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pdfNCVS-531 (8/2011)
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide:
A Renewed Focus on Data Quality
This document does not contain any Title 13 data or other Personally Identifiable
Inform ation. All data are fictitious and any resemblance to actual data is coincidental.
Consistent with Field Division policy, any names referenced in practice interviews
or other exercises are not meant to refer to any actual businesses, schools, group
quarters, or persons, especially any current or form er Census Bureau employees.
NCVS-531 (8/2011)
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Lesson
Title
Page
Instructions to the Trainer .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
Suggested Training Schedule. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
xi
1
Welcome and Reintroduction to the NCVS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1
2
The NCVS Screener.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1
3
The Crime Incident Report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1
4
The Contact History Instrument. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1
5
NCVS Concepts and Definitions.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-1
6
Refresher Training Knowledge Test Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-1
7
RO Administrative/Miscellaneous Topics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1
8
NCVS Data Quality Indicators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-1
9
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-1
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Trainer Instructions
Instructions for the Trainer
The key to effective training is preparation. Prepare in advance and your confidence
and readiness will be apparent. No amount of classroom technique or showmanship
can overcome the handicap of not knowing your subject matter.
Always treat your trainees with respect and courtesy. Remember, they’ll be working for
you.
Your Role in Training
Training CAPI interviewers is one of your most
important roles as a survey supervisor. The Census
Bureau’s success depends in part on your ability to
train a staff to do an effective job.
There is no substitute for a motivated and competent
staff in meeting our responsibility toward the accurate
and timely completion of the NCVS.
Prepare to Train
Study all materials well in advance of training. This
includes the Training Guide, the Classroom
Workbook, and any other material used in the training
session. Use a highlighter to mark specific parts of
the text, if you find it useful.
If you don’t understand a particular part, reread the
material in this Training Guide or search for additional
information in the NCVS-550 Interviewer Manual. If
necessary, ask your supervisor for assistance.
Practice reading the Training Guide aloud to another
person, if possible.
Preclassroom
Trainees must complete the NCVS Refresher
Knowledge Test before attending refresher training.
Practice interviews
This classroom training includes four interviews. The
first two are walkthrough practice interviews done as
a group and two paired practice interviews.
Regional Office topics
The Regional Office Survey Supervisor should
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Trainer Instructions
prepare a regionally appropriate presentation for this
30 minute discussion.
Prepare for the training
session
Seating
A suggested refresher training agenda is on the last
page of this chapter.
!
Arrange the seats and tables so each trainee
can easily see and hear you.
!
Provide enough table space so each trainee
has sufficient room to spread out their training
materials.
!
Ensure that coat racks and hangers are
available.
!
Explain where restrooms are located and
where smoking is permitted.
!
Adjust seating as needed to accommodate
trainees with hearing or sight problems.
Materials
Refer to the materials lists – (1) Trainer Materials and
(2) Trainee Materials – found towards the end of this
section. Several days ahead of the training session,
make sure you have all of the items listed.
Final Steps
!
Put training materials at each trainee’s work
space.
!
Ensure that lighting, temperature, and
ventilation are adequate.
Using the Training Guide
Verbatim Text
The Census Bureau uses verbatim training that you
read to the trainees, word-for-word. This type of
training has several advantages:
!
Cost and training time are controlled. Specific
funds are budgeted for training in each Census
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operation. Through uniform and tested training,
costs remain within budget.
Rules of Use
!
Uniform training is assured. At the same time
you’re using the Guide to train, other
supervisors who are using the same material in
sessions at other sites.
!
Most supervisors don’t have the time or
resources to develop a training program.
Verbatim training frees the supervisor from the
need to develop training.
Follow the instructions in this guide. Several symbols
in the guide tell you what to do:
!
A “Q” always precedes a question you’ll ask,
and an “A” precedes the expected answer. For
example:
Ask the following question:
!
Q:
If you visit a sample address for the
first enumeration period and
discover that the only household
member home at that time is a 16year-old son of the homeowner,
can you interview the son as the
household respondent,
__________?
A:
No. The son must be at least
18 years of age.
Answers are not always offered exactly as
we suggest, but should include the
information shown. In this instance, read
aloud the suggested answer from the
guide.
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!
If an answer is incorrect, try to lead the
person to the correct answer by re-asking
the question, asking additional questions,
or having the whole class find the answer
together. Be supportive as trainees think of
responses. If necessary, provide the
answer or information that was not offered.
!
When you are questioning the trainees,
think “APC” – Ask ... Pause ... Call.
!
Words printed in bold italics are
instructions to you, the trainer, that you
don’t read aloud. Following is an example
of instructions to the trainer:
Hold up a copy of the Refresher
Training Classroom Workbook. Make
sure all trainees have a copy.
!
Built-in pauses in the text. Commas signal
natural breaks within a sentence. Allow a
fraction of a second pause, then continue.
Sometimes commas intentionally break up
lengthy sentences.
The end of every paragraph signals a brief
pause in your delivery. The start of a new
paragraph may also start a new topic.
Take a second to pause before continuing.
Other text pauses are indicated with
“Pause” or “Allow time” in bold italics.
For Pause, a slightly longer stop is
needed. As a rule of thumb, allow one
silent beat (second) at the end of a
paragraph and two or three beats for a
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Pause. You can also look up or look
around the room while you pause or wait.
When you Allow time for trainees to find
supplies, you’ll soon know just how much
time is needed. Keep these pauses brief.
!
Some words in your text are underlined or
highlighted in bold type. These words
should be slightly emphasized as you
read. For example:
“For a second through seventh
enumeration period household, the
NCVS CAPI instrument automatically
prompts you to ask to speak with...”
Installing Cases
Training cases should already be on the FR’s
laptop. If they are not, follow the steps below to
install the classroom training cases:
1.
Click on the Training icon.
2.
Select “NCVS” from the Survey Selection
dialog box.
3.
Highlight “NCVS Classroom” from the
Training Case Management Main Screen.
4.
The classroom training cases should
already be installed. You can tell whether
your cases have been installed by looking
at the “Need to Install” column on this
screen. If the cases need to be installed, a
Y appears in the “Need to Install” column
otherwise an N appears in that column. If
the cases need to be installed click F5
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(Install). After the training cases install,
click OK.
Useful Techniques
5.
Click F8 (CM) to get to the Case
Management Case List screen.
6.
FRs who did not need to install the training
cases may need to restart some or all of
their training cases before beginning the
classroom training. If this is the case, ask
them to restart all cases that have been
previously accessed.
Merely reading this Training Guide aloud does
not ensure effective training. Good preparation
and presentation make all the difference. Watch
for signs of concentration, as well as for
inattentiveness, the types of questions asked,
and interest levels.
If you follow the training techniques listed here,
you’ll hold trainees’ attention and guide them to
an effective learning experience.
!
Study this guide.
!
Know the other training materials and
when they are used.
!
Stand up to train because of these two
advantages:
1.
It gives you better control of the
class because you can see each
trainee and any signals of
frustration or difficulty.
2.
Your voice carries better without
undue effort.
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Trainer Instructions
!
Maintain eye contact with your trainees.
Look up from your reading whenever the
guide says Pause and at the end of
paragraphs. Notice trainees’ facial
expressions. If someone looks confused or
troubled, stop to ask if the person is having
any problem understanding the material.
As you gain experience, you’ll master
maintaining eye contact while reading.
Hold your place in the text with your finger
or a pencil so you can look up without
losing your place.
!
Speak clearly and convincingly. Make sure
everyone in the room can hear you without
difficulty. Read at a normal speed. You
can lose the class’s attention if you read
too fast or too slow. Guard against
distracting habits such as jingling coins or
twirling a pencil.
!
Limit discussion. Class participation is
central to effective training but must be
used wisely. Don’t let trainees’ eagerness
throw the session off schedule. The
following techniques will help you control
continued questioning or discussion:
1.
If a trainee asks a question about
an upcoming topic, tell the person
to hold the question since it will be
covered later.
2.
If a discussion gets out of hand,
interrupt it. Tell the trainees why you
must end the discussion, then
continue with the Training Guide. If
a trainee is persistent in spite of this
explanation, tell the person to see
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Trainer Instructions
you during break, lunch, or after
class.
3.
Answer all questions at some point
in training. Trainees need to be
grounded in all concepts, and they
also need to know that their
problems or questions will have
resolution.
!
Encourage participation and learning.
Don’t call on the eager trainees all the
time. Try to bring your more reserved
trainees into the discussions. Set the tone
that encourages learning. Acknowledge
incorrect answers with tact. Don’t
embarrass the trainee, but try to lead them
to the correct answer.
!
Admit it if you don’t know an answer. Don’t
fumble for an answer or, still worse, give
the wrong one. Never bluff. Look up the
answers with the help of the trainees. If the
subject is not covered in your materials,
tell the trainees you’ll give them the
answer after you speak to your supervisor.
Then be sure you do.
Trainer Materials
Classroom Materials
NCVS-550, NCVS Interviewing Manual
NCVS-554, NCVS FR CAPI Information Card
Booklet
NCVS-110, NCVS Factsheet Pamphlet
NCVS-531 Training Guide for 2011 Refresher
Training
NCVS-531.1 Classroom Workbook for 2011
Refresher Training
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RO-Prepared Presentation - Lesson 7
“Message from the Directors” DVD
2011 NCVS Refresher Training - Field
Representative Post-Training Evaluation (one
per trainee)
Laptop Computer with Peripherals
Extension Cords and Three-Prong Adapters
Each item listed in Trainee Materials
Index cards (3 for each trainee)
Flip pad or whiteboard to record results of
screener time exercise in Lesson 2
Trainee Materials
Preclassroom
Laptop computer with peripherals
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Knowledge
Test - completed on laptop before attending
classroom training
Classroom
NCVS-531.1 Classroom Workbook for 2011
Refresher Training
BJS Bulletin handout - contains Criminal
Victimization 2009, Hate Crime 2003-2009, and
Workplace Violence 1993-2009
NCVS-550, NCVS Interviewing Manual
Paired Practice Interviews
2011 NCVS Refresher Training Reference
Guide (distribute at conclusion of training)
Laptop computer with peripherals
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Trainer Instructions
Special Trainer
Instructions
Index cards
The three index cards you have been instructed
to place in each trainee’s materials are for them
to write down any questions they have during this
refresher training. Collect the filled-out cards at
Day 1 lunch break, Day 1 conclusion, and Day 2
conclusion. Have extra cards on hand in case an
FR has more than three questions to write down.
Answer the questions you can. Mark the
questions you were able to answer with the letter
“A” on the index card, so Headquarters staff know
which questions were answered already. These
questions will help inform future trainings based
on the subjects FRs ask about most often.
At the conclusion of each training session,
forward all cards to Pam Harris in LCSB, FLD
Division.
Flip chart/
White board
You need a flip chart or white board to record the
screener question times in the exercise in
Lesson 2.
At the conclusion of all training sessions, record
all results of this exercise and forward them to
Pam Harris in LCSB, FLD Division.
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Trainer Instructions
Suggested Refresher Training Agenda
Day One
Time
Elapsed Time
Lesson 1 - Welcome and Reintroduction to NCVS
Lesson 2 - The NCVS Screener
0:45
1:15
45 minutes
2 hours
Break
0:15
2 hours 15 minutes
Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
1:15
3 hours 30 minutes
Lunch
1:00
4 hours 30 minutes
Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
Practice Interviews
Lesson 4 - The Contact History Instrument (CHI)
1:00
0:30
5 hours 30 minutes
6 hours
Break
0:15
6 hours 15 minutes
Lesson 5 - NCVS Concepts and Definitions
Lesson 6 - Refresher Knowledge Test Review
1:00
1:00
7 hours 15 minutes
8 hours 15 minutes
Paired Practice Interviews
Lesson 7 - Regional Office Topics
1:00
0:30
1 hour
1 hour 30 minutes
Break
0:15
1 hour 45 minutes
Lesson 8 - NCVS Data Quality Indicators
Lesson 9 - Conclusion
Training Evaluation
0:30
0:30
0:30
2 hours 15 minutes
2 hours 45 minutes
3 hours 15 minutes
Day Two
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NOTES
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Lesson 1 - Welcome and Reintroduction to the NCVS
Lesson 1
Welcome and Reintroduction to the NCVS
(Approximate time: 45 minutes)
The objectives of this lesson are to:
!
Provide an introduction to the training session and current data
collection issues;
!
Discuss the importance and uses of the NCVS data; and
!
Give an overview of the NCVS process.
Good morning. My name is ____________ and I will be your trainer for this
refresher training on the National Crime Victimization Survey or the NCVS. As
your trainer, my job is to go over this refresher material with you, answer any
questions you may have, and solve any problems that arise during the course of
the training.
(Tell trainees a little about yourself. Also, ask each trainee to
introduce themselves and to give a short background about
themselves. If they are not familiar with the area, tell them where
the restrooms, water fountains, and eating places are located.)
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Lesson 1 - Welcome and Reintroduction to the NCVS
Our training is scheduled to last through (Enter day). Each day we will have a
short break in the morning and in the afternoon, as well as an hour for lunch. I’ll
ask you to return to your seats before the end of every break, so we don’t fall
behind in our schedule. On page 1-1 of your workbook, you’ll find the agenda for
this training session.
(Pause; allow time)
Let’s go through this agenda briefly and I’ll give you an overview of the topics that
will be covered in each lesson.
!
In Lesson 1, “W elcome and Reintroduction to NCVS,” I’ll talk about the
importance of NCVS, the uses of NCVS data, current data collection
issues, and the goals of this refresher training.
!
In Lesson 2, “The NCVS Screener,” I’ll talk about the screener questions.
W e’ll do an exercise to review the NCVS screener questions, talk about
why the screener questions are designed the way they are, discuss
methods of asking sensitive screener questions, and discuss ways of
getting respondent cooperation without reading them the survey questions.
!
In Lesson 3, “The Crime Incident Report,” we’ll review the structure of the
incident report, as well as review concepts and procedures you need to
know in order to fill it out correctly. W e’ll also do a few practice interviews.
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!
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 1 - Welcome and Reintroduction to the NCVS
In Lesson 4, “The Contact History Instrument,” we’ll talk about the Contact
History Instrument, or the CHI, and discuss and practice general and
NCVS-specific procedures for using the CHI.
!
In Lesson 5, “NCVS Concepts and Definitions,” we’ll review some survey
concepts and definitions that are especially important to the NCVS.
!
In Lesson 6, “Refresher Training Knowledge Test Review,” we’ll review the
knowledge test you took before you came to training. W e’ll go over the
correct answers and discuss any questions you may have.
!
In Lesson 7, “RO Administrative/Miscellaneous Topics,” I’ll give a short
presentation on (insert RO topics here).
!
In Lesson 8, “NCVS Data Quality Indicators,” I’ll discuss the new data
quality measures and how they will be used.
!
In Lesson 9, “Conclusion,” I’ll wrap up everything and summarize
everything we talked about in the next day and a half. W e’ll also have time
then to answer any final questions.
The topics included in this training were jointly agreed upon during discussions
between the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Census Bureau. The topics
selected will help you with your NCVS assignments.
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Lesson 1 - Welcome and Reintroduction to the NCVS
Throughout this training session, don’t hesitate to ask questions or let me know if
you get lost along the way. You’ll also find in your materials several index cards;
these are for you to write down any questions during the training that you feel
may not have been addressed as thoroughly as you would like. I’ll be collecting
these at various times during the training session. I’ll answer the questions I can.
For questions I’m unsure of, I’ll find the answers and get back to you.
Let’s get started. First I want to talk about why we are conducting this
refresher training. This refresher training is one part of an overall program
initiated by the sponsor of the National Crime Victimization Survey, the Bureau of
Justice Statistics (a.k.a. the BJS), to restore the survey’s ability to provide timely,
accurate and reliable data on the extent and nature of crime in our country. As
you are probably aware, it has been some time since we have conducted “faceto-face” training. The reason for this has not been a lack of interest in you – our
FRs – or that training or the NCVS itself is not important.
Instead, the decision to forego refresher training was based solely on containing
costs. The NCVS program was flat funded over a long period of time, meaning
that the BJS was operating with the same amount of funding from year to year,
despite increased costs in general and the addition of new questions to the
survey. This financial situation required the BJS to make some tough decisions in
order to keep the survey in the field. The BJS started by reducing the sample
size, but because criminal victimization is a relatively rare event and has been
decreasing in recent years, the BJS could only reduce sample so much before we
would not be able to measure crime on an annual basis. This situation forced the
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Lesson 1 - Welcome and Reintroduction to the NCVS
BJS to make the difficult decision to reduce or eliminate a number of processes
designed to monitor and maintain the quality of the survey data. Re-interview
samples were reduced. General performance reviews and refresher training were
eliminated. So while the survey remained in the field and we were still able to
generate annual crime estimates, we (Census) and the BJS had limited ability to
monitor the quality of the data collected and to ensure that our field staff fully
understood what was expected of them.
The BJS is gratified that funding is finally available to reinstate many of these
processes and conduct refresher training. BJS and Census Bureau efforts to
restore the survey have been facilitated by the recognition by the Administration
and Congress of the survey’s importance in informing the Nation about the impact
crime victimization has on our citizens. Funding has been appropriated to both
maintain the current survey, as well as explore ways to improve the survey’s
methodology. In 2010, the BJS instructed the Census Bureau to restore survey
sample that had been previously cut to save money. W ith a restoration of sample
to improve the precision of the survey’s estimates, we are turning our attention to
issues related to data quality. This training and the changes in survey
administration that we will discuss later in the training are part of this effort.
As the Census Bureau reviewed quality control measures and monitored the data
more closely, shortcomings in the survey process were uncovered. This refresher
training is intended to address these data quality issues and problems.
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Lesson 1 - Welcome and Reintroduction to the NCVS
The primary objectives of this training are:
!
To reintroduce some of the goals and purposes of the NCVS;
!
To review some of the key concepts and procedures required to conduct
NCVS interviewing correctly;
!
To introduce a number of new quality related protocols that are being
phased in over the next few months; and
!
To give you some new tools to help you do your assignments completely
and accurately.
This is the start of a continuing process that will include annual refresher training
as well as working closely with your supervisor in the regional office in order to
monitor your work and ensure that you have the tools you need to make the
survey the best it can be.
You are on the front lines in this survey. You identify selected addresses, interact
with respondents, ask survey questions and record the information respondents
provide. You are the most vital link in the survey process. The results of your
efforts determine whether or not the survey’s estimates are meaningful and
accurate. How well you do your job has an impact on the quality and utility of the
estimates produced by the survey.
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Lesson 1 - Welcome and Reintroduction to the NCVS
The NCVS was the first ongoing national victimization survey conducted in the
world, and is the model for most such surveys being conducted today. It has been
considered for many years the “gold standard” for victimization surveys. W hile
there are local and national sources of crime data such as the FBI’s Uniform
Crime Reports, only the NCVS obtains measures of crime that go unreported by
the victim. The information you collect is used by policy makers in development of
crime related programs, lawmakers in developing legislation and the general
public in helping understand how crime affects all our lives. You and your fellow
NCVS field representatives collect data from approximately 10,500 households
each month. This is an extraordinary accomplishment of which you should be
extremely proud. W e know you share our commitment in promoting the highest
quality NCVS program possible and for this we thank you.
Director Groves of the Census Bureau and Director Lynch of the BJS have
recorded a special message specifically for this training, which we’ll watch now.
(Show the Refresher Training Video from Directors Groves and Lynch)
Now let’s talk a little about the basics of the survey.
As I mentioned earlier, the NCVS is sponsored by the Bureau of Justice
Statistics, which is part of the U.S. Department of Justice. Currently, the NCVS is
the largest ongoing statistical survey sponsored by the BJS. To provide timely
and reliable statistics on crime and its impact on society, they contract with the
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Lesson 1 - Welcome and Reintroduction to the NCVS
U.S. Census Bureau to conduct the NCVS. The NCVS is the main source of
information for measuring crime and assessing its impact on our nation. It is the
only current source of detailed information on the characteristics of victims and
crimes, both reported and not reported to the police.
As you learned when you were first trained to be an field representative on the
NCVS, the survey’s primary purpose is to obtain an accurate and up-to-date
measure of the amount and types of crime committed during a specific 6-month
reference period. W e collect this information from all sample household members
who are 12 years of age and older. The NCVS also collects detailed information
about specific incidents of criminal victimization that each respondent reports for
the 6-month reference period.
Let’s discuss the importance of the NCVS. The survey serves a variety of
roles and is the only national, ongoing program that can provide information not
only on how much crime occurs, and who is victimized by that crime, but can also
tell us about the impact that crime has on its victims. The NCVS measures crimes
both reported and not reported to the police. W hy are the NCVS data you collect
so important?
!
First, since its inception in 1972 the NCVS has provided much of the
information we now know about crime and its impact on its victims. The
only other national ongoing system measuring the extent of crime in the
United States is the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting program, or UCR,
which measures only crime reported by police.
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Lesson 1 - Welcome and Reintroduction to the NCVS
Please turn to Page 1-2 of your workbook.
(Allow time)
This 1980s cartoon (from “Ripley’s Believe It or Not”) used estimates from
the National Crime Survey (predecessor to the NCVS) to show that more
than half of all violent crimes were never reported to police, and therefore
never measured by the UCR. W ithout the NCVS, we would be basing our
understanding of crime on a small fraction of crime that actually occurs.
For another example, it was from the NCVS that we learned that a
substantial proportion of violent crime is committed by people the victim
knows or is related to. This information is vitally important because
understanding the nature of crime is necessary for developing programs to
prevent it and to address the impact on victims.
!
Second, the survey estimates are important because they are national in
scope and are based on interviews with a large number of people about
their experiences with crime victimization. Because crime is relatively rare,
a large sample is necessary to obtain reliable estimates.
!
Third, the survey provides information that can be, and has been, used to
support and develop programs to address crime and its impact on victims.
For example, the survey’s estimates on violence against women and
intimate partner violence were key elements in raising awareness of these
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Lesson 1 - Welcome and Reintroduction to the NCVS
crimes, which ultimately led to the passage of the Violence Against W omen
Act of 1994.
!
Fourth, the survey provides a platform for research into the nature of crime
and its causes and consequences. Survey public use data files, stripped of
all identifying information, are archived and used by researchers to explore
a vast variety of issues.
The information provided by the NCVS is only valuable if it is accurate. Ultimately,
its accuracy depends largely on how well you carry out your work collecting the
survey data. The survey methodology and questionnaire have been developed
through a great deal of study, which we will discuss later in the training.
Let’s talk about what kind of data the NCVS provides. The NCVS collects
data measuring the types and amount of crime involving persons 12 years of age
and older. The NCVS provides detailed information on the characteristics of both
the victim and the crime. By collecting information on crimes both reported and
not reported to the police, the survey results give a more complete picture of the
extent and nature of crime in the United States.
After the data are collected and tabulated, the BJS analyzes the data and
produces several types of publications on an annual basis.
Some of the past publications released from this survey include:
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C
Criminal Victimization, 2009
C
Hate Crime 2003-2009
C
Workplace Violence, 1993-2009
You’ll find copies of selections from those reports in your materials. Please take a
moment to look at them now.
(Allow time)
Please take time later this evening or after you return home to read these
publications to become familiar with some of the types of reports that are
produced from the NCVS data. The BJS also makes selected crime victimization
data available through the Internet at their web site for additional analysis by
researchers. BJS is also developing an online data analysis tool to enable
anyone to easily explore NCVS data.
Who uses the NCVS data and why. There are three primary uses for NCVS
data:
C
To inform public policy related to safety and crime prevention;
C
To inform the public on the extent and nature of crime; and
C
To enable research to better understand the nature and consequences of
crime.
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Users of the NCVS data cover a wide audience of groups and persons who are
all concerned about crime and crime prevention. These users include:
C
Government agencies;
C
Print and broadcast media;
C
Law enforcement agencies;
C
Researchers at academic, government, private, and nonprofit research
institutions; and
C
The public.
Government agencies use the data to understand how best to allocate
resources and develop new programs. For example, the NCVS produces data
relevant to projecting the costs of victim compensation programs. The NCVS data
include age, employment status, and family income of victims of personal crimes,
as well as information about victim/offender relationships in these crimes. A
review of this data found that some of the eligibility rules for existing
compensation programs needed to be changed to better meet the needs of those
most likely to be victimized.
Print and broadcast media regularly cite NCVS when reporting on crime-related
topics. As I said, much of what we know about crime has come from the NCVS
and the media has disseminated this information. Turn to pages 1-3 through 1-6
of your workbook; what you’ll see there are a few selected articles from various
local and national newspapers that mention the NCVS. Take a moment to look at
them now.
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(Allow time)
You can read these articles in more detail later.
Law enforcement agencies use the NCVS findings for training purposes, and
the findings can be seen in crime prevention public service announcements and
in crime documentaries. Law enforcement agencies in various cities also use
NCVS data to increase:
C
Citizen cooperation with officials in deterring and detecting crime,
C
Special police strike forces to combat those crimes which the survey
indicates as being most prevalent, and
•
Street and park lighting programs in those areas with the highest reported
crime rates.
The NCVS has also been the model for local area surveys conducted in various
municipalities.
