of age that lived in the 10 providences.
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Chile

The National Urban Survey of Citizen Security (ENUSC) has been conducted since 2003, under an agreement between Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas and the Ministerio del Interior. The 2009 survey aims to gather information regarding the level of victimization, perception of insecurity and evaluation by Chileans of the authorities responsible for Public Security.
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Colombia

 

DANE conducted the survey in homes, in conjunction with the Departamento Nacional de Planeación, in 2003, in the cities of Bogotá, Cali and Medellín. Its primary objective was to characterize aspects related to crime, what allows the proper authorities to make decisions regarding control, prevention and tracking crime, and measuring unreported crimes.
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Ecuador

The first national survey conducted in 2008 by order of the Ministerio de Gobierno. The objective was to determine the level of victimization and the perception of insecurity. El objetivo fue determinar los niveles de victimización y la percepción de inseguridad. The household survey began in the cantons that contain the 23 provincial capitals of continental Ecuador. The probe included 8,496 homes. These surveys were conducted with the methodological base of ENICRIV, yet have no strict comparision to it.
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Second National Survey conducted to 11,470 houses with the execption of Galapagos. The result will represent Quito and Guayaquil and another national areas perception about security.
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El Salvador

In 2004 the Instituto Universitario de Opinión Pública (IUDOP) of the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) conducted the first victimization survey under the coordination and financing of the Ministerio de Gobernación, the Consejo Nacional de Seguridad Pública and  the Programa Sociedad Sin Violencia made possible by the United Nations Development Programme (PNUD). In 2009, the IUDOP, a private institution, also conducted a second victimization survey.
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Guatemala

The Encuestas de Victimización y Percepción de Inseguridad del Programa de Seguridad Ciudadana y Prevención de la Violencia del PNUD Guatemala has measured the situation of municipal insecurity in Guatemala since 2004. The program has conducted six surveys since then biannually.
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Jamaica

The 2006 Jamaican National Victimization Survey (JNVS) is the first national victimization survey conducted in Jamaica by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATINJA). The Final report was prepared by the Centre of Criminology of the University of Toronto for the Ministry of National Security, Government of Jamaica. A second survey was conducted in 2009 and its results are to be presented to the public in July, 2010.
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Mexico

The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) leads the implementation of the National Survey of Victimization and Perception (ENVIPE), within the work of the National Information Subsystem of Government, Public Security and Law Enforcement at (SNIGSPIJ).

ENVIPE's purpose is to provide information to society at national level on the phenomenon of criminal victimization and social perceptions on public safety and performance of the authorities, as well as providing elements to different levels of government that support the processes of public policy in these matters.

View poll ENVIPE 2011 (Spanish only)

View questionnaire ENVIPE 2011 (Spanish only)

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Paraguay

The first official survey of a national scale was conducted in May, 2009, La Primera Encuesta oficial de character nacional fue iniciada en mayo de 2009, through the signing of an inter-agency cooperation agreement between the Ministerio del Interior; the Secretaría de la Mujer de la Presidencia de la República; the Dirección General de Estadística, Encuestas y Censos (DGEEC); the United Nations Development Programme (PNUD); the Fondo de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo de la Mujer (UNIFEM) and the Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID). The questionnaire used was based on the International Victimization Survey from UNODC -- UNICRI. The sample size was 5,500 cases.
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Peru

In 2005, the Ministerio de Interior contacted APOYO, a marketing and polling company to conduct a victimization survey in the cities of Arequipa, Cusco, Huamanga, Iquitos, Lima and Trujillo; with 10,300 households and one respondent per household, who was 16 years or older. The field work was carried out during October and December, 2005. More recently, another  Más recientemente, un otro study of victimization was conducted in the city of Lima, in 2009.
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United States

The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the primary source of information regarding the frequency, characteristics and consequences of criminal victimization in the United States. The NVCS began in 1972. Since its creation, the survey has undergone almost constant updates, including an extensive redesign in 1992. The national sample represents 76,000 households and, correspondingly, around 135,300 people.
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Uruguay

The Comisión de Seguridad Ciudadana de la Cámara Nacional de Comercio y Servicios (CNCS) produced the second edition of the victimization survey. The survey was developed by all the members and professionals at CNCS. The goal was to provide aggregate information about the real security situation as perceived by the businesspersons close to CNCS.
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Venezuela

The Encuesta Nacional de Victimización y Seguridad Ciudadana 2009 was begun in August 2009. A joint effort between the Consejo Nacional de Prevención y Seguridad Ciudadana and the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), which was created out of the police reform in 2006. INE assumed responsibility for carrying out this survey to obtain information for the creation and tracking on security policies.

Additional sources of Victimization surveys in the inter-american setting

Latinobarómetro
Latinobarómetro is a public opinion poll that is conducted annually consisting of roughly 19,000 interviews in 18 countries in Latin America representing more than 400 million people.
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*Victimization surveys have become one of the most used instruments in diagnosing public insecurity, thus, permitting government's to better measure the cifra negra (or gap) between the relatively small number of reported crimes and those that go unreported. However, like any diagnostic tool, it is not completely neutral and objective since it relies of a series of assumptions about the understanding of reality. As experts in the field indicate, the picture of the crime phenomenon produced by this tool depends on how the survey questionnaire is designed.

Last Update: September 27, 2010