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1 Introduction
Pages 15-22

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From page 15...
... Understanding the frequency and context under which rape and sexual assault are committed is vital in directing law enforcement and victimsupport resources. These data can influence public policy in the areas of public health, mental health, and education.
From page 16...
... , an ongoing BJS survey of the noninstitutional population of the United States to estimate victimization rates2 by type of crime, along with details about the victims and the social context of those victimizations. The NCVS provides an independent source of information on criminal victimization -- a source of data for the calibrating of police-­eported ­ r incidents and an indicator of the extent that victimization incidents go unreported to law enforcement.
From page 17...
... As part of this effort, BJS asked the Committee on National Statistics of the NRC to convene an expert panel to investigate these issues and recommend best practices for measuring the incidents of rape and sexual assault from BJS household surveys and to assess the quality and relevance of NCVS statistics on rape and sexual assault. The Panel on Measuring Rape and Sexual Assault in Bureau of Justice Statistics Household Surveys was appointed to carry out the task.
From page 18...
... Not surprisingly, these two approaches provide different estimates of victimization, which in turn provides confusion for the public. Lynch explained: One group emphasizes the criminal justice perspective and the other takes a public health approach.
From page 19...
... Consequently, there is less concern with identifying point-in-time events that may comprise the condition and legal definitions are of less concern than commonly understood definitions of the behavior. In broad terms, the NCVS represents the criminal justice perspective, and the NISVS and other surveys described in this report represent the public health perspective.
From page 20...
... of victimizations to examine whether the NCVS possibly underestimated or overestimated these victimizations. The NRC has completed other studies of the broader NCVS (National Research Council, 2008, 2009)
From page 21...
... In pursuit of these goals, Chapters 2 through 6 of the report first consider definitions of rape and sexual assault and their legal histories and then detail several important sources of data on these victimizations. In order to design a national survey on rape and sexual assault, consistent definitions for these criminal victimizations have to be defined.
From page 22...
... Of special note, this report uses the terms "low incidence" and "statistically rare" to describe the criminal victimizations of rape and sexual assault because the frequency with which they occur makes them difficult to measure in a household population survey. The report explores a number of statistical practices that better measure rare attributes in a population.


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