Researchers use the NCVS data to prepare reports, policy recommendations,
scholarly publications, testimony before Congress, and documentation for use in
courts. Researchers also use the NCVS information to investigate:
C
W hy certain persons are victimized more than others,
C
The characteristics of attempted versus actual victimizations,
C
The reasons why persons do not report crime incidents to the police, and
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Victimization among juveniles, domestic violence, gun-related crimes,
multiple victimizations, etc.
Other uses of the NCVS include:
•
Planning for public education programs, police patrol strategies, and new
communities and housing projects. This type of planning requires a
knowledge of the characteristics of victimized persons and households, as
well as when and where victimizations occur.
•
Conducting feasibility studies and planning programs for the restitution and
compensation to victims of crime. These studies and programs require
information on the nature and extent of injury and loss that results from
criminal victimization.
•
Assessing the need for property identification programs. These programs
require information on the amount of property recovered after burglaries and
thefts.
•
Understanding more about the nature and extent of biases in police data on
known offenses. These kinds of studies require a knowledge of the levels of
nonreporting to the police, together with information on the kinds of
victimization that are disproportionately not reported to the police.
Do you have any questions about what I just discussed?
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(Allow time; answer questions)
Now I’d like to give an overview of the whole NCVS process. W e’ll being with
your role as an NCVS field representative and how it fits into the NCVS as a
whole.
The NCVS sample is made up of households from across the country that are
selected every 10 years based on the results from the Decennial Census. The
NCVS sample is split into six rotation groups which are interviewed twice a year
for a total of seven interviews. This format provides households to be interviewed
each month throughout the year.
Each month your Regional Office splits up that month’s sample cases among all
of the Field Representatives (FRs) and then releases your monthly assignment to
you. Using your survey-specific and general FR training you go out and do your
best to complete all your interviews in as complete and timely a manner as
possible.
As you complete and transmit your monthly assignments, we in the Regional
Office ensure that all assigned sample cases have been accounted for and all
data have been received. At the end of the month, that month’s survey closes
out, which ends the data collection phase of the NCVS for that month.
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Data from all 12 ROs are combined and a database containing all cases that
have at least one incident report is created. That database is then sent to the
Census Bureau’s National Processing Center (NPC) in Jeffersonville, Indiana. In
this next phase of data preparation, the data are clerically reviewed and edited.
This operation in the NPC is the first look we get at the incident reports you’ve
collected each month. During this process, the data are reviewed to ensure they
meet the NCVS guidelines and inconsistent data are corrected. Incidents that
cannot be corrected are referred to another unit of editors at Headquarters.
Approximately 300 of the 1000 cases that make up the NPC’s workload each
month are referred to Headquarters staff for further review.
Once the referral process is completed, certain incidents go through Industry and
Occupation coding and/or Geographic location coding. The review and coding
operations take two months to complete, at which point computer processing is
started. During the processing stage the data are edited for consistency, missing
values are estimated, estimates are produced, and final tabulations prepared.
Twice a year the NCVS data are sent to the Interuniversity Consortium for
Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan, where our
data are accessible for data users. W e also send annual data in the form of
statistical tables to the BJS, who publishes them in both paper reports and on
their web site. As you can see, the NCVS process doesn’t stop once the data
have been collected. The usefulness and accuracy of the published data depends
in large part upon how well you, the field representatives, do your jobs. You are
an essential, extremely important part of this process.
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Are there any questions about the data flow and processing?
(Allow time)
(Move to next lesson)
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NOTES
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Lesson 2 - The NCVS Screener
Lesson 2
The NCVS Screener
(Approximate time: 1 hour and 15 minutes)
The objectives of this lesson are to:
!
Demonstrate how long it should take to ask the full NCVS
screener;
!
Discuss screener questions and why they’re constructed the
way they are;
!
Discuss methods of asking sensitive screener questions;
!
Discuss ways of getting respondent cooperation without
reading question stems; and
!
Review questions respondents might ask about the screener
questions.
Let’s begin this lesson by discussing why screener questions are used on
the NCVS. The screener questions are used to determine whether any of the
eligible household members (12 years of age or older) at the sample address
were victimized by crime during each household member’s 6-month reference
period. The screening items cover a wide variety of situations and are designed
to provide the respondent with concrete examples of the types of crimes that are
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typically reported for the NCVS and could be overlooked by respondents. These
screen items attempt to ensure that we collect ALL incidents of crime that
occurred during each sample household member’s 6-month reference period.
Next we’ll discuss how the NCVS screener questions are constructed. A
screener question has two parts; the “question stem” and the “screener cues.”
These are terms you may not have heard before. A “question stem” or “stem”
refers to the main part of the screener question. The term “screener cues” or
“cues” refers to the examples or prompts that follow the main part of each
question. Look at Pages 2-1 and 2-2 of your workbook now for an illustration of
this.
(Allow time)
Notice how every question is broken out into the “stem” and the “cues.” The
question “stem” is in regular print and the “cues” are in italics.
Now we’re going to do an exercise with the screener questions. Do not rush
through the questions; read them in their entirety in a calm, conversational tone of
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voice, pausing briefly between “cues” as instructed in your FR manual. Let me
demonstrate.
(Give a brief demonstration of tone/pace for asking screen questions,
reading SQTHEFT as the example which is displayed below.)
“I’m going to read some examples that will give you an idea of the kinds of
crimes this study covers. As I go through them, tell me if any of these
happened to you in the last 6 months, that is, since (first day of the month,
six months ago).
W as something belonging to YOU stolen, such as
–
Things that you carry, like luggage, a wallet, purse, briefcase, book –
(Pause)
–
Clothing, jewelry, or cellphone - (Pause)
–
Bicycle or sports equipment - (Pause)
–
Things in your home, like a TV, stereo, or tools - (Pause)
–
Things outside your home, such as a garden hose or lawn furniture (Pause)
–
Things belonging to children in the household - (Pause)
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Things from a vehicle, such as a package, groceries, camera, or
CDs, OR
–
Did anyone ATTEMPT to steal anything belonging to you?
Did any incidents of this type happen to you?”
For this exercise I’d like you to break up into groups of three and administer the
NCVS screener questions to each other.
Exercise: Assign one person to be the field representative, one to be
the respondent, and one to time how long it takes to administer the
screener questions. The person you assign to be the field
representative can read the screener questions from Pages 2-1
and 2-2 of the workbook.
If your role in this exercise is the field representative, read the screener questions
from pages 2-1 and 2-2 of the workbook. Ask all the screener questions as if you
are conducting an interview with a household respondent. If you are acting as the
respondent, answer “No” to all screener questions for this exercise. If you are the
timer for the exercise, record the amount of time it takes to ask the screener
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questions. You may use a watch, cell phone, etc. to time the reading of the
questions.
(Make sure all groups have a timing device. Allow time - about 10 minutes.
When all groups are finished timing interviews, proceed with discussion.)
Let’s review the results of this exercise. W hat were your findings? How long
did it take to administer the questions when you read each question as worded, in
its entirety?
(Have each group report the total amount of time it took to administer the
full set of screener questions. Record the times on flip pad or white board
and average the results; announce your findings to the trainees. Responses
will vary but should be no less than 4 minutes.)
W e have just established an expectation for the minimum time it should take to
administer the NCVS screener questions for a household respondent. It doesn’t
take an extreme amount of time to ask the NCVS properly, reading all the
questions completely, as worded, at a conversational pace with the appropriate
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pauses between “cues”. W e’ll discuss why this is important in a few minutes, but
first let’s talk about why we just did this exercise.
This exercise showed us that it only requires (number of minutes from the
exercise) minutes on average to ask the screener questions of a household
respondent. The individual respondent’s screener questions should take about
three and a half minutes to complete. The household respondent takes longer
because they are asked the screener questions about household break-ins,
motor vehicles, and motor vehicle theft (screens SQBREAKIN,
SQTOTALVEHICLES, and SQMVTHEFT) that are not asked of individual
respondents.
Next, we’ll discuss the results from time stamp analysis of NCVS screener
questions. Since we switched to a fully automated interviewing environment in
July 2006, Census Headquarters staff have had the ability to look at interviewing
records, based on the keystrokes you’ve entered, and calculate the amount of
time you spend asking and entering in answers for each survey question.
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Recent data compiled at Headquarters shows that about 40 percent of all
interviews take one minute or less to complete the screener questions, and
approximately another 25 percent take less than two minutes. The average
amount of time it currently takes to complete the screener questions across all
interviews is 1 minute, 46 seconds.
As we have just demonstrated, in order to ask these questions as worded, fully
and completely, it takes about three and a half to four and a half minutes. From
our analysis of mean screener times, we can tell that these all-important screener
questions are, in so many cases, not being administered correctly. The Census
Bureau and the sponsor of the survey, the BJS, are extremely concerned about
this problem.
Staff from Census Headquarters and the BJS confirmed this during observations
of NCVS interviews when we went out to observe in March of 2011. During these
observations, we saw FRs paraphrasing the screener questions, skipping specific
screener “cues” in certain interviewing situations, and sometimes asking only the
screener question stem and none of the “cues” at all. As we’ll discuss, these
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practices can affect the quality of the data that you collect and in turn, our
understanding about the amount of crime that is occurring.
W e understand the real world considerations and implications of conducting this
survey. W e realize that you face challenges and obstacles in your interviewing
assignment every month. W e know that respondents are reluctant, harried, busy,
and/or unavailable. However, you must not promise a respondent that the
interview will only take a short time. You may be setting yourself up to rush the
interview and feel that you need to skip questions because of this promise to the
respondent. Also, when you promise a short interview and that turns out not to be
the case, you lose credibility. Respondent cooperation will be that much harder to
get in the next interview period.
I’d like to give you a short history of the NCVS screener questions. This will
help you understand how the survey was developed and how we have come
around to asking the questions you see today.
The last major redesign of the survey happened in 1992. Before that, the NCVS
was called simply the National Crime Survey or the NCS. The NCS was first
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introduced in 1972, and conducted annually until 1992 when the NCVS was
introduced. One important feature of this “new” crime survey, the NCVS, was the
addition of “cues” that we still use today. As I said before, those are the examples
or prompts that follow each main question.
W hen we started using this new questionnaire with the “cues”, we started
collecting more crimes. Reports of assaults increased by 57%, burglary reports
increased by 20%, and reports of theft went up by 27%. Reports of rape went up
157%. You might reasonably conclude from these statistics that the “cues” really
do help respondents remember more incidents.
It’s just as important now as it was then to use the “cues” as written in each
screener question. There can never be a perfect instrument for asking these
questions, but a lot of research and effort has gone into making the questionnaire
as it stands today. W hen you don’t read the questions as worded, in effect you
discard all that research and disregard the evidence that asking screener
questions properly significantly impacts the statistics for certain types of crime.
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Why is it important to ask the questions as worded and in their entirety? W e
are very concerned about the problem of field representatives asking
paraphrased or incomplete questions. It’s so important to ask all the questions
and ask them as they are worded because they have been specially designed to
jog respondent’s memories and help them recall incidents that they may have
forgotten. The screener questions have been developed and refined since the
beginning of the NCVS. You must ask all the screener questions as worded, wait
for the answers, and enter those answers completely and accurately. If a
respondent has forgotten an incident and you do not ask the screener question or
cue that may help them remember an incident, we run the risk of not collecting it.
These omissions and missed incidents can result in the crime rates we calculate
being erroneously low, and in survey results being biased.
Human memory is variable and can be unreliable – we may recall certain events
with clarity, and repress others so thoroughly that we only have dim memories of
what happened. This can often be the case with crime events. Because being the
victim of a crime is an unpleasant experience, people may repress those
memories or the memory of the incident may decay so much that the respondent
has trouble recalling the crime with accuracy. Research shows that assault, for
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example, is recalled with the least accuracy of any crime measured by the NCVS.
W e don’t know exactly why this is true, but it may be related to the tendency of
victims to not report crimes committed against them by offenders who are not
strangers, especially if those offenders are relatives.
Also, for some respondents, crimes which contain elements of assault may be
part of everyday life and completely unremarkable to them until you, the field
representative, ask that screener question which sparks their memory or recall.
People who live in environments in which these incidents commonly happen
either forget them or think they are not important enough to mention.
Research has also shown that context is an important factor in people’s ability to
remember events. For example, a respondent may not recall a crime that
happened at school when you ask the screen question about theft, but may
remember it when you ask the screen question that focuses on the location of
possible victimizations. As we’ll discuss, these shifts in the focus of the screener
questions and what may appear to be redundancies are a crucial part of the
crime screener, to help respondents recall events they have experienced.
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Finally, you must ask the questions as worded and in their entirety for the sake of
interview consistency. You and 900 of your fellow field representatives contact
over 10,500 sample addresses every month in 627 counties around the country.
Standardizing the way in which every FR asks the questions on the NCVS
ensures that every respondent hears the exact same questions, helps the survey
to collect information consistently across all regions, and helps make the survey
results more valid.
All these are excellent reasons not to rush through the screener questions. We
know that respondents and field representatives alike sometimes get impatient
during these questions. If it becomes necessary, ask politely for the respondent to
bear with you while you go through them, as you are required to read them as
they are worded. Take your time and allow the questions to do the job for which
they were intended – helping the respondent recall and enumerate any crime
incidents they may have experienced. W e can’t stress enough how important it is
to ask all the screener questions, and ask them fully and completely, exactly as
worded.
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Are there any questions so far about why it’s so important to go through all the
questions in the screening portion of the instrument?
(Answer questions)
Now we’ll turn our attention to the pacing of the NCVS interview. Remember
this key point about pacing the NCVS interview: DO NOT RUSH to complete an
interview under any circumstances. Rushing through the survey questions
increases the possibility that the respondent will miss important parts of the
question, misinterpret questions, and then give you an answer that is incomplete
or inaccurate. Maintain a calm, unhurried manner and ask the questions clearly in
an objective, deliberate way. This will not only relax the respondent, but also help
to keep their attention.
W hen respondents sense that you are rushing through an interview, they may
withhold information, thinking that it would take too long to explain the crime
incident. On the other hand, do not let respondents waste too much time talking
about unrelated information. Tactfully steer them back to the interview without
making them feel you are hurrying to finish.
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Keep a positive attitude and always assume that each respondent has time to be
interviewed when you contact him/her. If the respondent tries to rush you through
the interview or tries to cut you off, arrange to continue the interview at a more
convenient time for the respondent. W henever possible, make every attempt to
complete at least the household respondent’s interview during your first contact
for the interview period. This will make any callbacks for remaining household
members easier.
W hen conducting interviews, always speak as clearly and distinctly as possible.
Avoid talking too fast or too slow. Talking too fast may give the impression that
you think the questions are either unimportant or sensitive in nature. By speaking
in a confident voice and at a moderate pace, respondents are more likely to stay
relaxed and responsive.
Let’s talk more about how the NCVS screener questions are constructed, by
looking more closely at each screener question. As we stated earlier, the
screener questions can be broken into two parts; a main question, or “question
stem,” and second examples of the kinds of incidents we are asking about, which
are called the “cues.” Look again at Page 2-1 of your classroom workbook; where
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the NCVS screener questions are displayed. Let’s look at the first NCVS screener
question, SQTHEFT. Let me explain its components. The question, in full, reads
as follows –
“I’m going to read some examples that will give you an idea of the kinds of crimes
this study covers. As I go through them, tell me if any of these happened to you in
the last 6 months, that is, since (date). W as something belonging to YOU stolen,
such as – This is the QUESTION STEM.
The following are the CUES:
–
Things that you carry, like luggage, a wallet, purse, briefcase, book -
–
Clothing, jewelry, or cellphone -
–
Bicycle or sports equipment -
–
Things in your home, like a TV, stereo, or tools -
–
Things outside your home, such as a garden hose or lawn furniture -
–
Things belonging to children in the household -
–
Things from a vehicle, such as a package, groceries, camera, or
CDs, OR
–
Did anyone ATTEMPT to steal anything belonging to you?”
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(Pause)
Notice at the end of the screener question “cues” is an interviewer instruction to
“ask only if necessary”. The question that follows, “Did any incidents of this type
happen to you?” should be read to the respondent, if they did not respond to you
after asking the question. If the respondent has already said ‘yes’ or ‘no’, then
you do not need to read that part of the question.
Instead of asking this detailed question about theft, we might start out by asking,
“W ere you robbed during the last six months?”, which seems to be a
straightforward, direct question. BUT “W ere you robbed during the last six
months?” is not straightforward at all – in fact, it is an ambiguous question.
Many respondents are unaware of the legal distinction between robbery (which
involves personal confrontation between the victim and the offender) and burglary
(which involves breaking and entering but no personal confrontation). Therefore,
on the NCVS the screener question dealing with theft does not mention the word
“robbery.” Instead, there are several more basic, less ambiguous questions used
which refer specifically to various items being stolen.
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As we already noted, these examples are referred to as “cues,” which have been
tested and proven to help respondents remember crime incidents that have
happened to them. Other screener questions are constructed similarly, with lists
of specific “cues” designed for each type of crime. W hen the whole list of “cues”
is not read to the respondent for each screener question, we run the risk of
missing some crimes.
There are a number of “cues” in each screener question because sometimes
respondents focus only on the specific items being mentioned. In the screen
SQTHEFT, for example, if we didn’t include “Things outside your home, such as a
garden hose or lawn furniture,” respondents may not realize that we want them to
tell us about that type of theft. W e can’t have a list of every possible kind of
property, so as we’ve developed the screener questions we’ve tried to identify
enough different kinds of property that will help respondents think beyond the
examples provided.
Notice that some of the screener questions ask about attempted crimes as well
as completed ones. These are important “cues” because many times,
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respondents may not think to report incidents that did not result in a completed
crime. Follow along with the screener questions on Page 2-1 and 2-2 of your
workbook now.
(Allow time)
Q:
W hich screener questions ask about attempts as well as completed crimes,
_____________?
A:
SQTHEFT, SQBREAKIN, SQMVTHEFT, SQATTACKWHERE, and
SQATTACKHOW.
Now we’ll cover the rest of the screener questions; you can follow along in your
workbook. We just discussed the first one, SQTHEFT.
(In the next section of this lesson, you’ll be calling on trainees to have
them read the screener questions aloud. Take this opportunity to
evaluate trainees’ reading of the questions – do they read them in a
calm, unhurried, conversational tone of voice? Point out what the
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trainee is doing correctly first, then tactfully make suggestions for
working on the parts of their technique that need improvement. For
this portion of the training try to call on trainees who were the
respondents or time keepers in the screener question time exercise.)
The next item is SQBREAKIN. W ill you read that for us, _____?
“Has anyone broken in or ATTEMPTED to break into your home by forcing a door
or window, pushing past someone, jimmying a lock, cutting a screen, or entering
through an open door or window? (Pause) Has anyone illegally gotten in or tried
to get into a garage, shed, or storage room? (Pause) OR Illegally gotten in or
tried to get into a hotel or motel room or vacation home where you were staying?”
This question is asked only of the household respondent to find out if the
respondent’s home or lodging was broken into or illegally entered, OR if an
ATTEMPT was made to break into or illegally enter the household respondent’s
home or lodging.
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The next screener question is SQTOTALVEHICLES. W ill you read that for us,
_____?
“W hat was the total number of cars, vans, trucks, motorcycles, or other motor
vehicles owned by you or any other member of this household during the last 6
months? Include those you no longer own.”
This question is also only asked of the household respondent, to find out if the
household owns motor vehicles, and if so, how many. If the household
respondent indicates in this item that the household owns vehicles, the question
SQMVTHEFT, is asked. The instrument will display the correct version of the
question based on the number of vehicles entered in the screener question
SQTOTALVEHICLES. For this exercise, let’s assume the household respondent
said they have two cars, which means the question in SQMVTHEFT should be
read using the plural version of the question. For example, using words like
“vehicles” and “them”. _____, will you continue reading at the screener question
SQMVTHEFT?
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“During the last 6 months, were the vehicles stolen or used without permission?
Did anyone steal any parts such as a tire, car stereo, hubcap, or battery? (Pause)
Did anyone steal any gas from them?(Pause) OR Did anyone attempt to steal
any vehicle or parts attached to them?”
Thank you. SQMVTHEFT is asked to find out if any of the household’s motor
vehicles were stolen or used without permission, including parts and gasoline, or
whether any attempts were made to steal or use them without permission,
including parts and gasoline.
The next screener question, SQATTACKWHERE, shifts the focus of the screener
questions from the type of crime to the location where an incident may have
occurred. This shift in focus, as we’ve already mentioned, gives the respondent
another way of remembering any crime incidents they may have experienced.
W ill you read that for us, _____?
“Since (date) were you attacked or threatened OR did you have something stolen
from you at home including the porch or yard, (Pause) At or near a friend’s,
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relative’s, or neighbor’s home, (Pause) At work or school, (Pause) In places such
as a storage shed or laundry room, a shopping mall, restaurant, bank, or airport,
(Pause) W hile riding in any vehicle, (Pause) On the street or in a parking lot,
(Pause) At such places as a party, theater, gym, picnic area, bowling lanes, or
while fishing or hunting, (Pause) OR Did anyone ATTEMPT to attack or
ATTEMPT to steal anything belonging to you from any of these places?”
This question is asked of all eligible household members and is designed to
remind respondents of incidents in which they may have been attacked or
threatened with physical harm in a variety of locations or situations. This item also
asks about things stolen from the respondent or attempts to steal anything from
the respondent.
The next screener question, SQATTACKHOW, again shifts the focus of the
question. This time from where the incident may have occurred to the ways a
respondent may have been attacked or threatened. This seeming redundancy
with earlier questions is intentional. Once again, the “cues” are important aids to
help people focus on the type of attack, as well as the ways in which an attack
may have occurred. W ill you read SQATTACKHOW for us, _____?
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“Has anyone attacked or threatened you in any of these ways – W ith any
weapon, for instance, a gun or knife, (Pause) W ith anything like a baseball bat,
frying pan, scissors, or stick, (Pause) By something thrown, such as a rock or
bottle, (Pause) Include any grabbing, punching, or choking, (Pause) Any rape,
attempted rape, or other type of sexual attack, (Pause) Any face to face threats,
(Pause) OR Any attack or threat or use of force by anyone at all? Please mention
it even if you are not certain it was a crime.”
This question is asked of all eligible household respondents, and is designed to
remind each respondent of incidents in which they may have been attacked or
threatened with physical harm, involving various weapons or the use of force.
Item SQTHEFTATTACKKNOWNOFF shifts the focus again, this time to
relationships between a victim and the offender(s). W ill you read that question for
us, _____?
“People don’t often think of incidents committed by someone they know. Did you
have something stolen from you, or were you attacked or threatened by –
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Someone at work or school, (Pause) A neighbor or friend, (Pause) A relative or
family member, (Pause) Any other person you have met or known?”
Thank you. SQTHEFTATTACKKNOWNOFF is asked of all eligible household
members and is designed to remind the respondent of incidents in which the
offender is someone they know – for example, a co-worker, friend, neighbor,
relative or family member. We know that respondents often don’t think of attacks,
threats, or thefts by acquaintances and relatives as crimes, so we need a specific
question to help them focus on crimes by people they know. Some respondents
may not consider an incident to be a crime if it involved someone known to them,
but it is a crime and we want to collect that information on the NCVS.
In this and all other screener questions, we only accept threats as NCVS crimes if
they are given verbally and face-to-face by the offender to the respondent. W e do
not accept threats made by phone, letter, fax, or electronic message or email. W e
also do not accept threats made by another person for the offender. If you are in
doubt as to whether to include a type of threat, mark “Yes” to the screener
question in which the threat is reported and fill an incident report. Be sure to put
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any pertinent information in the incident summary. An editor will then review it
and determine whether the threat is within the scope of the survey.
Let’s review those three screener questions I just mentioned,
SQATTACKWHERE, SQATTACKHOW, and SQTHEFTATTACKKNOWNOFF.
They all ask about attacks but from different frames of reference. As I’ve
mentioned, this seeming redundancy is intentional. SQATTACKWHERE asks
about any attacks or threats the respondent experienced in specific locations or
during certain activities. SQATTACKHOW also asks about attacks or threats but
it asks about the method in which the respondent may have been threatened,
which has also been proven to help jog respondent’s memories. W hereas,
SQTHEFTATTACKKNOWNOFF asks about any attacks or threats in the context
of being attacked or threatened by someone they know. As I said this question is
asked because respondents often do not think of or remember actions by
offenders who are family, friends, coworkers, and so on in the context of being a
victim of a crime.
_____, will you read the question for Item SQSEXUAL?
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“Incidents involving forced or unwanted sexual acts are often difficult to talk
about. Have you been forced or coerced to engage in unwanted sexual activity by
– Someone you didn’t know, (Pause) A casual acquaintance, (Pause) OR
Someone you know well?”
Thank you. This question is asked of all eligible household members and is
designed to record all incidents in which the respondent was forced or coerced to
engage in unwanted sexual activity, regardless of whether the respondent did or
did not know the offender. Sexual offenses are a sensitive topic, and later on in
this lesson I’ll go over guidelines and suggestions for asking this question, as well
as any other questions that might be considered sensitive or difficult.
_____, please read the next question, SQCALLPOLICECRIME?
“During the last 6 months, did you call the police to report something that
happened to YOU which you thought was a crime?”
