Measuring Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the National Crime Victimization Survey

Abstract

The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) collects information on nonfatal personal and property crimes both reported and not reported to police. As part of the ongoing redesign efforts for the NCVS, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) added sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) questions to the survey's demographic section in July 2016. The inclusion of these measures will provide important national-level estimates of victimization among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and allow researchers to understand victimization risk and access to victim services. This article includes a discussion of the sexual orientation and gender identity measures that were added to the NCVS, and findings from the monitoring activities conducted during the first six months of data collection. In addition, population counts by sexual orientation and gender identity are estimated using July through December 2016 NCVS data.