Item SQCALLPOLICECRIME is the first of what we call the “catchall” questions,
which are designed to bring out crimes that the respondent may have overlooked
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or perhaps we did not specifically ask about in the earlier questions. In this
question, we are only interested in an incident when it was reported to police, it
directly affected the respondent or another household member, AND the
respondent believes it to be a crime. This could be anything from noisy neighbors
to an assault by a stranger. Record whatever is reported by the respondent and if
necessary, ask the followup question SQCALLPOLICEATTACKTHREAT, “W ere
you attacked or threatened, or was something stolen or an attempt made to steal
something that belonged to you or another household member?”
W ill you read SQNOCALLPOLICECRIME for us, _____?
“During the last 6 months, did anything which you thought was a crime happen to
YOU, but you did NOT report to the police?”
This is the second “catchall” question and is asked of all eligible household
members. It is designed to remind each respondent of incidents that he/she did
NOT report to the police, even though the respondent thought they were crimes.
These incidents could have been overlooked earlier in the interview because we
did not ask about them specifically.
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I’d like to take a moment to point out two more procedures regarding the screener
questions. First, remember that you must record a crime reported by the
respondent in whichever question it is reported in, even if it doesn’t fit the type of
crime asked about in the question.
Q:
For example, suppose you ask a respondent the question in SQTHEFT,
which, as we just discussed, asks about theft and attempted theft. The
respondent tells you that someone punched him while he was at a
basketball game. In which screener question do you report this incident?
A:
In SQTHEFT.
Thank you. Always report the crime incident in the screener question where it
was reported. Data users are interested in the types of crimes that a respondent
reports in each screener question, to determine the types of crime incidents
generated by the different sets of “cues.” So recording the incident in the
screener question that a respondent reports it at does matter.
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Second, after an incident is reported in a screener question, the instrument fills a
very important statement in the remaining screener questions.
Q.
Can anyone tell me what that statement is?
A.
The phrase “Other than any incidents already mentioned” is displayed in
each screener question after at least one of the screener questions is
marked ‘yes.’
This is a very important statement to include when reading the screener
questions, because it lets the respondent know that they do not need to report the
same incident again when the “cues” in subsequent questions may reference the
same type of crime. For example, if a respondent reports that their garage was
broken into when asked the question at the screen SQTHEFT we do not want
them to report that same break-in again when asked the question in
SQBREAKIN. This helps us to avoid recording duplicate incident reports which
can lead to respondent fatigue and possible reluctance to participate in the future.
Does anyone have any questions on these two concepts?
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(Answer questions)
Most of these screener questions have at least three “cues” and some have as
many as eight. This type of question may prompt some respondents to give you
an answer before you finish reading each cue. W e prefer that you finish reading
each cue before the respondent gives an answer. Even if you are interrupted,
read each and every cue in its entirety.
The following technique may help you get through all the “cues” on any given
screener question before getting the respondent’s answer:
!
After reading each cue, only pause long enough to let the respondent know
that you are about to start reading a new cue. If you pause too long, the
respondent may feel that you are waiting for an answer.
!
After reading all the “cues” for a question, pause long enough to allow the
respondent to reply. If the respondent does not give an answer, then read
the question, “Did any incidents of this type happen to you?”
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If the respondent interrupts with a “No” response, you must read all the
“cues” anyway to make sure that nothing is missed. If the respondent
interrupts with a “Yes” response, record what the respondent has told you
and continue to read the remaining “cues” to make sure that you do not
miss any additional incidents.
I’d like to go over some points about asking questions about sensitive
topics. W hen we went out and observed NCVS interviewing last March, we
noticed that in many cases field representatives were either not asking or
selectively asking the screener question that pertains to sexual crimes. W e noted
that it is sometimes asked in a whispered voice, or not asked of young people, or
not asked of the elderly, and on some occasions omitted completely. W e noted
that it is sometimes not asked if the respondent’s spouse, significant other, or
other family member is present during the interview. W e saw many different
combinations of circumstances in which this question was not presented correctly
to the respondent.
You must ask all questions of every respondent. You cannot selectively ask the
screener questions, or any other question or group of questions on the survey.
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Not asking all the questions of every respondent causes the data we collect to be
incomplete and inaccurate.
W e realize that being the victim of a sexual crime can be a frightening and
disturbing experience and its impact is often wide-ranging, severe, and
psychologically traumatic. W e recognize that it may be difficult for you to ask the
question. If you encounter a respondent who has been a victim of such a crime, it
may be difficult for them to talk about it. Recalling the experience may stir up
feelings of fright, anxiety, anger, or helplessness. Depending on their individual
situation, they may experience a loss of trust, long-term emotional distress, and
significant disruption of everyday living.
Alternately, they may suppress the memory so completely that they don’t even
recall it until you begin asking questions about it. This may also bring up negative
emotions and emotional reactions. Your ability to ask questions in a confident and
nonjudgmental way encourages respondents to feel comfortable talking about
their victimization experiences, especially when those experiences may be
embarrassing or sensitive.
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W e want to give you these suggestions to follow when interviewing victims of
sexual or other sensitive crimes:
!
Be sensitive to what the respondent is telling you, however, you keep the
respondent on track since some respondents may have the tendency to tell
you more than what is being asked.
!
Be respectful and polite to victims, even to those who do not want to talk.
!
Avoid unnecessary pressure. Be patient.
!
Be supportive and let victims express their emotions, which may include
crying or angry outbursts.
!
Be careful not to appear overprotective or patronizing.
!
Avoid judging victims or personally commenting on the situation.
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Remind the respondents periodically, if necessary, about the importance of
their responses.
!
Reassure the respondent that knowing the prevalence of the form of
violence they are experiencing will be useful to expand efforts to identify
ways to help victims of that type of crime and to hold perpetrators
accountable.
!
Supply the respondent with a copy of the NCVS-110 Fact Sheet brochure
(show example), which contains several hotline numbers that they may
find helpful to call, if the person asks for assistance. Make sure you have
an ample supply of the Fact Sheet to provide to respondents when needed.
Respondents recounting their experiences may be upsetting for you to hear and
may have a disturbing effect on you long after the interview is completed. If you
experience such feelings, contact your supervisor for help.
Now we’re going to discuss how to get into the household without
revealing specific survey questions before you administer the interview.
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W hen a respondent asks what the survey is about, do not read or give examples
of the questions. W hen we went out observing in March, we saw numerous
instances of field representatives reading off portions of the survey questions to
respondents in an attempt to get the respondent’s cooperation. Do not resort to
asking question stems before the respondent consents to an interview; this will
contribute to fatiguing the respondent towards the survey questions before you
even start to ask them. The first time the respondent should hear any part of the
screener question is after you start the actual interview.
You may summarize or paraphrase the information that is contained in the
advance letter to describe what the survey is about:
“The information you provide our representative will help inform
the country about how much crime there is, where it occurs, when
it occurs, what crime costs victims, and which segments of the
population are most frequently victimized. Since many crimes are
never reported to police, information from this survey will show a
more complete picture of the amount and types of crime occurring in
the United States.”
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You may show the respondent the BJS reports “Criminal Victimization, 2009,”
“Hate Crime, 2003-2009,” and “W orkplace Violence, 1993-2009,” which we just
looked at in Lesson 1.
(Show copy)
These publications show some of the most recent available published results
from the NCVS. Seeing actual results from the survey may help persuade some
respondents to participate.
This will help you give the respondent a general idea of what kinds of statistics
we are collecting, without having to read them all or part of the exact questions.
Does anyone have questions?
(Answer questions)
W e have gotten feedback from NCVS field representatives saying that some
respondents can become irritated while being asked the NCVS screener
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questions, because they seem so redundant. As we just discussed, while some
screener questions ask about the same types of crime, the questions are
designed to approach the types of crimes from different angles. It is your job as
an NCVS field representative to explain to the respondent that the questions were
designed this way to make sure that the respondent hears many different
memory jogs, and has many chances and adequate time to search their memory
for victimization experiences.
To help the respondent understand the need for the different screener questions,
you can say something like, “Research has shown that asking about events from
different contexts can help respondents remember things they have experienced.
I must read all the questions in their entirety to get the most accurate
information.”
Let’s take a few minutes to discuss some questions respondents might ask about
the screener questions.
Q.
W hy do you keep asking the questions when I told you I didn’t have any
crime?
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W e have studied asking fewer questions, but have found that people
sometimes don’t think about a crime until a specific question reminds then
about it. W e need to ask all people the same questions to guarantee the
quality of the data. (Or something similar. If a point listed above is not
covered, discuss it with the trainees. This FAQ is from page A2-27 of
the NCVS-550 Interviewing Manual)
Q.
W hy do you keep asking about the same type of crimes in different
questions?
A.
Research has shown that asking about events from different contexts can
help respondents remember things they have experienced. It also provides
respondents with a frame of reference. For example, they may not
immediately think of a crime that occurred away from the home or by
something they know. (Or something similar. If a point listed above is
not covered, discuss it with the trainees. This was pulled from
different points in this lesson.)
Q.
W hy are you asking so many questions about crime?
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The screening questions are to designed to give each respondent every
opportunity to remember any crime incidents that occurred during the 6month reference period. Asking all of these questions guarantees that we
don’t miss any crime incidents. Some crime incidents are easily forgotten.
By asking these screen questions, you may remember something that
you’ve out of your mind, they may help to jog your memory. The types of
crimes referenced in the questions may also help provide context to the
types of crimes we are interested in collecting as you may not have
perceived an incident to be important enough to include without our
mentioning it. (Or something similar. If a point listed above is not
covered, discuss it with the trainees. This FAQ is from page A2-45
and A2-46 of the NCVS-550 Interviewing Manual)
Also, I’d like to remind you that there is a list of Frequently Asked Questions that
appear in your NCVS-550 Interviewing Manual on pages A2-26 through A2-28, in
the instrument by pressing Shift + F2, as well as on the back of the NCVS-572
and NCVS-573 Respondent Introductory letters, and the NCVS-550.1 “At a
Glance” brochure. These can be helpful in answering general questions about the
survey.
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Are there any questions?
(Answer questions)
In this lesson:
!
W e learned that it should take at least three and a half minutes to ask the
screener questions of an individual respondent and at least four minutes to
ask the screener questions of a household respondent.
!
W e discussed how screener questions are constructed with a “stem” or
main part of the question and three to eight “cues” or examples of crimes or
contexts crimes may have occurred in.
!
W e learned that the screener questions are designed to jog respondents’
memories and give them every possible opportunity to remember incidents
of crime they have experienced.
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!
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W e discussed a number of different ways of asking sensitive survey
questions; and
!
W e discussed techniques for gaining respondent cooperation without
resorting to asking survey questions and fatiguing respondents toward the
questions.
Does anyone have questions about any of those topics?
(Answer questions)
(Continue with next lesson)
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NOTES
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Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
Lesson 3
The Crime Incident Report
(Estimated total time: 2 hours and 30 minutes)
The objective of this lesson is to:
! Review incident report structure, concepts, and procedures.
! Review the incident report by completing two practice interviews.
We’re going to talk about the NCVS incident report in this lesson, and why
it asks the questions it does. As you know, NCVS requires that an incident
report be filled out for each instance of a crime the respondent reports in the
screener. As we’ve been discussing, the incident report is designed to collect all
the pertinent details about an incident that help us to classify the crime into the
correct category.
Let’s briefly review the various types of NCVS crimes. First of all, as you
know, we do not collect homicide statistics. W e collect the following types of
crimes in the NCVS: rape, sexual assault, robbery, assault, burglary, motor
vehicle theft, and theft. In compiling crime statistics, if an event can be classified
as more than one type of crime, a hierarchy is used which classifies the crime
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according to the most serious event that occurred. W e’ll talk more about the
types of crimes in the next lesson; I’ll go over them briefly now.
Personal Crimes
Personal crimes include attempted and completed crimes that involve direct
contact between the victim and the offender(s). Personal crimes can fall under
either one of two categories: violent crimes, or personal theft.
! Violent crimes include:
T Rape
T Sexual assault
T Personal robbery
T Assault
T Verbal threats of rape, sexual assault, personal robbery, and assault.
These are all considered violent crimes, whether they are attempted or
completed.
! Personal theft includes:
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T Purse snatching
T Pocket picking
A personal theft involves an offender taking or attempting to take property
or cash directly from the victim by stealth, without force or threat of force.
Again, whether attempted or completed, purse snatching and pocket
picking are considered to be personal theft.
Personal crimes involve direct contact between offenders and eligible household
members during an incident, regardless of whether or not the crimes were
completed. If more than one household member was attacked, verbally
threatened, or had property or cash taken directly from them during the same
incident, you must complete the incident report screens of the NCVS instrument,
for each eligible household member who was personally victimized during the
incident.
Does anyone have a question about the concept of personal crime?
(Answer questions)
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Property Crimes
Property crimes include attempted and completed crimes that do not involve any
direct contact with a sample household member.
Property crimes include:
T Forcible entry
T Burglary with forcible entry
T Burglary, with illegal entry and no force
T Motor vehicle theft
T Theft
Since property crimes do not involve any personal contact between a household
member and an offender, you only need to keep one set of incident report
screens for a property crime incident. For example, if two household members
report the same property crime incident, you’ll mark one incident report as a
duplicate during the unduplication process, which we’ll discuss in more detail later
in this lesson.
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Now, let’s do a couple of examples. During an interview, the household
respondent tells the field representative that an offender threatened to shoot him,
his wife, and their 14-year old daughter if they didn't give the offender all their
money and jewelry. This incident happened one night during the reference period
while the three of them were walking to their car in a restaurant parking lot.
Q:
How many incident reports do you fill out and why, ____________?
A:
Three, one for each household member who was threatened during the
incident, because there was direct contact between each of them and the
offender, and this is considered a personal crime. (Or something similar.
If a point listed above is not covered, discuss it with the trainees.)
That’s correct, the field representative must complete three separate incident
reports--one for the household respondent, one for his wife, and one for their
daughter. There was direct contact with the offender, so this is considered a
personal crime.
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Let’s do another example. During the reference period, the Coe’s household was
broken into and burglarized while they were both at work. Joe Coe (who is the
household respondent) and Sue Coe (his wife) both reported this incident.
Q:
How many incident reports would we keep, ___________?
A:
Just one, because this was a property crime. We only want to keep one
incident report for property crimes where no household members were
personally victimized. (Or something similar. If a point listed above is
not covered, discuss it with the trainees.)
Thank you, that is correct. Let’s say that you completed the incident report
screens for the property crime I just described, one for Joe Coe, the household
respondent, and one for Sue Coe. Then you discover that you have completed
two sets of incident reports for the same property crime incident. If this happens,
keep only one incident report, usually the one reported by the household
respondent. Mark the incident reported in Sue Coe’s interview as a duplicate
report during the unduplication process.
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Does anyone have questions about filling out incident reports for property
crimes?
(Answer questions)
Now we’ll discuss completing crime incident reports. The crime incident
report section of the NCVS instrument is designed to gather detailed information
about each time an incident or victimization occurred during the reference period.
The crime incident report is made up of twelve sections:
1. Location and presence Is the first section and collects information about
where the incident occurred, details about a break-in when it happened at the
respondent’s home or lodging, and whether or not the respondent was
present.
2. Attack/threat/injury/medical care section asks questions about how the
respondent was attacked or threatened, injuries the respondent may have
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suffered (if any), whether the respondent sought medical care, and details
about that medical care.
3. Emotional toll section asks questions about the emotional toll the crime took
on the respondent. Such as how it affected work, relationships, the
respondent’s emotional and physical health, and so on.
4. Actions against offender section asks about what actions were taken by the
victim during the incident, whether those actions helped or made the situation
worse, whether others were present at the scene, their actions, and so on.
5. Offender section asks about the number and characteristics of the offender(s)
such as their gender and age, how well the victim knew the offender(s),
whether offenders were drinking or on drugs and if the offender belonged to a
gang, etc.
6. Attempted and completed thefts section asks about the type and value of
any stolen items or about items the offender attempted to steal, whether items
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were in or attached to a motor vehicle, whether property was recovered, and
so on.
7. Property damage and police section asks about whether there was any
damage to household property and if so how much it cost to repair or replace
the damaged items, and about contact with the police and their response to
the incident.
8. Activity at the time of the incident and time or money lost This section
asks about what the respondent was doing when the incident happened and
whether the respondent was employed at the time of the incident, and whether
the respondent or other household members lost time or pay from work
because of the incident.
9. Series of crimes section is asked when six or more incidents were coded as a
series. This section asks how many incidents were part of the series, where
they took place, how well the respondent knew the offenders, and so on.
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10. Hate crime section asks about whether the respondent feels the incident was
a hate crime, and if so, what was it the reason for the hate crime, such as the
respondent’s religion, race, etc.
11. Disability section asks questions about any disabilities the respondent may
have and whether they believe they were targeted because of their disability.
12. Summary section is where you enter a detailed descriptive summary of the
crime incident.
Are there any questions about these twelve sections of the instrument?
(Answer questions)
W hen completing a crime incident report you must:
•
Collect accurate information when screening respondents making sure to
enter the "number of times" count correctly, and
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Complete an incident report for each "time" that an incident or victimization
happened during the reference period, regardless of how minor the incident
may seem.
We want you and the respondent to know that no incident is too minor. Your
main task is to gather as much information as possible about each crime incident
that occurred during the reference period by asking all appropriate questions from
the NCVS instrument. It is not your responsibility to determine whether or not a
reported incident is important enough to require a completed crime report. Leave
that responsibility to our processing staff. They will take all the detailed
information that you collect and use it to determine which reported incidents
classify as NCVS crimes, and which type of crime it is.
Trying to speed up the process for collecting crime incident reports to
appease an impatient respondent. Cutting corners to save time or try to make
the interview faster for an impatient respondent can jeopardize the value of the
data that you collect.
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For example, when asked the question in screen SQTHEFT, the respondent
replied that some of his money was stolen from his bowling bag on two different
nights while he was bowling with his bowling league. Since the two incidents
reported in SQTHEFT sounded basically the same, the field representative only
completed one crime report.
Q:
Is this correct, ______________, and why or why not?
A:
__
No, this is incorrect.
__
Even though the circumstances seem to be the same, the
respondent reported two distinct incidents and the field
representative must complete two separate crime reports for the
incidents reported in SQTHEFT. (Or something similar. If a point
listed above is not covered, discuss it with the trainees.)
Let’s take another example. After a field representative asked the question on
screen SQSEXUAL (about forced or unwanted sexual acts), the young female
respondent answered "Yes." However, she told the field representative that she
really did not want to discuss any details about what happened to her. The field
representative entered a "No" reply to this screen question, because the field
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representative didn't think he could persuade the respondent to complete a crime
report.
Q:
Is this correct, ______________, and why or why not?
A:
__
No, this is incorrect.
__
The field representative must record the "Yes" answer given by the
respondent, and make every effort to persuade her to answer the
crime report questions.
__
If he can't persuade the respondent to complete the crime report,
then he must classify the respondent as a refusal and her interview
is considered incomplete. (Or something similar. If a point listed
above is not covered, discuss it with the trainees.)
Let’s discuss further handling respondents who become reluctant during
incident reports. There will be instances when respondents don't mind telling
you that a particular crime incident happened, but they are reluctant to give you
any details to describe what really happened. Remember that part of your
interviewing job is "salesmanship." You need to sell the importance of this survey
and the information that respondents can provide to us. Also, just because a
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respondent tells you that talking about a reported incident is too upsetting, don't
use that as an excuse for not completing all required incident reports. Ask the
questions in a matter-of-fact way; if you make it clear that you expect answers to
your questions the chance that you will get those answers increases.
Are there any more questions about filling out incident reports?
(Answer questions)
Before we get into all the details of the incident report, though, let’s take a
look at the kinds of statistics BJS publishes using the results of the NCVS.
Please take out your workbooks and look at Pages 3-1, 3-2, and 3-3, which show
some samples of information that the BJS publishes using statistics from the
NCVS.
(Allow time)
Take a look at all the different types of crimes listed on Page 3-1. Find the arrows
near the top of the page. The top arrows point to statistics on “personal crimes”
and the bottom arrows point to “property crimes.” Looking at the data in these two
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rows you’ll notice that 23.4 percent of all crimes were personal crimes and 76.6
percent were property crimes. Does everyone see that?
(Allow time)
As you can see we are reporting that there were a total of 21,312,400 crimes
reported in 2008. You might be asking yourself whether we collected that many
crime reports. And the answer to that question is no, we didn’t collect 21,312,400
incident reports in 2008. The data published reflects the number of victimizations
at the national level, based on national population counts. From the data you
collect we found that in 2008 people were victimized by personal crimes at a rate
of 19.8 per 1,000 persons. So that rate is applied to the national population to
arrive at the number of personal crimes of 4,993,220. Does everyone follow that
logic?
(Answer questions)
Now let’s talk about the rest of this table. As you can see each type of crime (i.e.
“Personal crimes” and “Property crimes”) is broken down into several different
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subcategories. For example, “Personal crimes” consist of the categories “Crimes
of violence,” and “Purse snatching/pocket picking.” W hereas “Property crimes”
consist of the categories “Household burglary,” “Motor vehicle theft,” and “Theft.”
Each of the subcategories are further divided. For example, find the category
“Robbery” under “Personal crimes.” “Robbery” is broken down into two
subcategories, “Completed/property taken” and “Attempted to take property.”
Then each of those is broken into two more categories, “W ith injury” and “W ithout
injury.” Did everyone follow that?
(Answer questions)
Q:
How do you suppose the BJS knows which categories and subcategories to
classify incidents of crime in when it’s time to publish the data,
______________?
A:
Because of the details we collect on the incident report (Or something
similar.)
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That’s correct, thank you. If we don’t collect all the pertinent details during the
crime incident report, we risk missing or misclassifying some incidents, which can
make our data less reliable. For instance, one of the common errors encountered
during the Editing and Coding process is when an incident report is collected for
an attack in which the interviewer marks the respondent as not being present
during the attack. This results in questions about the nature and details of the
attack not being asked. This situation limits our ability to correctly classify the type
of attack. During the editing process, we may not be able to determine if the
offender was known to the victim, whether this crime was an attack with a
weapon, a sexually related attack, or some other type of crime. W e may end up
misclassifying it in a category where it really doesn’t belong because critical
information is missing. This is why the incident report summary is so crucial to the
type of crime classification process.
Now turn to Page 3-2 in the workbook, as you can see the BJS publishes
statistics on violent victimizations in which victims took self-protective measures.
You’ll also see an arrow on this table, pointing out the statistic that in 57.6 percent
of violent crimes, the victim took self-protective measures. Does everyone see
that number?
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(Allow time)
Q:
From your knowledge of the NCVS instrument, from which question do you
suppose this statistic is calculated?
A:
From question PROTECTSELF, which asks, “Did you do anything with the
idea of protecting yourself or your property while the incident was going on?”
(Or something similar.)
Thank you. Now look at the table shown on Page 3-3 of your workbook which
shows statistics on economic losses of crime victims. The arrow on this table
points out that the total economic losses of victims of crime was 17,397 million
dollars. Has everyone found that number?
(Allow time)
Q:
From your knowledge of the NCVS instrument, what are some of the
questions you think might be used to calculate the statistics shown in this
table?
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PROPERTYVALUE “W hat was the value of the property that was taken?”
and AMOUNTCASHTAKEN, “How much cash was taken?” to name just two.
(Or something similar.)
That’s correct, thank you. All of these pieces of data that we’ve just discussed are
things that are collected in the incident report. As you can see, it’s important to
collect all the correct information in the incident report. W hen you skip or leave
items blank, we can lose data, or our data can end up being less reliable.
If anyone would like to look at more statistics from the NCVS after this training
session is over, you can go to the BJS web site. The address of that web site is:
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/. The address is also listed on the NCVS-110 Factsheet.
(Hold up a copy of the Factsheet,
showing the back page where the address is located.
The address on the form is slightly different,
but both web addresses will get you to the BJS web site.)
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Now let’s to the topic of writing summary reports in Item SUMMARY. The
SUMMARY screen in the instrument is designed for you to summarize all of the
pertinent facts about a reported crime incident. Each summary report must be
written so that anyone reading it can get a clear picture of exactly how the
respondent was victimized.
Include in the summary report any details that you feel are not evident from the
answers already provided in the crime report. This is very important because
during processing, editors often need more specific details than they can get from
the information provided in the crime report. W hen this happens, they must rely
on what is written in your summary report.
As you write a summary report, do not use misleading or vague words and
phrases that may raise more questions about the incident instead of clarifying
what actually happened. Also, when writing the summary it is very important that
you refer to respondents by their line numbers, and not by their name. W e want
to make sure that no identifying information about the respondent or the
household, such as names, addresses, or telephone numbers, are entered in the
summary.
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To help you write a complete summary, remember the following words: who,
what, when, where, and how.
WHO: Use the person’s line number (L1, L2, etc.) and identify all household
members who were involved in the incident, even if the member refused to be
interviewed. Also include any non-household members who were involved in the
incident. In the summary report, identify that they are non-household members
and use specific descriptions, such as “friend,” “neighbor,” or “co-worker” to show
their relationship to the respondent. Avoid using pronouns such as “he,” “she,”
“they,” and so on to describe persons involved in an incident.
WHAT: Explain the type of crime and any pertinent details related to the incident;
for example, “Purse stolen & offender threatened to punch L1 while L1 was
washing her hands”
WHEN: Enter date and time if known by the respondent: “Dec 23 at 10 pm”
WHERE: Explain where the crime took place; in the example just mentioned,
“Restaurant restroom”
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HOW: Explain how the crime was executed; for example, “Offender pulled purse
from L1's shoulder, threatened to punch L1 & ran/no injury to L1/reported to
police/property not recovered”
There are other things you must consider when writing summary reports.
You must pay attention to the answers you have entered in the rest of the
incident report and make sure that your summary is consistent with those
answers. The next few minutes we’ll discuss topics to include in an incident
summary for various situations.
SEX-RELATED CRIMES: Since sex-related crimes are rare compared to other
types of crimes, include as many details as the respondent is willing to provide.
This is important so that we can classify any sex-related crimes into the correct
category: rape, attempted rape, sexual assault, or unwanted sexual contact.
Even though we want all the pertinent facts, do not probe beyond the structured
probes that are provided in the instrument. Sexual offenses are a sensitive
subject, but as an NCVS field representative you must use the same tone of
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voice and manner you use to ask less sensitive questions; doing so will make the
interview easier for you and the respondent.
STOLEN PROPERTY: If stolen money and/or property belongs to the respondent
and other household members or just to other household members, make sure to
specifically identify these persons in the summary report by their line numbers
(L1, L2, and so on).
If stolen money and/or property belongs to non-household members, mention that
they are non-household members, along with a specific description of their
relationship to the respondent, such as “co-worker,” “friend,” “cousin,” and so on.
Do not use any person’s name in your summary report. If stolen property is jointly
owned, only show the dollar amount that belongs to the respondent in the
summary report.
Let’s go over some more of the specific things you need to mention in your
summary report for various types of incidents. Look in your workbook on page 3-4
“Guidelines for Completing the Summary Section of the NCVS CAPI Instrument.”
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These guidelines can also be found in your NCVS-554 Information Card Booklet
for easy reference.
(Hold up NCVS-554)
Review these guidelines regularly before you begin your monthly interviewing
assignment; if you are familiar with and adhere to them it will make your summary
more useful.
Let’s go over these guidelines now. __________, will you read the first two
items?
WHERE RESPONDENT WAS DURING INCIDENT: Things to mention in the
Summary section: A specific description about where respondent was and what
they were doing when the incident occurred. Examples – Respondent was at
home sleeping; respondent was watching TV at home; respondent was in
restaurant, respondent was at work.
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WHERE INCIDENT HAPPENED: Things to mention in the Summary section: If
the incident occurred in or near the respondent’s residence, then the incident
should have an entry in Item LOCATION_IN_HOME or in Item
LOCATION_NEAR_HOME. Please specify in the summary where exactly in or
near the respondent’s residence the incident occurred. If the incident happened
on a porch, specify whether the porch was an open porch or whether it was an
enclosed porch. Example – Offender stole lawn furniture from respondent’s
enclosed front porch.
Thank you. Does everyone understand these concepts? You must include
information about exactly what the respondent was doing and where the incident
happened.
(Allow time for questions)
Please read the next one, _______.
RESPONDENT MENTIONS A GARAGE: Things to mention in the Summary
section: Specify whether the garage was attached to the house or detached from
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the house. Specify how the offender entered the garage. Examples – Offender
entered attached garage through an opened door, offender entered detached
garage after breaking glass in a locked window.
Thank you. Does everyone understand this concept, that you must specify
whether the garage was attached to or detached from the residence, as well as
exactly how the offender entered the garage?
(Allow time for questions)
Please read the next one, _______.
CAR STOLEN/BROKEN INTO: Things to mention in the Summary section:
Specifically describe where the car was parked at the time it was stolen/broken
into. Examples – Car was in parking lot at work/shopping mall; car was in the
respondent’s driveway; car was in the respondent’s attached/detached garage.
Thank you. This one’s self-explanatory; you must describe exactly where the car
was, not where the respondent was. W e often see incident reports in which the
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field representative writes in the summary where the respondent was at the time
of the car theft or break-in, but neglects to tell where the car was during the
incident, and that is incorrect. (Pause) Any questions?
(Allow time for questions)
Please read the next one, _______.
RESPONDENT WAS THREATENED: Things to mention in the Summary
section: Describe specifically the nature of the threat. Examples – Threatened to
hurt the respondent; threatened to rape the respondent; threatened to kill the
respondent; threatened to burn the respondent’s house down.
Thank you. You must tell exactly what the offender threatened to do to the victim,
and the threat must be in person. Threats over the phone, email, text message,
and so on do not count as threats for the NCVS.
Please read the next one about weapons, _______.
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WEAPON PRESENT: Things to mention in the Summary section: Describe the
weapon used or threatened to be used. Describe how the weapon was used or
threatened to be used. Example – Offender threatened to hit the respondent with
a wrench; offender pointed a gun at the respondent.
Thank you. So it’s important when weapons are mentioned to tell exactly how a
weapon was used or how the victim was threatened with it. Does anyone have
questions about that?
(Allow time for questions)
Please read the next one, ______.
PURSE OR WALLET STOLEN WHILE OUT SHOPPING OR RUNNING
ERRANDS: Things to mention in the Summary section: Describe when the
respondent noticed the item was stolen. Examples – Respondent noticed her
purse was gone while at the counter paying; several hours later the respondent
discovered his wallet was missing.
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Thank you. Does everyone understand that we need to know WHEN the
respondent noticed that their purse or wallet was gone so that we can determine
whether the respondent was present or not?
(Allow time for questions)
[If an FR is still unclear about why this information is needed,
explain that a respondent would be considered present if the
purse/wallet was taken from the counter next to where they
were staying because they were present at the time of the theft,
while a respondent probably was not present if they left and
later noticed the purse/wallet was gone. So the theft may have
actually occurred after they walked away.]
Please read the next one, ______.
PROPERTY BROKEN INTO WAS A VACATION/RENTAL HOME: Things to
mention in the Summary section: How is property used, that is, exclusively as a
rental property or does the respondent stay there sometimes. Examples –
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Respondent’s vacation home where they live 6 months out of the year was
broken into while they were at the sample address; while respondent was renting
their vacation home to renters someone broke into it.
Thank you. So we need to know exactly how the vacation or second home was
used, and who, if anyone was staying there when the crime incident occurred.
Does anyone have questions on all the rules about writing summaries that we just
went over?
(Allow time for questions)
Now let’s do a short exercise. Turn to page 3-5 in your workbook and look at the
table there entitled “Examples of ‘Good’ Summary Reports with Adequate
Information.” Take a moment now to read over them and notice how they include
all the pertinent information that we just discussed.
(Allow time)
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Now look at the next page, 3-6, which shows a group of “bad” summaries with
inadequate information. For each summary, tell what information is missing from
the summary and exactly why it is “inadequate” or “bad.” W e’ll do the first one
together. Let’s look at it now. _____________, can you please read the first
summary aloud?
“There was unwanted sexual contact between off. and L2 with no injuries.”
Q:
____________, can you give me some reasons why the first summary, is
inadequate?
A:
__
W HEN: it doesn’t mention the date or the time of day,
__
W HERE: the location is missing,
__
HOW : it doesn’t tell exactly what kind of unwanted sexual contact.
(Or something similar. If any of the points above are not
mentioned, discuss them now.)
That’s correct, thank you. W ithout all that information we’re not sure exactly how
to classify that crime, or if it would even classify as a crime at all. Now I’d like you
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to complete the rest of the exercise on your own. W e’ll discuss the answers after
you’re done.
(Allow time for trainees to complete remainder of exercise)
Let’s review the rest of the examples in the workbook.
Q:
Look at the second summary “Sam was threatened by his co-worker in an
office building. There were no injuries.” W hat information is missing from that
summary ____________?
A:
__
W HO: the field representative used the respondent’s name instead
of line number,
__
W HEN: there is no date, no time of day,
__
HOW : there is no specific information as to exactly how the
respondent was threatened, in other words the nature of the threat is
not described. Did the co-worker threaten to stab the respondent,
threaten to kill the respondent’s dog, threaten to break the
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respondent’s car windows? (Or something similar. If any of the
points above are not mentioned, discuss them now.)
This summary leaves out these important details.
Q:
W hat about the third summary, “Rsp. sd she was shot at while walking down
the street/offenders were arrested.” W hat information is missing?
A:
__
W HO: how many offenders, were the offenders known by the
respondent, and if so did the respondent describe the offender’s
age/sex/race,
__
W HEN: there is no date, no time of day,
__
W HERE: although the summary mentions the street, it does not
mention which street. Was it on the street in front of the
respondent’s home, in a city 10 miles away from the sample
address, etc.
__
HOW : there is no description of weapon used. W ere there injuries,
was the respondent the target or caught in the middle of a shoot out.
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(Or something similar. If any of the points above are not
mentioned, discuss them now.)
These are all things we need to know when we look at this incident later on, after
data collection.
Q:
Let’s look at number 4, “Rsp. was involved in a carjacking/threatened to
shoot/not far from home/police notified.” W hat information is missing here?
A:
__
W HO: there is no description of offender, no information on number
of offenders, does not specify whether the offender was known to the
respondent, does not mention whether it was the respondent or
offender who threatened to shoot,
__
W HEN: does not specify date or time or day,
__
W HERE: does not specify location,
__
HOW : does not tell if weapon was actually present, does not specify
if there were injuries. (Or something similar. If any of the points
above are not mentioned, discuss them now.)
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W hat about number 5, “W as on way to school/music compact discs
stolen/$75/no police.” W hat information is missing?
A:
__
W HO: the respondent line number is not specified, no information
about whether the offender(s) known to the victim, how many
offenders were there, description of offenders
__
W HEN: date and time of day are not specified,
__
W HERE: no information as to mode of transportation respondent
was using – was he walking, on the bus, train, etc., no mention of
whether the CDs were with the victim when stolen or if they were
somewhere else,
__
HOW : no information about whether respondent was actually
attacked, if so were there injuries. (Or something similar. If any of
the points above are not mentioned, discuss them now.)
Q:
Number 6, “Garage broken into/HH sleeping at time/bike stolen/no police/no
injuries.” W hat information is missing in this summary?
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__
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W HO: there is no mention of who the offender is or whether they
even know who the offender is, no information about which line
number the bicycle belonged to,
__
W HAT: no information about whether it was a child’s or adult
bicycle, which helps to determine the correct category for the type of
property stolen,
__
W HEN: there is no information about the date and time of incident,
__
W HERE: whether the garage was attached or detached,
__
HOW : no information about how the offender entered the garage or
whether there was damage from the entry. (Or something similar.
If any of the points above are not mentioned, discuss them
now.)
Q:
Number 7, “Lawnmower stolen from premises/hh on vacation/no threats,
attack, or injury.” W hat information was left out of this summary?
A:
__
W HO: there is no mention on whether the lawnmower belonged to
the household or one specific member,
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W HAT: no mention of the mower’s value, whether police were
called.
__
W HEN: there is no information about the date and time of incident,
__
W HERE: where the lawnmower was stolen from - the garage, the
yard, the patio, or somewhere else?,
__
HOW : if the lawnmower was stolen from inside, was there evidence
of damage from a break-in? (Or something similar. If any of the
points above are not mentioned, discuss them now.)
None of these questions are answered in this summary. When summing up an
incident you should look at the summary as the one shot you have to tell
someone what happened during the incident. If someone were to review the
summary and did not have the benefit of having access to the data, would they
be able to tell what happened? In the examples above they would not have a
clear picture of the crime.
Right about now you may be asking yourself why we instruct you to put
information in the summary report that’s already been collected in many of the
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incident report items. Not only do we use these details to classify crimes, but we
use them to correct data collection errors after the fact.
For example, if a field representative makes an error and enters that the
respondent was not present for an incident instead of present, a number of
crucial questions about the incident are skipped, that can only be answered if the
respondent was marked present. W e are going to review the concept of presence
in more detail during a lesson later in the training. W hen editors at the NPC or at
Headquarters see the incident data later on in the process and encounter this
scenario, they can use the summary information to go back and fill in those
questions that were skipped over because presence was marked incorrectly.
Studies have been conducted looking at the incident summary to determine what
types of information the field representative collected that may not have been
asked about in the questionnaire.
W e also understand that typing in a summary report can be time consuming
especially with a respondent who is rushed or when a respondent reported
multiple crime incidents. If you find that the summary is taking too long to write in
front of the respondent do your best to include as much information as you can in
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the summary and then provide more information about who, what, when, where,
and how in the CAPI Case Level Notes after finishing the interview with the
respondent.
Does everyone understand why it’s so important to put these specific details in
your summary reports?
(Allow time for questions)
On pages 3-7 and 3-8 of your workbook are some exercises to practice including
information in the incident summary. Practice answering the questions who,
what, when, where, and how when filling out an incident summary. You can do
this tonight or after you return home from this training session. On Page 3-9 of
your workbook is an answer key which shows examples of the kind of summaries
you should be writing.
There’s one more thing I want to mention, and it’s something that is often seen
when we process the data after it’s collected. W e encounter lot of cases where
the respondent indicates in the screen questions that a theft or attempted theft
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has occurred. W hen the field representative gets further into the interview, to
items THEFT and ATTEMPTTHEFT, which verify that a theft or attempted theft
took place the field representative enters “No,” which is inconsistent with the
screener question. Don’t make this mistake; do not enter an incorrect,
inconsistent answer in THEFT or ATTEMPTTHEFT to skip pertinent questions
and make the interview go faster. Understanding the purpose of the questions
and how questions are inter-related can help you avoid these inconsistencies.
Are there any questions about what we’ve covered in the crime incident report?
(Allow time for questions)
(Depending on the time, this may be a good place to break for lunch)
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Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
In-Class Practice Exercise 1 (CASE ID 00000005)
Property crime
(Approximate time: 30 minutes)
Now we’re going to do a couple of interviews together as a group. The first one
we complete will be a property crime. The second one we’ll do is a violent crime,
so we can go through all the questions that appear when a respondent has
experienced a violent personal crime.
Let’s begin now. If you are not already, get into the Case Management and select
caseid 5 which has an address of 105 Beach Road. Highlight the case, then start
the interview by pressing the F2 function key to get into the NCVS CAPI
instrument for this case.
(Allow time)
For purposes of this exercise, you are calling the household to interview
household respondent Joel Boe. W hen you call, Joel Boe answers the telephone
and is available to be interviewed.
During both practice exercises I will call on one or more of you to serve as the
field representative. You will ask the questions and I will act as the respondent. At
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certain questions I will interrupt the interview to provide further explanation about
a question, procedure, or concept.
__________, please begin the interview at the START_CP screen. As you enter
a response, please tell us what you enter at each screen as you go through the
interview so everyone can follow along on their laptop.
START_CP
(Enter 1, Telephone interview)
SHOW_CP_ROSTER
(Enter 1 to continue)
SHOW_INFO_CP
(Enter 1 to continue)
HHNUM_VR_CP
(Enter 2 to continue)
DIAL_CP
(Enter 1, Someone answers)
HELLO_1_CP
FR:
Hello. This is (TRAINEE’S NAME) from the U.S.
Census Bureau. May I please speak to Joel Boe?
R:
This is Joel Boe.
(Enter 1, This is the correct person)
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GETLETTER_CP
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
FR:
I’m calling concerning the National Crime
Victimization Survey. The Census Bureau is
conducting a survey here and throughout the
Nation to determine how often people are victims
of crime. W e contacted your household for this
survey several months ago. Did you receive our
introductory letter in the mail?
VERADD_CP
R:
Yes. (Enter 1)
FR:
I have your address listed as 105 Beach Road
Anytown, CA 99997. Is that your exact address?
R:
Yes. (Enter 1)
CHNGPH_CP
FR:
(Enter 2 to continue)
MAILINGSAME_CP
FR:
Is your mailing address the same as your physical
address?
TENURE
R:
Yes. (Enter 1)
FR:
Are your living quarters owned or being bought by
someone in your household, rented for cash, or
occupied without payment of cash rent?
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STUDENTHOUSING
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
R:
W e rent here. (Enter 2)
FR:
Are your living quarters presently used as student
housing by a college or university?
PUBLICHOUSING
R:
No. (Enter 2)
FR:
Is this building owned by a public housing
authority?
NUMBEROFUNITS
R:
No. (Enter 2)
FR:
How many housing units are in this structure?
(Enter 1)
NAMECHECK
FR:
I have Joel Boe, Brian Public, Michael Goe, and
W ill Loe listed as living or staying at that address.
Are ALL of these people still living or staying at
that address?
R:
Yes. (Enter 1)
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HHLDCOVERAGE
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Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
FR:
Have I missed anyone else living or staying there
such as any babies, any lodgers, or anyone who
is away at present traveling or in the hospital?
AGECHECK
MARITAL
R:
No. (Enter 2)
FR:
I have you listed as 51 years old. Is that correct?
R:
Yes. (Enter 1)
FR:
And you are not married, is that correct?
R:
Yes, I’m single. (Press Enter as 5 was prefilled
based on a previous interview)
ARMEDFORCES
EDUCATIONATTAIN
FR:
Are you now in the Armed Forces?
R:
No. (Press enter)
FR:
W hat is the highest level of school you completed
or the highest degree you received?
R:
I have a Master’s degree. (Press enter)
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ATTENDINGSCHOOL
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Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
FR:
Are you currently attending or enrolled either fulltime or part-time in a college or university, trade,
or vocational school?
AGECHECK
R:
No. (Press enter)
FR:
I have Brian Public listed as 36 years old. Is that
correct?
MARITAL
R:
Yes. (Enter 1)
FR:
And he is not married, is that correct?
R:
Yes. (Press Enter as 5 was prefilled based on
a previous interview)
ARMEDFORCES
EDUCATIONATTAIN
FR:
Is Brian now in the Armed Forces?
R:
No. (Press enter)
FR:
W hat is the highest level of school Brian
completed or the highest degree he received?
R:
He has an Associate’s degree. (Press enter)
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ATTENDINGSCHOOL
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Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
FR:
Is Brian currently attending or enrolled either fulltime or part-time in a college or university, trade,
or vocational school?
AGECHECK
R:
No. (Press enter)
FR:
I have Michael Goe listed as 38 years old. Is that
correct?
MARITAL
R:
Yes. (Enter 1)
FR:
And he is not married, is that correct?
R:
That’s correct. (Press Enter as 5 was prefilled
based on a previous interview)
ARMEDFORCES
EDUCATIONATTAIN
FR:
Is Michael now in the Armed Forces?
R:
No. (Press enter)
FR:
W hat is the highest level of school Michael
completed or the highest degree he received?
R:
He started, but did not finish college. (Press
enter)
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ATTENDINGSCHOOL
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
FR:
Is Michael currently attending or enrolled either
full-time or part-time in a college or university,
trade, or vocational school?
AGECHECK
R:
No. (Press enter)
FR:
I have W ill Loe listed as 59 years old. Is that
correct?
MARITAL
R:
Yes. (Enter 1)
FR:
And he is not married, is that correct?
R:
Yes, that’s correct. (Press Enter as 5 was
prefilled based on a previous interview)
ARMEDFORCES
EDUCATIONATTAIN
FR:
Is W ill now in the Armed Forces?
R:
No. (Press enter)
FR:
W hat is the highest level of school W ill completed
or the highest degree he received?
R:
He has a high school diploma. (Press enter)
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ATTENDINGSCHOOL
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Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
FR:
Is W ill currently attending or enrolled either fulltime or part-time in a college or university, trade,
or vocational school?
R:
No. (Press enter)
ROSTERREVIEW
FR:
(Enter 1)
TIMEATADDRESS
FR:
Before we get to the crime questions I have some
questions that are helpful in studying where and
why crimes occur. How long have you lived at this
address?
BUSINESS
R:
Twelve years. (Enter 12)
FR:
Does anyone in this household operate a
business from this address?
SQTHEFT
R:
No. (Enter 2)
FR:
I'm going to read some examples that will give
you an idea of the kinds of crimes this study
covers. As I go through them, tell me if any of
these happened to you in the last 6 months, that
is, since (date).
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W as something belonging to YOU stolen, such as
--
Things that you carry, like luggage, a wallet,
purse, briefcase, book
--
Clothing, jewelry, or cellphone
--
Bicycle or sports equipment-
--
Things in your home - like a TV, stereo, or
tools
--
Things from a vehicle, such as a package,
groceries, camera, or CDs-
OR
--
Did anyone ATTEMPT to steal anything
belonging to you?
Ask only if necessary
Did any incidents of this type happen to you?
R: Yes
(Enter 1, Yes)
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SQTHEFTTIMES
FR:
R:
SQTHEFTSPEC
Just once. (Enter 1)
FR:
R:
How many times?
W hat happened?
I came out of the house one morning to find the
driver’s side of my car on blocks; both tires on that
side had been stolen. (Enter description of
incident)
SQBREAKIN
FR:
Other than any incidents already mentioned, has
anyone –
–
Broken in or ATTEMPTED to break into
your home by forcing a door or window,
pushing past someone, jimmying a lock,
cutting a screen, or entering through an
open door or window?
–
Has anyone illegally gotten in or tried to get
into a garage, shed, or storage room?
OR
–
Illegally gotten in or tried to get into a hotel
or motel room or vacation home where you
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were staying?
Ask only if necessary
Did any incidents of this type happen to
you?
SQTOTALVEHICLES
R:
No. (Enter 2)
FR:
W hat was the TOTAL number of cars, vans,
trucks, motorcycles, or other motor vehicles
owned by you or any other member of that
household during the last 6 months?
R:
SQMVTHEFT
Mine is the only one. (Enter 1)
FR:
During the last 6 months, other than any
incidents already mentioned, was the
vehicle -
– Stolen or used without permission?
– Did anyone steal any parts such as a tire, car
stereo, hubcap, or battery?
– Did anyone steal any gas from it?
OR
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– Did anyone ATTEMPT to steal any vehicle or
parts attached to it?
Ask only if necessary
Did any incidents of this type happen to you?
R:
Aside from someone stealing the two tires, no.
(Enter 2, No)
SQATTACKWHERE
FR:
Other than any incidents already mentioned,
Since (date), were you attacked or threatened OR
did you have something stolen from you --
At home including the porch or yard
--
At or near a friend's, relative's, or neighbor's
home
--
At work or school
--
In places such as a storage shed or laundry
room, a shopping mall, restaurant, bank, or
airport
--
W hile riding in any vehicle
--
On the street or in a parking lot
--
At such places as a party, theater, gym,
picnic area, bowling lanes, or while fishing or
hunting
OR
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--
Did anyone ATTEMPT to attack or ATTEMPT
to steal anything belonging to you from any of
these places?
Ask only if necessary
Did any incidents of this type happen to you?
R: No
(Enter 2, No)
SQATTACKHOW
FR:
Other than any incidents already mentioned, has
anyone attacked or threatened you in any of these
ways?
--
W ith any weapon, for instance, a gun or knife
--
W ith anything like a baseball bat, frying pan,
scissors, or stick
--
By something thrown, such as a rock or bottle
--
Include any grabbing, punching, or choking,
--
Any rape, attempted rape, or other type of
sexual attack
--
Any face to face threats
OR
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--
Any attack or threat or use of force by
anyone at all? Please mention it even if
you are not certain it was a crime.
Ask only if necessary
Did any incidents of this type happen to you?
R:
No
(Enter 2, No)
SQTHEFTATTACKKNOWNOFF
FR:
People often don't think of incidents committed by
someone they know. Other than any incidents
already mentioned, did you have something
stolen from you or were you attacked or
threatened by-
--
Someone at work or school
--
A neighbor or friend
--
A relative or family member
--
Any other person you have met or known?
Ask only if necessary
Did any incidents of this type happen to you?
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R: No
(Enter 2, No)
SQSEXUAL
FR:
Incidents involving forced or unwanted sexual
acts are often difficult to talk about. Other than any
incidents already mentioned, have you been forced
or coerced to engage in unwanted sexual activity by
--
Someone you didn't know before -
--
A casual acquaintance -
OR
--
Someone you know well?
Ask only if necessary
Did any incidents of this type happen to you?
R:
No
(Enter 2, No)
SQCALLPOLICECRIME
FR:
During the last 6 months, other than any
incident(s) already mentioned, did you call the
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police to report something that happened to YOU
which you thought was a crime?
R:
No
(Enter 2, No)
SQNOCALLPOLICECRIME
FR:
During the last 6 months, other than any
incident(s) already mentioned, did anything which
you thought was a crime happen to YOU, but you
did NOT report to the police?
R: No
(Enter 2, No)
__________, please continue the interview at the IDENTITTTHEFTINTRO1
screen.
IDENTITYTHEFTINTRO1
FR:
The next few questions are related to identity
theft. They refer to episodes of identity theft
discovered by you or anyone in your household
during the last 6 months.
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(Enter 1 to continue)
IDTHEFTCREDITCARD FR:
Since (date), have you or anyone in your
household discovered that someone - used or
attempted to use any existing credit card numbers
without permission to place charges on an
account?
IDTHEFTACCOUNTS
R:
No. (Enter 2, No)
FR:
Used or attempted to use any existing accounts
other than a credit card account - for example, a
wireless telephone account, bank account, or
debit/check cards - without the account holder’s
permission to run up charges or to take money
from accounts?
R:
No. (Enter 2, No)
IDTHEFTPERSONALINFO
FR:
Used or attempted to use personal information to
obtain NEW credit cards or loans, run up debts,
open other accounts, or otherwise commit theft,
fraud, or some other crime?
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R:
No. (Enter 2, No)
PRESENTFORSQS
(Enter 11, Telephone)
INC_REPORTS
(Enter 1 to continue)
INCIDENTINTRO
FR:
You said that during the last 6 months that tires
were stolen from your car overnight. (Or
something similar as the text in italics is
based on what the FR typed in the screener
question.)
(Enter 1 to continue)
INCIDENTDATE
FR:
In what month did this incident happen?
R:
It happened in May.
(Make sure the month the incident
occurred falls WITHIN the reference period.)
(Enter 5, May)
INCIDENTNUMBEROFTIMES
FR:
Ask or verify
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Altogether, how many times did this type of
incident happen during the last 6 months?
R:
Just one time.
(Enter 1)
INCIDENTTIME
FR:
About what time did this incident happen?
R:
It must have been sometime between midnight
and 5 am.
(Enter 17, After 12 midnight - 6 a.m.)
INCIDENTPLACE
FR:
In what city, town, or village did this incident
occur?
R:
It happened in Any Town.
(Enter 3, SAME city/town/village as present
residence)
INCIDENTAIR
FR:
Did this incident occur on an American Indian
Reservation or on American Indian Lands?
R:
No
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(Enter 2, No)
LOCATION_GENERAL
FR:
Did this incident happen...
– In your home or lodging?
– Near your home or lodging?
– At, in, or near a friend’s/relative’s/neighbor’s
home?
R:
(Interrupts during reading of categories) It
happened on the street in front of my house, while
my car was parked overnight.
(Enter 12, Near your home or lodging)
LOCATION_NEAR_HOME
FR:
Ask or verify
W here near your home or lodging did this incident
happen?
R:
As I said, on a street near my house.
(Enter 17, On street immediately adjacent to own
home or lodging)
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(Interrupt and say)
An important skill you can use as an interviewer is the skill of active listening,
which means using the information the respondent has already provided. One
way to practice active listening at this screen is to verify the location without
asking the full question, since the respondent gave us a detailed description of
the location in a previous question. For example, instead of asking “W here near
your home or lodging did this incident happen?” we can use the answer category
to verify the answer by asking “you just stated this happened on the street in front
of your house, is that correct?” Using this active listening technique when you can
will help the respondent know that you really are paying attention to their answers
as well as make the interviewing process more efficient.
INSIDEOROUT
FR:
That means it happened outdoors, is that
correct?
R:
Outdoors.
(Enter 2, Outdoors)
FARFROMHOME
FR:
Ask or verify
How far away from home did this happen?
R:
It was in front of the next door neighbor’s house,
about fifty feet from my front door.
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(Enter 1, At, in, or near building containing the
respondent’s home or next door)
(Interrupt and say)
Once again we can use the information already provided to verify the question in
this screen. Another way to do this is to verify the answer with the respondent by
using the answer category. For example, “So this happened near your home.”
HHMEMBERPRESENT
FR:
Ask or verify
W ere you or any other member of this household
present when this incident occurred?
(Interrupt and say)
Notice that tem HHMEMEBERPRESENT has a help screen which contains
information to help you and the respondent answer this question. You can access
the help screen by pressing the F1 function key.
Q: I want to take this opportunity to point out the importance of getting the
concept of “presence” right. In this case, was the respondent present or not and
why, __________?
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A: Not present, because he was not at the immediate scene of the crime during
the incident, and he was not in a place reachable by the offender, so there was
no possibility of his being attacked or threatened, or having something stolen
directly from him by the offender. (Or something similar. If a point listed above
is not covered, discuss it with the trainees.)
Does anyone have a question about why this respondent is not marked as
“Present”?
(Answer questions)
The respondent’s answer to this question is:
R:
No, we were all inside, asleep for the night.
(Enter 2, No)
(Interrupt and say)
As you can see, when we enter Precode (2) at Item HHMEMBERPRESENT an
edit check appears to prompt us to verify that we coded HHMEMBERPRESENT
correctly. As I mentioned, this is a very important concept that is crucial to
correctly coding incidents. In this situation, the respondent reported that the car
was parked outside and the respondents were inside sleeping so we know that
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no household members were present. So to continue with the interview, press
the “Suppress” button.
KNOWLEARNOFFENDERS
FR:
Do you know or have you learned anything about
the offender(s) - for instance, whether there was
one or more than one offender involved, whether
it was someone young or old, male or female?
R:
No
(Enter 2, No)
__________, please begin reading at the THEFT screen.
THEFT
FR:
Ask or verify:
W as something stolen or taken without
permission that belonged to you or others in the
household?
R:
Yes, the tires.
(Enter 1, Yes)
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WHATWASTAKEN
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Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
FR:
W hat was taken that belonged to you or others in
the household?
R:
Two tires from my car.
(Enter 17, Part of motor vehicle)
FR:
Anything else?
R:
Nothing else.
WHOOWNEDSTOLENPROPERTY
FR:
Did the stolen property belong to you personally,
to someone else in the household, or to both you
and other household members?
R:
Just me.
(Enter 1, Respondent only)
ARTICLEINCAR
FR:
W as the article IN or ATTACHED to a motor
vehicle when it was taken?
R:
Yes.
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(Enter 1, Yes)
OTHERONPERSON
FR:
W as there anything the offender took directly from
you, for instance, from your pocket or hands, or
something that you were wearing?
R:
No, I was inside asleep.
(Enter 2, No)
PROPERTYVALUE
FR:
W hat was the value of the PROPERTY that was
taken? Include recovered property.
R:
$500.
(Enter 500)
DECIDEDVALUE
FR:
How did you decide the value of the property that
was taken?
R:
It cost me $250 to replace each tire, so that’s a
total of $500.
(Enter 12, Replacement cost)
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ALLPARTRECOVERED
FR:
W as all or part of the stolen property recovered,
not counting anything received from insurance?
R:
None.
(Enter 3, None)
RECOVEREDINSURANCE
FR:
W as the theft reported to an insurance company?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
DAMAGED
FR:
Other than stolen property, was anything that
belonged to you or other members of the
household damaged in this incident?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
POLICEINFORMED
FR:
W ere the police informed or did they find out
about this incident in any way?
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R:
Yes.
(Enter 1, Yes)
POLICEFINDOUT
FR:
How did the police find out about it?
R:
I called them.
(Enter 11, Respondent)
REASONREPORT
FR:
Besides the fact that it was a crime, did YOU have
any other reason for reporting this incident to
police?
R:
I just thought the police should be aware this type
of thing was happening.
(Enter 20, Duty to let police know about crime)
FR:
Any other reason?
R:
No.
(If the FR did not ask the probe question, interrupt
to point out that the probe needs to be asked.)
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REPORTIMPORTANT
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
FR:
W hich of these would you say was the most
important reason why the incident was reported to
the police: Duty to let police know about crime,
Because it was a crime was most important, No
one reason more important?
R:
Because it was a crime.
(Enter 22, Because it was a crime was most
important)
POLICEARRIVE
FR:
Did the police come when they found out about
the incident?
R:
No, they did not.
(Enter 2, No)
POLICECONTACT
FR:
Did you or anyone in your household have any
later contact with the police about the incident?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
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SIGNCOMPLAINT
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
FR:
Did you or someone in your household sign a
complaint against the offender(s) to the police
department or the authorities?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
ARRESTMADE
FR:
As far as you know, was anyone arrested or were
charges brought against anyone in connection
with this incident?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
AGENCYHELP
FR:
Did you or someone in your household receive
any help or advice from any office or agency other than the police - that deals with victims of
crime?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
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CONTACTAUTHORITIES
FR:
Have you or someone in your household had
contact with any other authorities about this
incident (such as a prosecutor, court, or juvenile
officer)?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
ANYTHINGFURTHER
FR:
Do you expect the police, courts, or other
authorities will be doing anything further in
connection with this incident?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
DOINGATINCIDENTTIME
FR:
Ask or verify:
W hat were YOU doing when this incident
happened?
R:
Sleeping.
(Enter 18, Sleeping)
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(Interrupt and say)
Here is another example where the respondent told us earlier that the household
was sleeping when the incident occurred when they answered the question at the
screen HHMEMBERPRESENT, so we can verify the answer without having to
ask the full question.
JOBDURINGINCIDENT FR:
R:
Did you have a job at the time of the incident?
No.
(Enter 2, No)
MAJORACTIVITY
FR:
W hat was your major activity the week of the
incident - were you looking for work, keeping
house, going to school, or doing something else?
R:
Looking for work.
(Enter 1, Looking for work)
HHMEMLOSTWORKTIME
FR:
W ere there any other members 16 years or older
who lost time from work because of this incident?
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R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
INCIDENTHATECRIME
FR:
Hate crimes or crimes of prejudice or bigotry
occur when offenders target people because of
one or more of their characteristics or religious
beliefs.
Do you have any reason to suspect the incident
just discussed was a hate crime or crime of
prejudice or bgotry?
R:
No
(Enter 2, No)
DISABILITY_INTRO
FR:
Research has shown that people with disabilities
may be more vulnerable to crime victimization.
The next questions ask about any health
conditions, impairments, or disabilities you may
have.
(Enter 1 to continue)
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HEARING
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
FR:
Are you deaf or do you have serious difficulty
hearing?
R:
No
(Enter 2, No)
VISION
FR:
Are you blind or do you have serious difficulty
seeing even when wearing glasses?
R:
No
(Enter 2, No)
LEARN_CONCENTRATE
FR:
Because of a physical, mental, or emotional
condition, do you have serious difficulty:
Concentrating, remembering or making
decisions?
R:
No
(Enter 2, No)
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PHYSICAL_LIMIT
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Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
FR:
W alking or climbing stairs?
R:
No
(Enter 2, No)
DRESS_BATH
FR:
Dressing or bathing?
R:
No
(Enter 2, No)
LEAVING_HOME
FR:
Because of a physical, mental, or emotional
condition, do you have difficulty doing errands alone
such as visiting a doctor's office or shopping?
R:
No
(Enter 2, No)
(Interrupt and say)
Now you need to write a summary about the incident.
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Q:
W hat do we need to remember when writing an incident summary, _____?
A:
W e need to remember to include who, what, when, where, and how, and
to include any pertinent details that may not have been asked about in the
incident report questions.
Thank you. Please write your summaries now.
(Allow time)
Your summary should have included the following points:
Between midnight-5 am on (date) tires were stolen off L1's car from street outside
residence overnight while respondent slept inside residence. Replacement cost
$500. Reported to police, not reported to insurance, offender not caught, no
property recovered.
Are there any questions?
(Answer questions)
Now complete the next several screen items based the following information:
1.
You don't need to make any changes to the summary. (Pause)
2.
The respondent didn't recall any additional incidents. (Pause)
3.
After reviewing the crimes the current respondent reported at the
CRIME_END screen, enter 1. (Pause)
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4.
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Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
Enter 1 to continue at the next two screens and stop at the INTRO_UNDUP
screen.
(Allow time)
SUMMARYPROBE
(Enter 1 to continue)
INCIDENTTOADD
(Enter 2, No: NONE to add)
CRIME_END
(Enter 1 to continue)
ENDINCIDENT
(Enter 1 to continue)
ENDSCREENER
(Enter 1 to continue)
___________, please read the text on the screen INTRO_UNDUP.
INTRO_UNDUP
FR:
Now it will just take me a minute to review the
crime incidents I have recorded from you during
the interview at your household.
(Interrupt and say)
Q:
W ho can tell me what the purpose of the unduplication section is?
A:
__
Process to ensure that only one set of incident report questions is
retained for each incident or personal victimization.
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__
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Designed to avoid keeping incidents that were reported in a previous
enumeration and did not happen again during the current reference
period.
__
Designed to avoid keeping multiple reports of the same incident, in
which no household members were personally victimized during the
incident. This can happen when multiple respondents report the
same incident during the current enumeration. (Or something
similar. If any of these points were left out of the answer, then
discuss those points.)
This process is often misunderstood, so I’d like to take a minute to discuss this in
more detail. W hen duplicate incident reports are kept, we are inflating the crime
rate by double counting an incident. This tool is provided to you since the the
respondent may have provided information that is not readily available to staff
who review the data after it is collected. W hen incidents are reviewed, the coders
only have the data from the report, the incident summary, and case notes to
determine whether an incident was double reported.
W hen you mark an incident report as a duplicate you are essentially saying that
this incident report should be deleted from the data and therefore excluded from
the crime rates. Incident reports that are marked as duplicates are reviewed in
the Editing & Coding operation I mentioned earlier. From that operation we’ve
found that, on average, 31% of incident reports that are marked as duplicates are
correctly coded as duplicates. W hich means that out of 100 incidents marked as
duplicate incident reports almost 70 are incorrectly marked as duplicates. If the
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Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
data were not reviewing, we would be removing 70 valid incidents based solely
on coding done in the unduplication section.
Are there any questions about the purpose of the unduplication section?
(Answer questions)
Lets continue. Please enter 1 to continue to the next screen.
Q:
W hat can you tell me about the two incident reports being compared at this
screen?
A:
The incident report just collected is being compared to an incident report
collected during the previous enumeration (or something similar.)
The unduplication screens are set up to display the same type of information
about the two incident reports. W here one incident report is displayed in a column
to the left and is compared to another incident report displayed in a column to the
right. As you can see, the information was set up to display the same data from
each incident report in each row. For instance, the row with the header titled
“Month” displays the month the incident occurred. W hen you read that row from
left to right you see that the month of the incident on the left occurred in (month)
and then incident displayed on the right occurred in December. This provides an
efficient way to compare incident reports.
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Q:
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
How can we tell which incident report is displayed in the left column and
which incident report is displayed in the right column?
A:
The first line under the FR instructions contains the headers “incident
reported during the current enumeration” over the column on the left
and “incident reported during the previous enumeration” above the
right hand column (or something similar.)
Lets take a minute to compare the two incidents that are displayed.
(Allow time)
Q:
___________, are these incident reports duplicates of each other? Why or
why not?
A:
__
No
__
Because the incidents took place in different months.
__
Because they are not the same type of incident (i.e. stolen tires
versus the theft of two games) (Or something similar. If any of
these points were left out of the answer, then mention those
points.)
Are there any questions about why these are not duplicate incident reports?
(Answer questions)
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Now that we’ve established that these two incident reports are not the same
incident, enter 2 at the UNDUP_OLDINC screen and then enter 1 at the
UNDUP_DONE screen.
UNDUP_OLDINC
(Enter 2, No)
UNDUP_DONE
(Enter 1 to continue)
Please continue the interview with JOBLASTWEEK.
JOBLASTWEEK
FR:
Did you have a job or work at a business LAST
W EEK?
If necessary: Do not include volunteer work or
work around the house.
R:
Yes
(Enter 1, Yes)
(Interrupt and say)
Notice that this screen contains a book icon and a page reference at the top left
of the screen. This lets you know there is a corresponding page in the NCVS-554
Information Card Booklet. During personal visit interviews, show the
“Employment” flashcard to the respondent so they can see the job categories.
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Ask the question in Item JOBDESCRIPTION, then ask the respondent to identify
on the flashcard the job category that best describes their job.
Please continue the interview at the screen JOBDESCRIPTION.
JOBDESCRIPTION
FR:
W hich of the following best describes your job?
W ere you employed in the –
- Medical Profession?
- Mental Health Services Field?
- Teaching Profession?
R:
Yes, I’m a math teacher.
(Enter 13, Teaching Profession)
TEACHINGJOB
FR:
W ere you employed in a -- Preschool?
- Elementary school?
- Junior high or middle school?
- High school?
R:
Yes, I teach geometry to tenth graders.
(Enter 21, High school)
EMPLOYERTYPECURRENT
FR:
Ask or verify
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Is your job with -- A private company, business, or individual for
wages?
- The Federal government?
- A State, county, or local government?
R:
Yes, I’m employed by the county.
(Enter 3, A State, county, or local government)
COLLEGEEMPLOYER FR:
R:
Are you employed by a college or university?
No
(Enter 2, No)
CURRENTJOBMSATYPE
FR:
W hile working at your job, do you work mostly in - A city?
- Suburban area?
R:
Yes.
(Enter 2, Suburban area)
HOUSEHOLDINCOME FR:
W hich category represents the TOTAL combined
income of all members of the HOUSEHOLD
during the past 12 months? This includes money
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from jobs, net income from business, farm, or
rent, pensions, dividends, interest, Social Security
payments, and any other money income received
by members of this HOUSEHOLD who are 14
years of age or older?
- Less than $5,000
- Between $5,000 and $7,499
- Between $7,500 and $9,999
- Between $10,000 and $12,499
R:
About 15,500 dollars.
(Enter 16, "$15,000-$17,499")
Now complete the next several screen items based the following information:
1.
You don't need to make any changes to the contact preferences. (Pause)
2.
The respondent didn't give a new number to contact them on. (Pause)
3.
The respondent’s interview was conducted in English. (Pause)
4.
Enter 1 to continue at the next screen.
BESTIME_NOSUNDAY
(Enter 1 to continue)
RESPONDENTPHONENUMBER
(Enter 0 [zero] to continue)
RESPINTERVIEWLANG
(Enter 2 to continue)
ENDPERSON
(Enter 1 to continue)
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Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
This concludes this practice exercise. To summarize, in this practice interview we
completed an incident report on a property crime, discussed the concept of
presence, talked about active listening, practiced unduplication of incidents, and
wrote a summary report. Are there questions about anything we covered here?
W e are going to stay in the same case to continue with the next practice
exercise.
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In-Class Practice Exercise 2 (CASE ID 00000005)
Violent crime - assault with weapon
(Approximate time: 30 minutes)
In this exercise you will again work with the training case with the address 105
Beach Road. W e’ll continue in the same household to interview Brian Public, so
at the NEXTPERSON, enter 2 to continue with Brian Public’s interview.
(Allow time)
__________, please begin the interview at the START_CP screen.
NEXTPERSON
(Enter 2 to continue with Brian Public’s interview)
INTERVIEWSTATUS
(Enter 1 to continue interview)
INTROFORNEWRESPONDENT
FR:
Hello, I’m [Name] from the U.S. Census Bureau.
I’m
calling
concerning
the
National
Crime
Victimization Survey. W e are talking with members
of your household to obtain statistics on the kinds
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and amount of crime committed against individuals
12 years or age and older.
W e would like to complete your interview now.
R:
Ok.
(Enter 1 to continue interview)
TIMEATADDRESS
FR:
Before we get to the crime questions, I have one or
two questions that are helpful in studying where and
why crimes occur.
How long have you lived at this address?
R:
10 years.
(Enter 10)
SQTHEFT
FR:
I'm going to read some examples that will give
you an idea of the kinds of crimes this study
covers. As I go through them, tell me if any of
these happened to you in the last 6 months, that
is, since (date).
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W as something belonging to YOU stolen, such as
--
Things that you carry, like luggage, a wallet,
purse, briefcase, book
--
Clothing, jewelry, or cellphone
--
Bicycle or sports equipment-
--
Things in your home - like a TV, stereo, or
tools
--
Things from a vehicle, such as a package,
groceries, camera, or CDs-
OR
--
Did anyone ATTEMPT to steal anything
belonging to you?
Ask only if necessary
Did any incidents of this type happen to you?
R: No
(Enter 2, No)
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SQATTACKWHERE
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
FR:
Since (date), were you attacked or
threatened OR did you have something stolen
from you --
At home including the porch or yard
--
At or near a friend's, relative's, or
neighbor's home
--
At work or school
--
In places such as a storage shed or laundry
room, a shopping mall, restaurant, bank, or
airport
--
W hile riding in any vehicle
--
On the street or in a parking lot
--
At such places as a party, theater, gym,
picnic area, bowling lanes, or while fishing or
hunting
OR
--
Did anyone ATTEMPT to attack or ATTEMPT
to steal anything belonging to you from any of
these places?
Ask only if necessary
Did any incidents of this type happen to you?
R: Yes.
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(Enter 1, Yes)
SQATTACKWHERETIMES
FR:
How many times?
R:
Just once.
(Enter 1)
SQATTACKWHERESPEC
FR:
W hat happened?
R:
I was leaving a concert when a man ran up
behind me and stabbed me in the shoulder.
(L2 was leaving a concert when a man stabbed him
in the shoulder.)
SQATTACKHOW
FR:
Other than any incidents already mentioned, has
anyone attacked or threatened you in any of these
ways?
--
W ith any weapon, for instance, a gun or knife
--
W ith anything like a baseball bat, frying pan,
scissors, or stick
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--
By something thrown, such as a rock or bottle
--
Include any grabbing, punching, or choking,
--
Any rape, attempted rape, or other type of
sexual attack
--
Any face to face threats
OR
--
Any attack or threat or use of force by
anyone at all? Please mention it even if
you are not certain it was a crime.
Ask only if necessary
Did any incidents of this type happen to you?
R:
No, just the stabbing incident I already mentioned.
(Enter 2, No)
SQTHEFTATTACKKNOWNOFF
FR:
People often don't think of incidents committed by
someone they know. Other than any incidents
already mentioned, did you have something
stolen from you or were you attacked or
threatened by-
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--
Someone at work or school
--
A neighbor or friend
--
A relative or family member
--
Any other person you have met or known?
Ask only if necessary
Did any incidents of this type happen to you?
R: No.
(Enter 2, No)
SQSEXUAL
FR:
Incidents involving forced or unwanted sexual
acts are often difficult to talk about. Other than any
incidents already mentioned, have you been forced
or coerced to engage in unwanted sexual activity by
--
Someone you didn't know before -
--
A casual acquaintance -
OR
--
Someone you know well?
Ask only if necessary
Did any incidents of this type happen to you?
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R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
SQCALLPOLICECRIME
FR:
During the last 6 months, other than any
incident(s) already mentioned, did you call the
police to report something that happened to YOU
which you thought was a crime?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
SQNOCALLPOLICECRIME
FR:
During the last 6 months, other than any
incident(s) already mentioned, did anything which
you thought was a crime happen to YOU, but you
did NOT report to the police?
R: No.
(Enter 2, No)
PRESENTFORSQS
(Enter 11, Telephone)
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INC_REPORTS
(Enter 1 to continue)
INCIDENTINTRO
FR:
You said that during the last 6 months that you
were leaving a concert when a man stabbed you
one time. (Or something similar as the text in
italics is based on what the FR typed in the
screener question.)
(Enter 1 to continue)
INCIDENTDATE
FR:
In what month did this incident happen?
R:
It happened in May.
(Make sure the month the incident
occurred falls WITHIN the reference period.)
(Enter 5, May)
INCIDENTNUMBEROFTIMES
FR:
If unsure, ask:
Altogether, how many times did this type of
incident happen during the last 6 months?
R:
Just one time.
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(Enter 1)
(Interrupt and say)
Once again we can verify the answer the respondent has already given by
verifying their answer rather than asking the full question. In fact, in this screen
you can enter the answer without asking if you are sure of the answer.
INCIDENTTIME
FR:
About what time did this incident happen?
R:
It happened around 9:30 in the evening.
(Enter 16, After 9 p.m. – 12 midnight)
INCIDENTPLACE
FR:
In what city, town, or village did this incident
occur?
R:
It happened in Midtown.
(Enter 4, DIFFERENT city/town/village as present
residence)
INCIDENTPLACESPEC (Type “Midtown”)
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INCIDENTSTATE
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
FR:
In what state did it occur?
R:
California.
(Enter CA)
INCIDENTCOUNTY
FR:
In what county did it occur?
R:
Los Angeles County
(Enter Los Angeles)
COUNTYSTATE
FR:
Is this the same county and state as your present
residence?
R:
Yes.
(Enter 1, Yes)
INCIDENTAIR
FR:
Did this incident occur on an American Indian
Reservation or on American Indian Lands?
R:
No.
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(Enter 2, No)
LOCATION_GENERAL
FR:
W here did this incident happen?
R:
It happened in the lobby of the club, just as I was
leaving.
(Enter 14, At a commercial place)
LOCATION_COMMERCE
FR:
Ask or verify:
At what type of a commercial place did this
incident happen?
R:
It was a nightclub.
(Enter 22, Inside restaurant, bar, nightclub)
RESTRICTEDAREA
FR:
Ask or verify:
Did the incident happen in an area restricted to
certain people or was it open to the public at the
time?
R:
It’s open to the public.
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(Enter 1, Open to the public)
INSIDEOROUT
FR:
Ask or verify:
Did it happen indoors, outdoors, or both?
R:
Indoors.
(Enter 1, Indoors)
(Interrupt and say)
This is another screen where we can use our active listening skills to verify the
fact that the incident happened indoors. The respondent said that the incident
occurred in the lobby of the nightclub when responding to the question in
LOCATION_GENERAL.
FARFROMHOME
FR:
Ask or verify:
How far away from home did this happen?
R:
This club is about 15 miles from here.
(Enter 4, Fifty miles or less)
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HHMEMBERPRESENT
FR:
Ask or verify
W ere you or any other member of this household
present when this incident occurred?
R:
I was the only member present.
(Enter 1, Yes)
(Interrupt and say)
Q: In this case, was the respondent present or not and why, __________?
A: Present, because he was at the immediate scene of the crime during the
incident, and he was in a place reachable by the offender and he in fact was
attacked by the offender. (Or something similar. If a point listed above is not
covered, discuss it with the trainees.)
Remember, you must consider the respondent “present” in any situation where:
!
They were attacked or someone attempted to attack them.
!
They had something taken directly from them or an attempt was made to
take something directly from them.
!
They were personally threatened with physical harm by the offender.
Does anyone have a question about why this respondent is “Present”?
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WHICHMEMBER
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 3 - The Crime Incident Report
FR:
Ask or verify
W hich household members were present?
R:
Just me.
(Enter 1, Respondent only)
(Interrupt and say)
Notice, that the screen SEEOFFENDER has the FR instruction to “Ask or verify.”
In previous screens we’ve discussed verifying the answer when the respondent
has previously provided the answer in an earlier question. In this situation, the
respondent has not told us whether they saw the offender. Therefore, we should
ask the question as worded.
SEEOFFENDER
FR:
Ask or verify
Did you personally see an offender?
R:
Yes.
(Enter 1, Yes)
WEAPONPRESENT
FR:
Did the offender have a weapon such as a gun or
knife, or something to use as a weapon, such as a
bottle or wrench?
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R:
Yes.
(Enter 1, Yes)
(Interrupt and say)
Notice at the screen WEAPONPRESENT has a help screen linked to this screen.
This help screen will assist you and the respondent in determining whether an
object mentioned by the respondent is considered a weapon by NCVS standards.
The next question, WEAPON, asks about the type of weapon the offender had
during the incident. Hand guns, shot guns, knives, and most other types of guns
are considered weapons. Also considered a weapon are objects the offender
had that he or she intended to use as a weapon, such as scissors, an ice pick, an
axe, a rock, club, or blackjack. Pellet guns, BB guns, air pistols, flare guns, stun
guns, and tear gas guns are NOT considered weapons, unless they are used as
clubs. Other objects which are not considered weapons include animals, parts of
the body, food, empty cans, mace or pepper spray, tear gas, chloroform, rings,
and casts.
_____________, please continue the interview.
WEAPON
FR:
W hat was the weapon?
R:
A pocket knife.
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(Enter 4, Other sharp object)
ATTACK
FR:
Anything else?
R:
No.
FR:
Did the offender hit you, knock you down or
actually attack you in any way?
R:
Yes.
(Enter 1, Yes)
HOWATTACK
FR:
How were you attacked?
R:
W ell, he stabbed me.
(Enter 17, Stabbed/cut with knife/sharp weapon)
PRETHREATEN
FR:
Any other way?
R:
No.
FR:
Did the offender THREATEN to hurt you before
you were actually attacked?
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R:
No, he just appeared out of nowhere and stabbed
me.
(Enter 2, No)
INJURY
FR:
W hat were the injuries you suffered, if any?
R:
Stab wounds.
(Enter 15, Knife or stab wounds)
MEDICALCARE
FR:
Anything else?
R:
No.
FR:
W ere you injured to the extent that you received
any medical care, including self-treatment?
(Interrupt and say)
By medical care we mean any care or treatment given for physical injuries. If the
victim is taken to the hospital, it is evident that he or she had medical treatment.
Medical care also includes home care, such as ice packs and bandages. When
the respondent receives any type of medical care the next series of questions
asks the respondent where medical care was received. A victim may receive
emergency treatment at the scene of the crime, further treatment at a doctor’s
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office, and additional care at home. If the respondent received care in a hospital
you ask if the respondent stayed overnight in a hospital because of injuries
received in the incident and how many days the respondent stayed in the
hospital. Questions are also asked about medical insurance the victim had at the
time of the incident and the total amount of the victim’s medical expenses
resulting from the incident.
R:
Yes, I swabbed it with alcohol, and taped some
gauze over it.
(Enter 1, Yes)
RECEIVECAREWHERE
FR:
W here did you receive this care?
R:
I treated myself when I got home.
(Enter 12, At home/neighbor/friend’s)
MEDICALINSURANCE FR:
At the time of the incident, were you covered by
any medical insurance, or were you eligible for
benefits from any other type of health benefits
program, such as Medicaid, Veterans
Administration, or Public Welfare?
R:
No, none of those.
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(Enter 2, No)
MEDICALEXPENSES
FR:
W hat was the total amount of your medical
expenses resulting from this incident? Include
hospital and doctor bills, medicine, therapy,
braces, and any other injury-related expenses.
R:
About two dollars probably, for the alcohol, gauze,
and tape.
(Enter 2)
IMPACT_JOB
FR:
Being a victim of crime affects people in different
ways. Next I would like to ask you some questions
about how being a crime victim may have affected
you.
Did being a victim of this crime lead you to have
significant problems with your job or schoolwork,
or trouble with your boss, coworkers, or peers?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
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FR:
Did being a victim of this crime lead you to have
significant problems with family members or
friends, including getting into more arguments or
fights than you did before, not feeling you could
trust them as much, or not feeling as close to
them as you did before?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
HOW_DISTRESSING
FR:
How distressing was being a victim of this crime
to you? W as it not at all distressing, mildly
distressing, moderately distressing, or severely
distressing?
R:
It was mildly distressing.
(Enter 2, mildly distressing)
PROTECTSELF
FR:
Did you do anything with the idea of protecting
YOURSELF or your PROPERTY while the
incident was going on?
R:
Yes.
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(Enter 1, Yes)
ACTIONSDURINGINC
FR:
W hat did you do?
R:
I ran away from the guy.
(Enter 22, Ran or drove away or tried; hid, locked
door)
FR:
Anything else?
R:
I was yelling at him, too.
(Enter 19, Yelled at offender, turned on lights,
threatened to call police, etc.)
INJACTION
FR:
Anything else?
R:
No.
FR:
Did you take these actions before, after, or at the
same time that you were injured?
R:
W ell, at the same time and after.
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(Enter 2, After injury, and 3, Same time)
INJACTIONHELP
FR:
Did any of your actions help the situation in any
way?
R:
Yes, I think so.
(Enter 1, Yes)
HELP
FR:
How were they helpful?
R:
It kept him from hurting me worse.
(Enter 1, Helped avoid injury or greater injury)
FR:
Any other way?
R:
No.
(Interrupt and say)
W hen a respondent gives an answer that doesn’t exactly match a precoded
category you can probe to verify the correct category. For example, in the screen
HELP, we could rephrase the respondent’s answer from ‘it kept him from hurting
me worse’ to “so your actions helped avoid greater injury, correct?”
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ACTIONWORSE
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FR:
Did any of your actions make the situation worse
in any way?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
ANYONEPRESENT
FR:
W as anyone present during the incident besides
you and the offender?
R:
Yes, there was a whole crowd of people there at
the club.
(Enter 1, Yes)
OTHERSACTIONS
FR:
Did the actions of (this person/any of these
people) help the situation in any way?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
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OTHERSACTIONSWORSE
FR:
Did the actions of (this person/any of these
people) make the situation worse in any way?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
PERSONSHARMED
FR:
Not counting yourself, were any of these persons
present during the incident harmed, (Pause)
threatened with harm, (Pause) or robbed by force
or threat of harm?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
______________, please continue the interview
ONEORMOREOFFENDERS
FR:
Ask or verify
W as the crime committed by only one or by more
than one offender?
R:
Just one.
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(Enter 1, Only 1)
SINGOFFENDERGENDER
FR:
W as the offender male or female?
R:
Male.
(Enter 1, Male)
SINGOFFENDERAGE
FR:
How old would you say the offender was?
R:
I would say around 25.
(Enter 5, Twenty-one to twenty-nine)
SINGOFFENDERGANG
FR:
W as the offender a member of a street
gang, or don’t you know?
R:
I don’t know.
(Enter 3, Don’t know)
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SINGOFFENDERDRINKDRUG
FR:
W as the offender drinking or on drugs, or don’t
you know?
R:
He appeared to have been drinking.
(Enter 1, Yes (drinking or on drugs))
SINGOFFENDERDRINKORDRUG
FR:
So he appeared to have been drinking?
R:
Yes. I could smell the alcohol on his breath.
(Enter 1, Drinking)
(Interrupt and say)
If the FR asked the question rather than verifying the answer in the screen
SINGOFFENDERDRINKORDRUG, mention that they could have verified the
answer based on the respondent’s answer to the previous question.
SINGOFFENDERKNEW
FR:
W as the offender someone you knew or a
stranger you had never seen before?
R:
A stranger.
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(Enter 2, Stranger)
SINGOFFENDERRECOG
FR:
W ould you be able to recognize the offender if
you saw him?
R:
Yes.
(Enter 1, Yes)
SINGOFFENDERSIGHT
FR:
W ould you have been able to tell the police how
they might find the offender, for instance, where
he lived, worked, went to school, or spent time?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
SINGOFFENDERRACE FR:
W as the offender White, Black, or some other
race?
R:
W hite.
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(Enter 1, White)
SINGOFFENDERONLYTIME
FR:
W as this the only time this offender committed a
crime against you or your household or made
threats against you or your household?
R:
Yes.
(Enter 1, Yes (only time))
THEFT
FR:
Ask or verify:
W as something stolen or taken without
permission that belonged to you or others in the
household?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
ATTEMPTTHEFT
FR:
Ask or verify:
Did the offender(s) ATTEMPT to take something
that belonged to you or others in your household?
R:
No.
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(Enter 2, No)
DAMAGED
FR:
W as anything that belonged to you or other
members of the household damaged in this
incident?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
POLICEINFORMED
FR:
W ere the police informed or did they find out
about this incident in any way?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
NOTREPORTEDPOLICE
FR:
W hat was the reason it was not reported to the
police?
R:
I went and told the club manager so they wouldn’t
let the guy in there anymore; I figured that was
good enough.
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(Enter 11, Reported to another official)
AGENCYHELP
FR:
Did you or someone in your household receive
any help or advice from any office or agency -other than the police -- that deals with victims of
crime?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
DOINGATINCIDENTTIME
FR:
Ask or verify:
W hat were you doing when this incident started?
R:
Attending a concert.
(Enter 17, Leisure activity away from home)
(Interrupt and say)
Again, we can verify that the respondent was doing a leisurely activity away from
home as they had previously told us they were at a concert. Using the “active
listening” technique will help to make the respondent feel they are being heard
and reduce redundancies asking questions we already have an answer for.
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JOBDURINGINCIDENT
FR:
Ask or verify:
Did you have a job at the time of the incident?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
MAJORACTIVITY
FR:
W hat was your major activity the week of the
incident – were you looking for work, keeping
house, going to school, or doing something else?
R:
W ell, I’m taking college courses, but my major
activity would be keeping house.
(Enter 2, Keeping house)
HHMEMLOSTWORKTIME
FR:
W ere there any household members 16 years or
older who lost time from work because of this
incident?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
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INCIDENTHATECRIME
FR:
Hate crimes or crimes of prejudice or bigotry
occur when offenders target people because of
one or more of their characteristics or religious
beliefs.
Do you have any reason to suspect the incident
just discussed was a hate crime or crime of
prejudice or bigotry?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
DISABILITY_INTRO
FR:
Research has shown that people with disabilities
may be more vulnerable to crime victimization.
The next questions ask about any health
conditions, impairments, or disabilities you may
have.
(Enter 1 to continue)
HEARING
FR:
Are you deaf or do you have serious difficulty
hearing?
R:
No.
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(Enter 2, No)
VISION
FR:
Are you blind or do you have serious difficulty
seeing even when wearing glasses?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
LEARN_CONCENTRATE
FR:
Because of a physical, mental, or emotional
condition, do you have serious difficulty:
Concentrating, remembering or making
decisions?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
PHYSICAL_LIMIT
FR:
W alking or climbing stairs?
R:
No.
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(Enter 2, No)
DRESS_BATH
FR:
Dressing or bathing?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
LEAVING_HOME
FR:
Because of a physical, mental, or emotional
condition, do you have difficulty doing errands
alone such as visiting a doctor's office or
shopping?
R:
No.
(Enter 2, No)
(Interrupt and say)
Now you need to write a summary about the incident. Don’t forget, “W ho, what,
when, where, and how”.
(Allow time)
Your summary should have included the following points:
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Around 9:30 p.m., on (date) L2 was leaving a nightclub when a 25-year-old male
stabbed him in the shoulder with a small pocket knife. L2 injuries minor stab
wounds. Self medicated/bandages at home. Offender had been drinking. L2
reported inc to club mgr.
Are there any questions?
(Answer questions)
Now complete the next several screen items based the following information:
1.
You don't need to make any changes to the summary. (Pause)
2.
The respondent didn't recall any additional incidents. (Pause)
3.
Enter 1 after reviewing the crimes the current respondent reported at the
CRIME_END screen. (Pause)
4.
Enter 1 to continue at the next three screens and stop at the
UNDUP_CURINC screen.
(Allow time)
SUMMARYPROBE
(Enter 1 to continue)
INCIDENTTOADD
(Enter 2, No: NONE to add)
CRIME_END
(Enter 1 to continue)
ENDINCIDENT
(Enter 1 to continue)
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ENDSCREENER
(Enter 1 to continue)
INTRO_UNDUP
(Enter 1 to continue)
Q:
W hat comparisons will we be making in the unduplication section this time?
A:
__
W e’ll compare this respondent’s incident report to the incident report
collected for the household respondent.
__
W e’ll also compare this respondent’s incident report to the incident
report collected in the previous enumeration.
(Or something similar. Discuss any of these points that were
not mentioned.)
Does everyone follow the logic that the instrument will prompt you to review the
current incident report against two other incident reports?
(Answer questions)
Q:
Based on the information displayed, how can we tell which incident report
is the current respondent’s incident and which incident report was collected
during the Household Respondent’s interview?
A:
__
The row of data that contains the header “Enum”or enumeration,
also has the headers “Ln No.” for the Line number of the respondent
who reported that incident and “Inc. No.” for the incident number.
__
You can also compare the summaries of the two incident reports to
help differentiate between the two. (Or something similar. Discuss
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any of these points that were not mentioned.)
As we discussed in the previous exercise, the unduplication screens were set up
to display the same type of information about the two incident reports. W here one
incident report is displayed in a column to the left and is compared to another
incident report displayed in a column to the right. Let’s take a minute to discuss
the header Inc. No. or “incident number”. That number is linked to the respondent
who reported the incident. For example, if Line Number 2 reported two incidents,
their first incident would have an Incident Number of 1, while their second incident
would have an Incident Number of 2. As you can see from the UNDUP_CURINC
screen we are comparing the first incident reported by Line Number 1 to the first
incident reported by Line Number 2 (NOTE: In the exercise only one incident was
reported for each respondent.)
Does everyone understand what the Incident Number is and how it is displayed at
this screen?
(Answer questions)
Lets take a minute to compare the two incidents that are displayed.
(Allow time)
Q:
___________, are these incidents duplicates of each other? W hy or why
not?
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__
No
__
Because the incidents took place in different locations.
__
Because they are not the same type of incident (i.e. theft versus
attack) (Or something similar. If any of these points were left out
of the answer, then mention them now.)
Are there any questions about why these are not duplicate incident reports?
(Answer questions)
Now that we’ve established that these two incident reports are not the same
incident, enter 2 at the UNDUP_CURINC screen. Now the instrument is
prompting us to make another comparison to check for duplicate incident reports.
Q:
Are these two incidents reports duplicates? W hy or why not?
A:
__
No
__
Because the incidents took place in different locations.
__
Because they are not the same type of incident (i.e. theft versus
attack) (Or something similar. If any of these points were left out
of the answer, then mention them now.)
UNDUP_OLDINC
(Enter 2, No)
UNDUP_DONE
(Enter 1 to continue)
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___________, please continue the interview with JOBLASTWEEK.
JOBLASTWEEK
FR:
Did you have a job or work at a business LAST
W EEK?
If necessary: Do not include volunteer work or
work around the house.
R:
No
(Enter 2, No)
JOBDURINGREFPERIOD
FR:
Did you have a job or work at a business DURING
THE LAST 6 MONTHS?
R:
No
(Enter 2, No)
Now complete the next several screen items based on the following information:
1.
You don't need to make any changes to the contact preferences. (Pause)
2.
The respondent didn't give a new number to contact them on. (Pause)
3.
The respondent’s interview was conducted in English. (Pause)
4.
Enter 1 to continue at the next two screens. (Pause)
5.
No one else is available to be interviewed at the current time. (Pause)
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6.
Code the end of this call as a breakoff (Pause)
7.
There are no updates to make to the phone numbers displayed.
BESTTIME_NOSUNDAY
(Enter 1 to continue)
RESPONDENTPHONENUMBER
(Enter 0 [zero] to continue)
RESPINTERVIEWLANG
(Enter 2 to continue)
ENDPERSON
(Enter 1 to continue)
ENDSCREENER
(Enter 1 to continue)
NEXTPERSON
(Enter 33, “No other person available”)
REFCBBREAK_CP
(Enter 3, “Breakoff”)
VERIFY
(Enter 2, “No”)
Upon exiting the NCVS instrument, the Contact History Instrument or CHI is
activated. Although we’ll be discussing CHI in more detail in the next chapter,
let’s go ahead and follow the special NCVS procedures to complete the contact
information for the two respondents we just had contact with/interviewed during
the contact attempt. Everyone should have the CHI instrument active and should
be at the CTATTEMPT screen.
W e’ll be entering information about our interview with line number 1, who was the
household respondent and then getting back into CHI to record the contact with
line number 2.
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_____________, please walk us through the CHI screens for the contact with line
number 1.
CTATEMPT
Enter 1.
TIMEOFCT
Enter 1.
PERORTEL
Enter 2.
CTSTATUS
Enter 1.
CTTYPE
Enter 2.
The reason we are using Precode (2) Partial interview, follow up required instead
of Precode (1) Complete interview is because we still have two more respondents
to interview.
NONINTER
Enter 1.
RSPNDENT
Enter 22.
STRATEGS
Enter 5 and 23.
STRATOTH
Enter “LN1.”
W e’ve now completed entering the contact information with line number 1. Since
we also interviewed line number 2, we’ll need to re-enter CHI to collect the
contact information for that respondent as well. Then you have to get back into
the same case to enter the information for the respondent who is line number 2.
_____________, please walk us through the CHI screens for the contact with line
number 2.
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CASE MANAGEMENT
Highlight 105 Beach Road and press F12.
CASE CONFIRMATION SCREEN
Click OK.
CTATEMPT
Enter 1.
TIMEOFCT
Enter 1.
PERORTEL
Enter 2.
CTSTATUS
Enter 1.
CTTYPE
Enter 2.
NONINTER
Enter 1.
RSPNDENT
Enter 22.
STRATEGS
Enter 5 and 23.
STRATOTH
Enter “LN2.”
Thank you. This concludes this practice exercise. To summarize, in this practice
interview we completed an incident report for a violent crime, which took us
through a lot of incident report items we don't often see because crime incidents,
especially violent ones, are so rare. W e talked more about active listening,
discussed the concepts of weapons and medical care, practiced unduplication of
incidents, and wrote a summary report. Are there any questions?
(Answer questions)
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NOTES
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Lesson 4 - The Contact History Instrument (CHI)
Lesson 4
The Contact History Instrument (CHI)
(Approximate time: 30 minutes)
The objectives of this lesson are to:
!
Review general CHI procedures; and
!
Review NCVS-specific CHI procedures.
During this lesson, we will discuss the uses of the Contact History Instrument
(CHI) data. W e will also discuss CHI procedures that are specific to the NCVS
and practice using the instrument.
In addition to completing interviews in the NCVS instrument, you should be
entering information into the CHI. The CHI was developed to capture details of
ALL contact attempts made for a household. Each time you ATTEMPT to make
contact or MAKE contact with a household you enter information into the CHI. By
taking just a few extra minutes and completing the questions asked in the CHI,
you are providing valuable information to your Regional Office (RO),
Headquarters, and the survey sponsor.
The ROs use reports that are generated from the CHI data to give you feedback
on your contact attempts and make suggestions for future contacts. Headquarters
staff and the survey sponsors analyze CHI data so they can determine reasons
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behind non-contact and refusal cases among our surveys, then formulate
strategies for dealing with these cases.
For example, after an FR has made six contact attempts for the same household
at different times of the day and on different days of the week, and the FR has
also spoken to the neighbors on more than one occasion and still has not been
able to get a response from a household, is it worth making a seventh attempt?
Maybe and maybe not. The CHI data can help us determine if there should be a
cutoff on the number of contact attempts made so that you can turn your attention
to other cases. W e can also determine from CHI data if there is a need to make
changes to the letters left at a respondent’s home, so that they are targeted to a
certain group of respondents who consistently refuse to participate.
There are a several benefits for you, the FR, in the CHI:
!
CHI is a tool you can use to help track and manage your caseload.
!
CHI provides a record of the best times to make contact so you can
use your time efficiently.
!
CHI shows the work that you put into each case since you record
every contact attempt.
!
For longitudinal surveys like the NCVS, you can see CHI records
from previous interview periods.
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NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 4 - The Contact History Instrument (CHI)
CHI records follow a case, so if a case is reassigned, the new FR
has a history of contact attempts and outcomes.
You have the ability to leave FR notes in a case, however, you must complete the
CHI entries as well. Your FR notes are very difficult to analyze since each FR
enters different information and you may not record a note for EVERY contact
attempt. CHI data is consistent and easy to read. The CHI standardizes contact
information for better tracking and more efficiently produces reports that can be
used by various reviewers.
If you work on any other surveys that use the CHI, especially if it’s a household
survey like the CPS, you know that the version of the CHI we are using was really
intended for surveys that interview households. It was not designed specifically
for use in surveys that interview individuals, like the NCVS. W e hope to have a
person-level CHI instrument soon. Until then we have to use a temporary workaround designed to use the household level CHI in the NCVS to track person
level contacts. W e’re going to go over using the CHI for household level contacts
first, then discuss and practice the NCVS work-around for using the CHI to track
contacts with individual household members, which we’ll discuss in a few
minutes.
Does anyone have any questions before we continue?
(Answer questions)
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Lesson 4 - The Contact History Instrument (CHI)
Today, we will practice using the instrument with a few interviewing scenarios.
There is a flowchart for CHI in your workbook. Open your workbook to page 4-1
and take a look at it now.
(Allow time)
This is the same flowchart that was sent out with your CHI self study, so it should
look familiar. Before we proceed does anyone have any questions anout the
flowchart or the household level, or regular, CHI?
(If any of the questions are regarding NCVS specific procedures, ask
the trainees to hold onto those questions until we get to those
procedures later in this chapter)
(Answer questions)
For the rest of this lesson you will use your laptop. Before continuing, make sure
your laptop is still on and you are at the Case Management Screen. The
scenarios that we are using, along with the answers, are in your workbook
starting on page 4-2. Follow along in your workbook as we go through the
practice scenarios.
Scenario #1 – Let’s get started with our first scenario on page 4-2 of your
workbook.
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Lesson 4 - The Contact History Instrument (CHI)
It’s 2:00 p.m. and you drive by a household that you have not been able to reach
to see if you can catch someone at home and get the interview. You pull up to
101 Railroad Drive. There are no cars in the driveway. You knock on the door,
but no one answers. After a few minutes, you leave an advance letter along with
a card that has your name and telephone numbers (for both your home and cell
phone) and return to your car. In your car, you enter the contact attempt
information into CHI.
Let’s make the entries in CHI for this attempt. For this example, the case is a time
in sample 1 case so we’ll assume we don’t have a household roster or any line
numbers yet.
(Although answers are listed in FR workbook, tell the trainees
what you are entering as you go through each screen.
When you get to the “Strategies” screen, read over the
categories once again with the trainees as you make your selections.)
CASE MANAGEMENT
Highlight 101 Railroad Drive and press F12.
CASE CONFIRMATION SCREEN
Click OK.
CTATEMPT
Enter 1.
TIMEOFCT
Enter 1.
PERORTEL
Enter 1.
CTSTATUS
Enter 3.
NCTPER
Enter 1.
STRATEGS
Enter 1, and 3.
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Lesson 4 - The Contact History Instrument (CHI)
After pressing OK at the Case Management dialog box, click on the “Contact
History” tab and review your entries. You will see that the entries you just made
are there. Does everyone see your entries?
(Allow time)
Also, click on the snowflake next to the “Strategies” column. You will see that
both strategies, leaving an advance letter and leaving an appointment card
appear in the contact strategy pop-up box.
Click Close.
Now we will continue with the second scenario, which also starts on page 4-2 of
your workbook. Again, we’ll assume that it’s a time in sample “1" case with no
roster and no line numbers yet.
Scenario #2 -- It’s 7:30 p.m. and you are heading home after completing the last
interview you had scheduled for the day. You decide to drive by 105 Beach Road
to see if anyone is home. You knock on the door and no one appears to be home.
There is a woman working in the yard next door, who tells you, “They aren’t
home, they went on vacation. Try back in a week.” You thank her and leave a
note on their door with your name and telephone numbers.
You go back to your car and your cell phone rings. It’s respondent Megan Moe
from 104 Ocean View Lane, which is a time in sample 3 household. The day
before, you left her a note requesting an appointment. She has participated in the
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Lesson 4 - The Contact History Instrument (CHI)
survey before, but now refuses to be interviewed because she is busy and
doesn’t have time to schedule an appointment. She doesn’t think she wants to
participate this time. Once you get home, you decide to make your entries in CHI
for both contact attempts.
Start with the first one, 105 Beach Road. Remember, since this is not an
immediate contact attempt, the instrument will ask for the date and time of the
attempt. The computer enters the date automatically, so if you are not entering
the information on the same day that you made the contact attempt, you must
change the date manually. For the purposes of this exercise, it is the same day,
so at that screen, press ENTER.
Let’s make the entries in the CHI now.
CASE MANAGEMENT
Highlight 105 Beach Road and press F12.
CASE CONFIRMATION SCREEN
Click OK.
CTATEMPT
Enter 1.
TIMEOFCT
Enter 2.
FR_DATE
Press Enter.
FR_TIME
Enter 730P.
PERORTEL
Enter 1.
CTSTATUS
Enter 2.
NCTPER
Enter 1, 9, and 10.
STRATEGS
Enter 3.
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Lesson 4 - The Contact History Instrument (CHI)
After pressing OK at the Case Management dialog box, click on the “Contact
History” tab and review your entries. You can see that the entries you just made
are there. Also, click on the snowflake next to the “Description” column. You can
see that all three entries you made are there. No one was home, you spoke with
a neighbor, and she told you that the household was on vacation. Click “close.”
Now let’s review the NCVS-specific CHI procedures. The next entry you need
to make is for the callback you received from the respondent at 104 Ocean View
Lane. Even though you didn’t initiate the attempt, we still want you to record it in
the CHI. The CHI isn’t really set up to record these types of instances, but we still
want to capture the data. Treat it as a contact attempt with the sample member.
In this example we’re going to use the NCVS special procedure where we enter
the respondent’s line number at the STRATOTH screen.
The special procedure is illustrated and described on Page 4-5 of your workbook.
Let’s take a moment to review that page now and make sure you understand it.
(Allow time)
Because the NCVS is a person-level survey rather than a household survey, you
must keep track of your contacts with each individual household member. In
order to do this, you must enter a line number at item STRATOTH where contact
with a sample unit member has been indicated (when response option ‘1’ is
selected at item CTSTATUS). The line number entered at STRATOTH helps in
the analysis of person level CHI data. Follow the steps outlined below:
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NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 4 - The Contact History Instrument (CHI)
W hen you've entered precode (1), “Contact with SAMPLE unit member” at
CTSTATUS, DO NOT select precode (22) at the STRATEGS screen.
Doing so will keep you from entering the line number of the person for
whom the CHI record is being collected, because STRATOTH will not
appear. (However, you can enter precode (23) in conjunction with precodes
(1)- (21)).
2.
Always select Precode (23) “Other” at the STRATEGS screen, which asks
about contact strategies, when you've entered precode (1) to CTSTATUS.
You then proceed to item STRATOTH, which asks about “other contact
strategies.”
3.
Enter the line number of the respondent for whom you are entering the CHI
data in the input field on the STRATOTH screen in the following manner:
type LN and the respondent’s line number, for example, LN7, in the “Otherspecify” field.
(Allow time)
If there is other information you would like to share at STRATOTH please
separate this information from the line number information using a semicolon. For
example, assume there is a legitimate “other contact” strategy that you need to
document for LN6. W hen answering CHI for LN6, record the line number and the
legitimate “other contact” strategy information in the “Other - specify” field on the
STRATOTH screen by typing “LN6; other legitimate contact strategy” there.
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Lesson 4 - The Contact History Instrument (CHI)
You must return to the case management screen and enter the CHI again for
each person whose CHI information you wish to update.
These procedures were instituted to fill a avoid created by only having a
household level version of the CHI available. Although we are developing a
person level CHI to use for the NCVS and other Census Bureau surveys where
more than one person is interviewed in a household, we still need to collect this
information for the NCVS interviews now. W e are revisiting the CHI procedures in
this refresher training as we’ve found that 87% of contacts made with a
household do not have the correct information entered into CHI in order to
capture the person level contact information. The following exercises are meant
to review and clarify the NCVS CHI procedures.
Let’s make our entries now, following the special procedure for NCVS that I just
went over.
CASE MANAGEMENT
Highlight 104 Ocean View Lane and press
F12.
CASE CONFIRMATION SCREEN
Click OK.
CTATEMPT
Enter 1.
TIMEOFCT
Enter 2.
FR_DATE
Press Enter.
FR_TIME
Enter 730P.
PERORTEL
Enter 2.
CTSTATUS
Enter 1.
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Lesson 4 - The Contact History Instrument (CHI)
CTTYPE
Enter 3.
NONINTER
Enter 2, and 3.
RSPNDENT
Enter 1, 2, 5, and 9.
STRATEGS
Enter 8, 9, and 23.
STRATOTH
Enter LN2.
After pressing OK at the Case Management dialog box, click on the “Contact
History” tab and review your entries. You can see the entries you just made are
there.
Let’s do one last scenario. Look at Scenario #3 on page 4-4 of your workbook.
For this scenario, we’ll have two successfully interviewed respondents, Jane Voe
and Andrew Voe. It’s 4:00 p.m. and you stop by 106 Robin Street, and both
household members are home. You complete both their interviews during the
visit, and make the entries in CHI after you complete each interview.
CASE MANAGEMENT
Highlight 106 Robin Street and press F12.
CASE CONFIRMATION SCREEN
Click OK.
CTATEMPT
Enter 1.
TIMEOFCT
Enter 2.
FR_DATE
Press Enter.
FR_TIME
Enter 400P.
PERORTEL
Enter 1.
CTSTATUS
Enter 1.
CTTYPE
Enter 1.
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Lesson 4 - The Contact History Instrument (CHI)
RSPNDENT
Enter 22.
STRATEGS
Enter 23.
STRATOTH
Enter LN1.
Then you have to get back into the same case to enter the information for the
respondent who is line number 2.
CASE MANAGEMENT
Highlight 106 Robin Street and press F12.
CASE CONFIRMATION SCREEN
Click OK.
CTATEMPT
Enter 1.
TIMEOFCT
Enter 2.
FR_DATE
Press Enter.
FR_TIME
Enter 400P.
PERORTEL
Enter 1.
CTSTATUS
Enter 1.
CTTYPE
Enter 1.
RSPNDENT
Enter 22.
STRATEGS
Enter 23.
STRATOTH
Enter LN2.
Once again, press OK at the Case Management dialog box, click on the “Contact
History” tab and review your entries. You can see the entries you just made are
there. Notice that the entries you just made for each respondent is listed
separately. Since they are listed separately we are able to review the contacts
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Lesson 4 - The Contact History Instrument (CHI)
made for each respondent. If we had entered both persons contacts in one CHI
record we would not be able to see who the contact information is for.
Here are seven key points to remember:
1.
You must make a CHI entry for EVERY contact attempt, whether it’s a
drive-by, or you speak with a neighbor, or you call a respondent and no
one answers.
2.
The CHI was originally created for surveys that require only a single
respondent, like the Current Population Survey (CPS). For surveys like the
NCVS that require interviews with multiple persons in a household, special
procedures have been developed to help overcome some of the limitations
of the CHI that are related to its structure. W e’ve just gone over those
special procedures; that is, entering Precode (23) along with the precodes
for any attempted contact strategies at Item STRATEGS to bring up Item
STRATOTH, and then entering the person’s line number at STRATOTH.
3.
There are TW O ways to initiate the CHI: It automatically launches after you
exit a case, or you can launch the CHI from Case Management using the
F12 function key.
4.
CHI records travel with a case. If you are taking over a case that was
previously assigned to another FR, you will have the CHI record of what
has happened with the case up until that point.
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NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 4 - The Contact History Instrument (CHI)
CHI is not just for Type A’s. W e want contact attempts for ALL outcomes
including Type A’s, B’s, and C’s, as well as completed interviews.
6.
Each CHI record is for ONE contact attempt. Do not record information on
all contact attempts in one CHI record. For example, if you are making a
CHI entry at the “STRATEGS” screen, do not record all strategies you have
ever made with that case. Only record the strategies you have attempted
for THAT contact attempt.
7.
Longitudinal/panel surveys like the NCVS have a Returning Contact History
Tab in Case Management. This displays the CHI records from the previous
interview period.
8.
For each person contacted, you must enter a separate CHI record.
(Allow time)
Are there any questions about anything we’ve covered on the NCVS Specific CHI
procedures?
(Answer questions)
That completes our lesson on the Contact History Instrument (CHI).
(Continue with next lesson)
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Lesson 5 - NCVS Concepts and Definitions
Lesson 5
NCVS Concepts and Definitions
(Approximate time: 1 hour and 15 minutes)
Objective:
!
Re-familiarize trainees with survey concepts and definitions.
(NOTE TO TRAINER: Included in this lesson are NCVS-550 CAPI
Interviewing Manual for Field Representatives page references in
case questions arise about any topic. Page references appear in
[brackets] in each section heading.)
Let’s review and discuss in more detail some survey concepts and definitions.
Understanding these concepts is critical for the collection of accurate data and for
the proper crime classification of reported incidents. The concepts I’ll discuss in
this lesson are ones that we’ve noted FRs sometimes have trouble understanding
and/or applying correctly. I’m going to go over them in the approximate order in
which they appear in the instrument. W e’ll discuss some miscellaneous topics at
the end of the lesson.
Race [B2-135 – B2-136]
Before we get into the concepts that are specific to collecting crime reports,
let’s talk about an important demographic concept. I’d like to talk specifically
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Lesson 5 - NCVS Concepts and Definitions
about the question where we collect each household members race. W hen we
use the term "race" on a Census Bureau survey, we are asking whether the
person is White, Black/African American, American Indian or Alaska Native,
Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. In the NCVS we ask for
demographic characteristics such as race to learn about crime among many
detailed population groups (for example, African Americans, Asians, etc.)
Race does not equal skin color.
W hen you ask the race question, you are not asking about the color of a person’s
skin. You are looking for the racial group or groups with which that person most
closely identifies, or the race or races that person considers him/herself to be. For
example, a person whose physical features are W hite could consider herself
Black because the only parent who raised her was Black. In this case, if the
person reports that she is Black, regardless of what her skin color or physical
features might be, you must record her as Black.
Race is the race or races that the person considers him/herself to be.
The Census Bureau uses five different racial categories to classify a person’s
race: these are “W hite,” “Black or African American,” “American Indian or Alaska
Native,” “Asian,” and “Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.” However, a
person may use one or more of these categories to identify his/her race.
In the example I just gave you, assume that the person considers herself to be
both Black and W hite, because she had one parent of each race and she
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Lesson 5 - NCVS Concepts and Definitions
identifies equally with both races. In this case, you must enter the precodes for
both Black and W hite. In this example, you would select both Precode (2) “Black
or African American” and Precode (1) “W hite.” Do not use Precode (6) “Other Specify” to type in “Black and W hite.” This question is designed to be able to
collect multiple race categories for each household member.
It is important to remember that “origin” does not have the same meaning as
“race” even though many respondents may use the two terms interchangeably.
Remember that "Spanish, Hispanic or Latino" relates to a person's ethnic
background or national origin, NOT to his/her race. Be careful when collecting
race for Hispanics because they often report their Hispanic ethnicity as part of
their race (for example, Mexican, Salvadoran, Puerto Rican, etc.) However, just
like people of other ethnic groups, Hispanics can be W hite, Black, or of some
other race or races. If the household respondent provides an ethnicity in place of
a race, ask the respondent to identify which racial group(s) each household
member identifies with based on the categories shown on the race flashcard in
the NCVS-554 Information Card Booklet. If you are conducting a telephone call,
read the five racial categories out loud to the respondent.
Do not mark the race item by observation or asking a neighbor. Since the Census
Bureau bases race on self-identification, you must ask this question for each
household member -- even when the answer seems obvious.
Are there any questions on the concept of race?
(Answer questions)
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Lesson 5 - NCVS Concepts and Definitions
Now we’ll focus on NCVS concepts, starting with which crimes are
measured by the NCVS. [C2-3 – C2-6] W e talked about this in the last lesson,
but now we will discuss them in greater detail. Look at pages 5-1 and 5-2 of your
workbook and read the information about the hierarchy of crimes and crime
definitions.
(Allow time)
Notice the small details in each different type of crime, for example, you’ll notice
on page 5-1 of your classroom workbook that under “Robbery” that there are six
different categories of robbery – completed with property taken, completed with
injury, completed without injury, and so on. Notice that many of the different
crimes listed are separated into different categories. One reason we ask you to
put specific concrete details in your incident summaries has a lot to do with these
classifications, and making sure we classify each incident of crime in the correct
category.
The NCVS collects information on crimes suffered by individuals and households,
whether or not those crimes were reported to law enforcement. These include
crimes of rape, sexual assault, aggravated and simple assault, household
burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft. The NCVS also measures identity theft,
but does not collect the same amount of detail on this as it does on other crimes.
As you know, the NCVS does not measure homicide, kidnapping, commercial
crimes, such as thefts of property belonging to a commercial business, some
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Lesson 5 - NCVS Concepts and Definitions
difficult-to-measure crimes such as fraud, or the so-called victimless crimes, such
as drunkenness, drug abuse, illegal gambling, con games, and prostitution.
Crimes measured by the NCVS can be classified into two general types: crimes
against persons and crimes against households. Crimes against persons, which
are referred to as personal crimes and include rape, personal robbery, assault,
purse snatching, and pocket picking, involve contact between the victim and
offender. All three of the measured crimes against households, which are referred
to as property crimes and include burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft, are
crimes that do not involve personal confrontation.
Threats [C2-7 – C2-9]
It is important to know that threats of rape, sexual assault, personal robbery, and
assault made against a respondent must be delivered verbally and face-to-face
between the offender and the respondent AND the threat must involve the
potential for physical harm to the respondent, to be counted by the survey. As
discussed in the Crime Incident Report lesson, you should include the content of
the threat in the SUMMARY.
Let's determine if the following examples are acceptable NCVS threats:
Q:
Nick sent a text message to John warning him to stop seeing his exgirlfriend or he would get John fired from his job. Is this an acceptable threat
for the NCVS, _____________?
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A:
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 5 - NCVS Concepts and Definitions
No, since the threat was not verbal, not face-to-face, and not to physically
harm to the respondent.
Q:
Amy was driving home at night when a car pulled up behind her. The driver
honked his horn, flashed his headlights, then passed her at a high rate of
speed. Amy noticed that the driver made an obscene gesture at her as he
passed. Amy said that she felt threatened. Is this an acceptable threat for
the NCVS, ____________?
A:
No, because the other driver did not verbally threaten to physically harm
Amy.
Q:
Eric was riding the train when a man approached him and told him to hand
over his wallet and wedding ring or he would shoot him. Is this an
acceptable threat for the NCVS, ____________?
A:
Yes, because the threat was delivered verbally and face-to-face and
involved the potential for physical harm to the respondent.
Let's try one more.
Q:
Sean’s neighbor Chris came over and warned Sean to stop parking in his
reserved space or he would smash his windshield the next time he was
parked there. Is this an acceptable threat for the NCVS, _____________?
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A:
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 5 - NCVS Concepts and Definitions
No, because the threat, although verbal and face-to-face, did not involve the
potential for physical harm to the respondent.
Thank you. Are there any questions about threats?
(Answer questions)
Burglary [C3-41]
The most serious crime against households is burglary, which is the illegal or
attempted entry of a structure. An example of burglary is if a person actually
breaks into a house, or if a person having no right to be there enters through an
unlocked door.
If the offender has no legal right to be in the house, the incident is classified as a
burglary. Examples of burglaries are: an offender with no legal right to be in the
house enters the sample household and takes respondents’ money or other
household items; an offender with no legal right to be there takes tools from a
respondent’s garden shed; or an offender with no legal right to be there takes
respondent’s belongings from a motel/hotel room where respondent is staying.
Theft [C3-41 – C3-43]
Theft, the most prevalent property crime, includes completed or attempted theft of
property or cash without personal contact. Incidents involving theft of property
from within the sample household are classified as theft if the offender has a legal
right to be in the house, such as a maid, delivery person, or guest. Examples of
theft are: theft of cash by a houseguest, theft of garden furniture or statuary from
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Lesson 5 - NCVS Concepts and Definitions
the yard, theft of a purse or backpack from a restaurant, or theft of a portable
radio from the park.
Recognizable and unrecognizable businesses [C3-43 – C3-44]
You must record all crimes to unrecognizable businesses, as these are
included in the NCVS data. Never accept an incident that involves a theft of items
belonging to a recognizable business. Note that most businesses are
recognizable.
Q:
W ho can tell me what a recognizable business is, ____________?
A:
A recognizable business is one that has a sign or some type of observable
and identifiable indicator outside the structure identifying it as a business.
(Or something similar.)
Q:
If a respondent cuts hair in her house and has a sign in her front
yard which reads: “Curl Up and Dye Hair Styling.” Is this a recognizable
or unrecognizable business, __________________?
A:
A recognizable business.
Q:
One of your respondents does web site design from a home office; there is
no sign outside his house advertising those services. He only advertises
his business in the local newspaper. Do you consider his business
recognizable or unrecognizable, ____________?
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A:
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 5 - NCVS Concepts and Definitions
Unrecognizable.
As mentioned earlier, all crimes to unrecognizable businesses, such as the theft
of business property, are included in the NCVS data. However, if a reported crime
involves a recognizable business, report only the personal items stolen or any
personal threats of physical harm or assaults that may occur to the respondent
during a theft from a recognizable business. Do not include any stolen items that
belong to the recognizable business.
Q:
A thief stole a hair dryer that belonged to a person’s recognizable hair
cutting business. Do you include the theft in the NCVS,
______________________?
A:
No, because the stolen item belonged to a recognizable business. (Or
something similar.)
Q:
A respondent uses a computer to design web sites in his unrecognizable
business and his business computer was stolen. Do you include the theft
when completing a crime incident report, __________________?
A:
Yes, because the stolen computer belonged to an unrecognizable
business. (Or something similar.)
Q:
If a shopkeeper’s purse was stolen during the robbery of her small
business, do you include the theft of the shopkeeper’s purse,
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NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 5 - NCVS Concepts and Definitions
Yes, because we want to include thefts of personal items, regardless of
whether the personal theft took place at a recognizable or unrecognizable
business. (Or something similar.)
Thank you. Are there any questions about recognizable and unrecognizable
businesses?
(Answer questions)
Location [B4-17 – B4-37]
Now we’ll turn our attention to several important items within the crime
incident report. The first is the location in which the incident occurred. Turn
to page B4-17 in your NCVS-550 Interviewer Manual to follow along during this
discussion.
This item is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT because if you identify the wrong place,
you will ask inappropriate questions and the incident may eventually classify into
the wrong type of crime category.
The type of place at which the incident took place falls into one of eight general
categories, which are displayed at the screen LOCATION_GENERAL. These
categories are – 1) Inside OWN home, 2) Near OWN home, 3) Inside or near
another’s home, 4) Commercial place, 5) Parking lot or garage, 6) School, 7)
Open area, on the street, or on public transportation, AND 8) Somewhere else.
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Lesson 5 - NCVS Concepts and Definitions
Each general location category is further subdivided into more specific locations.
For example, if you select INSIDE OW N HOME you must determine more
specifically where the incident took place. INSIDE OW N HOME covers enclosed
structures owned or rented by the respondent. An enclosed structure is one
which has a door or window through which to gain entry, such as the
respondent’s home, apartment, dormitory room, garage, shed, or an enclosed
porch, or a vacation home, second home, hotel or motel room in which the
respondent could have been staying at the time of the incident. This category
also includes enclosed structures that are on the respondent’s property but are
detached from the main structure, such as a detached garage or storage shed.
Select INSIDE OW N HOME only if the offender got inside or tried to get inside
the respondent’s home or lodging facilities. It does not matter whether the
offender entered by force, was let in, or gained entrance through an unlocked
door.
For incidents that happened on an unenclosed porch, patio, or carport of the
respondent’s home, select NEAR OW N HOME rather than INSIDE OW N HOME.
Although these areas are often attached to the home, they are not enclosed and
do not have a door or window through which an offender could enter. After
selecting NEAR OW N HOME you then select the appropriate subcategory of
where the incident occurred near the respondent’s home or lodging.
Here is an example:
!
If someone stole potted plants from a respondent’s unenclosed porch,
select NEAR OW N HOME. Then select the appropriate subcategory titled
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“Own yard, sidewalk, driveway, carport, unenclosed porch” indicating
where the incident occurred near the respondent’s home or lodging.
Select these same categories if an offender stole a respondent’s baseball bat and
glove from his carport.
Let’s try a few more examples. W hen answering these questions, please refer the
screen shot on page B4-17 of the manual.
Q:
If a respondent says that he was robbed in his motel room while at the
beach on vacation, which general location category do you select, INSIDE
OW N HOME or NEAR OW N HOME,
A:
?
INSIDE OW N HOME for the hotel or motel room in which respondent was
staying.
Q:
Another respondent says that she was mugged in her own home by a thief.
W hich general location category do you select, INSIDE OW N HOME or
NEAR OW N HOME,
A:
?
INSIDE OW N HOME
Now let’s go over the other general location categories. The third general
category is INSIDE OR NEAR ANOTHER’S HOME. This category includes
places where the incident may have happened that are at, in, or near the home
of a respondent’s friend, relative, or neighbor. Such places include: the dwelling
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or other building owned by a friend, relative, or neighbor; in a friend’s, relative’s,
or neighbor’s yard, driveway, carport, open porch; in the building where a
respondent’s friend, relative, or neighbor lives; or on the street immediately
adjacent to the property of the respondent’s friend, relative, or neighbor.
The fourth general location category is COMMERCIAL PLACE. This includes
places such as: inside a restaurant, bar, nightclub, bank, gas station, office,
factory or warehouse, and other commercial buildings such as a store. (Pause)
The next category is PARKING LOT OR GARAGE. This includes commercial and
noncommercial parking lots or garages as well as those provided to residents and
guests of apartments, townhouses, rooming houses, dormitories, condominiums,
and so forth. After selecting PARKING LOT OR GARAGE, probe to determine the
specific type of parking lot or garage. Commercial parking lots or garages are
those that are privately operated for profit AND require a parking fee regardless
of whether or not the parking lot or garage is attended or unattended. In contrast,
noncommercial parking lots or garages are those in which the general public can
park free of charge, such as a shopping mall. They also include a parking lot or
garage that has parking meters and those operated by a local, state, or Federal
government regardless of whether or not a fee is required. If it is unclear as to
which type of parking lot the respondent is referring, probe to find out if the
parking lot is privately owned and a fee is paid to park. Don’t ask the respondent
if it’s a commercial or noncommercial parking lot or garage, because the
respondent’s definition of such parking lots may differ from the survey’s definition.
Remember the word “commercial” is not referring to who uses the parking lot, for
example a convenience store, restaurant, or mall. Rather, the word commercial
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here is in regards to whether a company profits from fees charged to use that
parking lot.
Q:
W hat location do you select if a respondent reports that while out shopping
his car was stolen from a parking lot,
A:
?
Select the general location category, PARKING LOT OR GARAGE, ask
whether the respondent was parked in a privately operated lot that charges
a fee to park, and then mark the appropriate subcategory. (Or something
similar.)
W hen coding a situation, similar to above where a car was stolen or broken into,
we want the location of the car, not where the respondent was. W e often see
situations where the location was coded inside a restaurant or store because the
respondent was in one of those locations, but the car was parked in the street or
in a parking lot. In this situation, we want to capture the street or parking lot
location since that is where the car was parked.
If a respondent tells you that an incident happened at her school, select the sixth
general location category, SCHOOL. Then ask the follow up question to
determine if the incident took place inside or outside the school building, such as
on the school parking area, play area, or school bus.
The next category, OPEN AREA, ON THE STREET, OR ON PUBLIC
TRANSPORTATION covers a variety of places open to the general public where
the incident could take place. This category includes places such as: apartment
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yard, park, playground, on some type of public transportation, or in a bus depot,
train station, airport, or subway station. (Pause)
W hen the incident happened at or in a place that doesn’t fit any of the other
location categories, select the final general location category, OTHER. You must
describe the place such as hospital, library, church, on the beach, and so on.
Are there any questions about the concept of location?
(Answer questions)
Now let’s focus on incidents that happen inside the respondent’s home or
lodging. W hen a respondent tells you that the incident occurred in his/her home
or lodging, you will ask if the offender had a right to enter the building or dwelling
legally.
Q:
W ho would have a “right” to be in a dwelling,
?
A:
People who live there, friends or relatives of the household, salespersons,
maintenance workers, or other persons who have been given permission to
enter the home. (Or something similar. If a point listed above is not
covered, discuss it with the trainees.)
It’s possible that the offender was allowed inside the dwelling, but still did not
have a “right” to be there. Children may let a stranger into the home, while adults
would not. An offender may push his or her way in when the respondent answers
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the door, or an offender may have entered a dwelling by misrepresenting himself
or herself as a repair person, police officer, and so forth. These persons do not
have a right to be there.
If the offender didn’t have the right to be in the respondent’s home or other
structure on the respondent’s property, you’ll ask if the offender actually got in or
just tried to get inside the respondent’s house, apartment, room, garage, shed, or
enclosed porch. If the offender did NOT get inside or did NOT try to get inside
any of the places inside the respondent’s home or lodging, the category INSIDE
OW N HOME is an incorrect response. If the data is entered such that the
offender did not get in or try to get in, you’ll encounter an edit check that forces
you to change either the location or whether the offender got in or tried to get in.
Probe to find out which of the other general location categories more
appropriately applies and then back up in the instrument to correct the answer.
If the incident occurred in the respondent’s home then the offender had to either
get in or tried to get in. In the situation of an attempted break-in of the
respondent’s home or lodging, the location should be coding as inside the
respondent’s home even though they did not get in. This procedure is necessary
so we can capture the attempted break-in information.
If the offender got inside or tried to get inside any of the places inside the
respondent’s home or lodging, the instrument prompts you to ask if there was any
evidence that the offender got in by force or tried to get in by force. Visible
evidence is evidence that can be seen after the incident takes place, such as a
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broken lock, a broken window, or a door jimmied. It does not refer to an open,
undamaged door or an offender forcing a person to let him or her in.
Are there any questions?
(Answer questions)
Now we’ll discuss another VERY CRITICAL item on the Crime Incident
Report, which is PRESENCE. [C3-19 – C3-25]
Q:
Can you tell me what the definition of presence is for the NCVS,_____?
A:
A sample household member must be at the immediate scene of the crime
during the incident AND the household member must be in a place that
was reachable by the offender, so that the offender could have or did
attack, threaten to attack, or steal something directly from the household
member. (Or something similar. If a point listed above is not covered,
discuss it with the trainees.)
Thank you. As we discussed earlier, if you code that someone was not present
during the incident and they were present, important questions about attacks,
attempted attacks, and threats are skipped. This affects the classification of the
crime. On the other hand, if you mark someone as present during the incident
when they were not present, you will ask the respondent irrelevant questions. To
repeat: in order to consider a household member present during an incident,
there must be an opportunity for an offender to attack or threaten to attack the
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person or the possibility that an offender could take something directly from the
household member.
Also, remember that if the respondent says that someone personally threatened,
attacked, or tried to attack them, then they are considered present. Sometimes
it’s difficult to determine if the respondent was present since some respondents
may not know what is meant by “present” for the NCVS. If this happens, then you
need to probe. Some sample probing question include; “W ere you at the
immediate scene of the crime?,” “W ere you inside the house when the offender
broke into the basement?,” or “W ere you and the offender both in the yard when
the bike was stolen from the driveway?”
If you are still unsure after probing, consider the person present. This ensures
that we will not miss important details, such as whether or not the respondent
was attacked or threatened with physical harm.
Look at the illustration on page 5-3 of your classroom workbook, which shows the
check item that appears in HHMEMBERPRESENT, which asks “W ere you or any
other member of this household present when this incident occurred? When you
mark “No” or “Don’t know” in HHMEMBERPRESENT, the check item pops up to
remind you to make sure you marked presence correctly. W hen the check item
appears, take a moment to verify that you marked presence correctly. If you need
to change your answer to HHMEMBERPRESENT, click the “Close” or the “Goto”
button to return to the previous question to change the answer. If you do not need
to change your answer, click “Suppress.” Because presence is one of the most
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critical questions asked in the crime incident report, please make sure that it is
marked correctly so that the incident is portrayed correctly.
Are there any questions on this presence check item?
(Answer questions)
There are three other important things you must remember about presence.
!
First, the respondent does not have to be awake or conscious to be
considered present.
!
Second, the respondent does not have to be in the same room in the
house where the incident happened to be considered present.
!
Third, when a household member is in the house and the incident
takes place in an attached garage or an enclosed porch, the
household member is considered present during the incident.
However, if the garage or porch is not attached or enclosed, a
household member inside the house at the time of the incident is
considered not present.
Now let’s try a few examples.
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Q:
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 5 - NCVS Concepts and Definitions
The respondent looks out her kitchen window and sees several young men
running away from her detached garage. By the time she gets to the
garage, the men are gone. After looking around the garage, she discovers
that her husband’s expensive bicycle is missing. W as the respondent
present at the immediate scene of the crime,
A:
? And why or why not?
No. The detached garage was the immediate scene and she didn’t arrive
until after the crime was committed. (Or something similar. If a point
listed above is not covered, discuss it with the trainees.)
Q:
If another respondent is asleep in his house when someone breaks the
patio door and enters his family room, is he considered present,
? W hy or why not?
A:
Yes. The house is the immediate scene of the crime and the respondent
was in the house during the break in. (Or something similar. If a point
listed above is not covered, discuss it with the trainees.)
Q:
If a respondent has guests at her house and one of the guests steals a
necklace from her bedroom while the respondent is in the kitchen, is the
respondent present,
A:
? W hy or why not?
Yes. Anywhere inside the house is the immediate scene of the crime, even
though the respondent was in a different room. The respondent could have
been attacked or threatened with physical harm. Or something similar. If
a point listed above is not covered, discuss it with the trainees.)
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Q:
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 5 - NCVS Concepts and Definitions
If the offender enters or tries to enter a respondent’s attached garage and
the respondent is inside the home at that time, is the respondent present,
? W hy or why not?
A:
Yes, the offender could enter or try to enter the home through a door which
gives access between the garage and the house and this could allow the
offender to attack or threaten to physically harm the respondent. Or
something similar. If a point listed above is not covered, discuss it
with the trainees.)
Are there any questions about presence during an incident?
(Answer questions)
Turn to page 5-4 in your workbook; we’ll do the exercise on presence.
For each scenario, mark in your workbook whether the respondent is present or
not present during the crime incident.
(Allow time)
Let’s discuss the first one, “Mary is napping in her house while offenders steal
license plates from her car, which is parked on the street in front of the house.
Q:
Is Mary present or not present, _____, and why or why not?
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A:
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 5 - NCVS Concepts and Definitions
Mary is not present; she was not at the immediate scene of the crime and
she was unreachable by the offenders because she was inside. The fact
that she was sleeping makes no difference at all. (Or something similar. If
a point listed above is not covered, discuss it with the trainees.)
Thank you, that’s correct.
Let’s look at the next one, “Jean falls asleep at the beach. Her cell phone is lying
on the towel next to her when an offender comes by, grabs the phone, and runs
off with it.”
Q:
Is she present or not present and why, _____?
A:
She is present, because she was at the immediate scene of the crime and
reachable by the offender. Once again, the fact that she was asleep makes
no difference. As we mentioned before, the person being asleep makes no
difference in whether or not they were present. Or something similar. If a
point listed above is not covered, discuss it with the trainees.)
Thank you. Let’s discuss the third example, “Dan goes to a restaurant and leaves
his briefcase at the coat check. W hen he goes back to retrieve it, he discovers
that it has been stolen.”
Q:
Is he present or not present and why, _____?
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A:
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 5 - NCVS Concepts and Definitions
He is not present. He was not at the immediate scene of the crime, which is
the coat room, and he was unreachable by the offender. (Or something
similar. If a point listed above is not covered, discuss it with the
trainees.)
Look at the fourth example, “Janet’s ex-boyfriend is waiting for her outside her
house when she comes home from work. They get into an argument, which ends
with him putting his hands around her neck and choking her. He then gets in his
car and drives off.”
Q:
W as Janet present or not present, and why?
A:
She was present, because she was at the immediate scene of the crime,
and was reachable by the offender, and in fact was attacked by the
offender. (Or something similar. If a point listed above is not covered,
discuss it with the trainees.)
Thank you. This might seem like an obvious example to you, but you’d be
surprised how often we see crime reports in which a respondent was attacked
and clearly present during a crime incident, but has been marked as “not
present.” This is the kind of thing we have to avoid. Even a small number of
incidents where presence is marked incorrectly can skew the data and make it
inaccurate. If a respondent has been attacked during an incident, then by
definition, they must be present.
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Now let’s do the fifth example, “Karen goes to a friend’s dorm room. W hile she is
there, he sexually assaults her.”
Q:
W as Karen present or not present?
A:
Present, because she was at the immediate scene of the crime, and was
reachable by the offender, and in fact was attacked by the offender. (Or
something similar. If a point listed above is not covered, discuss it
with the trainees.)
Again, this may seem like an obvious example, but we have seen incident reports
for rapes and sexual assaults where the respondent is marked as “not present.”
As I just said, if a respondent has been attacked during an incident, then by
definition, they must be present.
Let’s discuss the sixth example, “Jim watches out the kitchen window as
offenders break into his detached backyard shed and steal some tools.”
Q:
Is he present or not present and why, _____?
A:
Not present. He is not at the immediate scene of the crime. The shed is not
attached to the house, so he is not considered to be reachable by the
offenders. (Or something similar. If a point listed above is not covered,
discuss it with the trainees.)
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Let’s look at the last one, “Dave is in the kitchen of his house while offenders
steal firewood from a breezeway that is attached to the house.”
Q:
Is he present or not present and why, _____?
A:
He is present; because the breezeway is attached to the house he is
considered to be at the immediate scene of the crime and reachable by the
offender. (Or something similar. If a point listed above is not covered,
discuss it with the trainees.)
Are there any further questions about the concept of presence?
(Allow time)
Now I’m going to briefly discuss a couple of miscellaneous topics that we’ve
noticed have caused confusion in the past.
Series of Crimes [C3-4 – C3-8]
Sometimes respondents are unable to describe separately the details of each
reported incident when they are similar. Six or more similar but separate events,
which all occurred in the same reference period, and which the respondent is
unable to describe separately in detail to you, are called a series of crimes.
W henever possible, attempt to complete a separate incident report for each
reported incident. Classifying six or more similar incidents as a “series” should
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only be done as a last resort, since the NCVS will be losing detailed information
for all but the most recent incident.
Q:
In SQTHEFT, Nicole reported that money was stolen from her desk at work
on five different occasions. All incidents occurred during her 6-month
reference period. Nicole never found out who stole the money and each
time the circumstances were so similar that she cannot differentiate one
incident from the other. Do these incidents qualify as a series of crimes,
and why or why not, __________?
A:
No, because although all the incidents were reported in the same screen
question, all occurred during the 6-month reference period, and the
respondent cannot recall enough details to report each incident separately,
the respondent reported less than six similar incidents. In this instance, you
must fill five incident reports and provide as much detail for each incident
that the respondent can remember. (Or something similar. If a point
listed above is not covered, discuss it with the trainees.)
W hen a respondent reports more than six similar incidents you should only code
them as a series as a last resort. W hen a group of crimes are coded as a series
we are losing valuable about all of the incidents other than the most recent one.
In addition, series of incidents are handled differently in the data, so this
classification will ultimately effect the crime rates.
Are there any questions about when to classify incidents into a series of crimes?
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Lesson 5 - NCVS Concepts and Definitions
(Answer questions)
Weapons [C3-26 – C3-33]
Let’s talk about weapons now. In the last lesson we said that in the summary
report, if there was a weapon other than any type of gun, rifle, shotgun, or knife
involved in the incident, you must tell exactly what the weapon was and how the
weapon was used.
Keep in mind that thrown objects are only considered weapons if they hit and
seriously injure the respondent and BB guns are only considered weapons if they
are used as a club.
The following objects are never considered weapons:
W
Animals
W
Pellet guns
W
Chloroform
W
Food
W
Mace
W
Parts of the body
W
Small empty cans, such as food or beverage cans
W
Tear gas and tear gas guns
W
W ater balloons
Now let’s discuss the situations in which a car would be considered a weapon. A
motor vehicle can be considered a weapon if :
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The respondent knows the offender and the offender deliberately used a
motor vehicle to try to run into the respondent's vehicle or a vehicle in
which the respondent is riding, or the respondent believes that the offender
deliberately struck or tried to hit him/her with a motor vehicle while the
respondent was on foot, a bicycle, in a motor vehicle, and so forth. The
respondent's belief could be based on words spoken by the offender or
facts known about the offender.
However, the offender's vehicle is NOT a weapon if the respondent does not
know the offender and there was NO verbal threat of physical harm to the
respondent when:
The offender cut in front of a vehicle driven by the respondent or in which
the respondent was a passenger, or the offender and the respondent were
involved in some type of traffic accident or incidence of road rage.
Are there any questions about weapons?
(Answer questions)
This is a good point in the training to discuss the Editing and Coding
process in more detail. As I mentioned back in Lesson 1, the NCVS data
collected by you and Field Representatives around the country goes through a
review process after the monthly interviewing has been completed. The data from
all 12 ROs are combined and a database containing all cases that have at least
one incident report is created. That database is then sent to the Census Bureau’s
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National Processing Center (NPC) in Jeffersonville, Indiana to be reviewed and
edited to verify the data are consistent and meet NCVS standards. Many of the
topics in your monthly memorandums are based on the results of this operation.
Staff in the NPC review incident reports to ensure data quality, by reviewing such
items as the “Other-Specify” write-in entries to determine whether the write-in
entry can be recoded to one of the precoded categories. For example, if the
location of the incident was classified as “Other” and the write-in entry is “inside
the restaurant the respondent works at”, this will be reclassified to the precoded
category “Inside restaurant, bar, nightclub.” The NPC staff also compare the
Crime Incident Report data to the data entered at the SUMMARY screen, the
description of the incident in the screener question, and any relevant Case Level
Notes. The NPC staff edits the data to make the incident reports consistent with
other information. For some cases, the NPC staff are unable to resolve the
inconsistencies and refer those incidents to reviewers in Headquarters for
resolution.
So how big of an operation are we talking about? The database that is created
with all cases that have at least one incident contains on average about 1,000
cases. Keep in mind that a case can have multiple incidents, so the number of
incidents reviewed is even larger. About 30 percent of the all of the incidents
collected require no editing. For the other 70 percent of the incident reports, the
edits range from minor updates such as recoding an “Other - Specify” entry to
major modifications that change how the incident classifies. One example of
incidents requiring major edits is where a respondent was attacked and had to go
to the emergency room for the injuries they suffered. However, during the data
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collection stage the respondent was marked as ‘Not Present’, which means the
field representative skipped over all of the attack, injury, and offender
characteristics questions. If the summary or other notes are vague or incomplete,
the NPC and Headquarters staffs may not be able to recode the incident to match
what actually happened. For instance, the attack, if coded correctly in production
would have classified as an aggravated assault, but with the miscoded incident in
conjunction with a lack of detail in the incident summary, we may only be able to
code the incident to simple assault without injury.
Approximately 25 percent of the 300 cases referred to Headquarters staff are due
to issues with duplicate incidents. Another 15 percent contain issues with
presence, while problems with location and theft make up another 10 percent
each.
Only 12 percent of the incidents coded as duplicates in production are actually
duplicate incident reports. That works out to about 9 incidents a month correctly
coded as duplicate reports and 66 incidents miscoded as duplicates. As
mentioned earlier, when you code an incident as a duplicate, you are saying that
the incident report should be deleted. If we did not review incidents after data
collection we would be deleting about 66 valid incidents each month.
W e’ve mention on several occasions how important it is to code presence
correctly. 47 percent of the incidents where presence is recoded are situations
where coding the respondent as present should have been apparent. The
example of the miscoded assault that we just discussed is an example of this.
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Another often miscoded concept is theft. Many of these situations are where a
bicycle, car, or cash was reported as being stolen but Item THEFT was marked
“No.” In many cases, these incidents wouldn’t even classify as a crime based on
the data entered during the interview. Based on the incidents referred from the
NPC to Headquarters for issues with theft or attempted theft, we find that 83%
were recoded to theft. That accounts for about 40 incidents a month.
Forty incidents a month may not seem like a lot when discussing incidents on a
national level. However, we need to keep in mind that each household
interviewed represents about 3,500 households. This means those forty incidents
when applied to the national population, really equate to hundreds, if not
thousands, of incidents that would have been missed if we had not recoded them
during the Editing and Coding operation. Imagine the drop in the crime rate if we
were not including thousands of reported crimes.
The inconsistencies encountered during the Editing and Coding process have
been part of the focus of this lesson and the refresher training as a whole. In
addition, providing the big picture of the NCVS shows how your job in collecting
the data is an important first step in informing the nation about crime and its
impact on the country. The Editing and Coding process is a tool for ensuring the
best quality data are provided to the BJS and data users and should not be relied
upon to produce consistent and quality data. The Census Bureau cannot expect
to improve and maintain data quality without providing you the needed resources
to do your job. One such resource is providing feedback on what is being done
correctly as well as incorrectly, which we’ll discuss in a couple of lesson from
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now. This refresher training and the implementation of more regular refresher
training is another resource.
Are there any questions?
(Answer questions)
(Move to next lesson)
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Lesson 6 - Review of Knowledge Test
Lesson 6
Review of Knowledge Test
(Approximate time: 60 minutes)
The objective of this lesson is to:
!
Review and discuss the correct answers to the pre-classroom
knowledge test.
(Note to the trainer: the following pages contain the questions and
answers to the pre-classroom knowledge test. First read the question,
then read the correct answer followed by the rationale for the answer,
which is displayed in the grey boxes. If questions arise, page number
references in the NCVS-550 are provided for each item on the test.)
Let’s discuss the knowledge test you took before you came to training. This test
was given to measure the your current survey knowledge. It will also be used to
assist in developing future training materials. W e’ll go over the questions and the
correct answers. Please be sure to ask any questions as we go along. A version
of the test with the correct answers, explanations, and NCVS-550 FR Manual
page references starts on Page 6-1 of your workbook. Please open your
workbook to that page now so you can follow along.
(Allow time)
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Lesson 6 - Review of Knowledge Test
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training 2011
Pretest Answer Key - Annotated
Section A.
1.
Household Contact and Roster
W hich of the following is the best answer to a respondent’s question, “W hy was I selected for this
survey?” (Mark only one)
G 1.
The econom ic status of this household m eets the requirem ents for the survey.
G 2.
A com puter scientifically selects people at random to be in the sam ple.
: 3.
Your address was selected to be in the sam ple, not you individually.
G 4.
The office supervisor selects the addresses that are in the sam ple.
We selected your address, not you personally. Using statistical methods, we select a
sample of addresses across the country to represent the entire population.
(NCVS-550, Page A2-30)
2.
True or False: W hen trying to gain cooperation with a respondent, it is appropriate to tell them that
the NCVS asks questions about crim e and that their interview won’t take m ore than 5-10 m inutes.
(Mark only one)
True
G
False
:
When respondents ask how long the interview will take, give them an honest answer as
to its length. The NCVS interview takes, on average, about 25 minutes to complete for
each household member, but this can vary depending on each person’s experiences
during the reference period. (NCVS-550, Page A2-22)
3.
True or False: W hen conducting a telephone interview, you m ust verify the sam ple address to
confirm that the person you are speaking to still lives at the sam ple address. (Mark only one)
True
False
:
G
One of the most important purposes of the VERADD_CP screen is to verify that you
have reached the correct sample address and make sure the household did not move
to a different address while keeping the same phone number. (NCVS-550, Page A3-11)
4.
For which of the following scenarios is a personal visit required? (Mark “Yes” or “No” for each item)
Yes
No
a.
:
G
The address is in sam ple for the first tim e.
b.
G
:
A sam ple address is in its fifth interview period, but it is the first tim e the case has
been assigned to you.
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Lesson 6 - Review of Knowledge Test
Yes
No
c.
G
:
A sam ple address is in its third interview period, but it is the first tim e respondents will
be asked the new supplem ent questions.
d.
:
G
A sam ple address is in its second interview period, and a new fam ily has m oved into
the house.
For the first enumeration period, a sample household is always scheduled
for a personal visit interview. Other qualifications that must exist before you can conduct
the NVCS interview in person include: the sample household has not been interviewed
in any previous enumeration period, or the sample household does not have a
telephone, or the sample household does not want to be interviewed over the
telephone, or the sample household has a privacy detector that requires the caller to
enter a personal identification number. (NCVS-550, Page A5-3)
5.
Generally, what is the m inim um age for an eligible NCVS household respondent? (Mark only one)
G 1.
12
G 2.
14
G 3.
16
: 4.
18
In most cases the household respondent must be a household member, at least 18
years of age, and knowledgeable about the household. (NCVS-550, Page C1-15)
(Exceptions to this rule are in the NCVS-550, Pages A2-11, C1-16 and C1-17)
6.
W hich of the following criteria are used to determ ine if a person on the household roster is a
m em ber of the sam ple household? (Mark “Yes” or “No” for each item)
Yes
No
a.
G
:
How long the person has been living at the sam ple address
b.
:
G
W hether the person has a usual place of residence elsewhere at the tim e of the
interview
c.
G
:
W hether the person had a usual place of residence elsewhere at any tim e in the six
m onths before the interview
:
W hether the person is related to the household respondent
d.
G
For a person to be considered a member of a sample household, he/she must be:
using the sample address as his/her usual place of residence at the time of the current
interview, OR staying temporarily at the sample address at the time of the current
interview and DOES NOT have a usual place of residence elsewhere. (NCVS-550,
Page C1-5)
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NCVS-531 (8/2011)
7.
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 6 - Review of Knowledge Test
W hat is the m inim um age for a household m ember to be eligible for an NCVS interview? (Mark
only one)
: 1.
12
G 2.
14
G 3.
16
G 4.
18
Any household member of the sample address who is 12 years of age or older and
lives in the United States is eligible for the NCVS. (NCVS-550, Page A1-8)
8.
W hich of the following criteria are used to determ ine if a person qualifies as a household
respondent? (Mark “Yes” or “No” for each item)
Yes
No
a.
:
G
Age of the person
b.
:
G
Household m em bership of the person
c.
G
:
Education level of the person
d.
:
G
W hether the person is knowledgeable about the people living in the household
e.
G
:
W hether the person has been living at the address for the entire reference period
A household respondent is the household member that is selected to be the first
household member interviewed and is almost always a self-response interview. The
household respondent must be able to provide information for all persons in the sample
household, as well as for himself/herself. (NCVS-550, Page C1-15)
9.
W hich of the following are correct procedures if you attem pt a personal visit and find that the
respondents from the prior interview have m oved out and that the unit is currently vacant? (Mark
“Correct” or “Incorrect” for each item)
Correct Incorrect
a.
G
:
Attem pt to contact the previous household m em bers to conduct the interview
b.
G
:
Code the current case as Type B - Usual Residence Elsewhere
c.
G
:
Create a replacem ent household and code the new case as a Type B – Vacant
d.
:
G
Code the current case as a Type B – Vacant
A household is classified as a “Type B, vacant” when the unit is vacant and the
occupants have permanently left the unit and no new household has moved in.
(NCVS-550, Page A6-19)
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NCVS-531 (8/2011)
10.
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 6 - Review of Knowledge Test
During a m onth-in-sam ple 4 interview, you contact a household that has refused to be interviewed in
previous interview periods. They tell you that they distrust the governm ent and that they still refuse
to cooperate. How do you code the case? (Mark only one)
: 1. Type A
G 2. Type B
G 3. Type C
Code refusal households as Type A. (NCVS-550, Pages A6-14 and A6-15)
11.
You contact a sam ple address that had ten household m em bers in the last interview period, m ostly
between the ages of 12 and 18. This interview period there are two new people living at the sam ple
address. These new m em bers are ages 11 and 14, began living at the sam ple address within the
last week, and have no other residence. W hich of the following is the correct procedure? (Mark only
one)
G 1. Add the 14 year old to the roster but not the 11 year old since the 11 year old is not eligible for
the NCVS.
: 2.
Add both the 11 and 14 year old to the roster since they both are living or staying at the
sam ple address at the tim e of interview.
G 3. Add neither to the roster since they have not been living at the sam ple address for the past 6
m onths.
For a person to be considered a member of a sample household, he/she must be:
using the sample address as his/her usual place of residence at the time of the current
interview, OR staying temporarily at the sample address at the time of the current
interview and DOES NOT have a usual place of residence elsewhere. (NCVS-550,
Page C1-5)
12.
For which of the following scenarios do you record a replacem ent household? (Mark “Yes” or “No”
for each item)
Yes
No
a.
G
:
The sam ple address has been condem ned due to flooding.
b.
G
:
Three of the four household m em bers m oved since the last interview period.
c.
G
:
d.
:
G
You discover, during a telephone contact attem pt, that the household has m oved
from the sam ple address.
A personal visit confirm s that a com pletely new household has m oved into the
sam ple address since the last interview.
A replacement household happens when there are no members of the original
household living at the address and you have verified that new respondents have
moved into the sample address. (NCVS-550, Page A3-13 and Page B2-17)
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NCVS-531 (8/2011)
13.
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 6 - Review of Knowledge Test
For which of the following scenarios are you allowed to accept a proxy interview? (Mark “Yes” or
“No” for each item)
Yes
No
a.
G
:
b.
:
G
A m other refuses to allow you to interview her 13 year old daughter, but says that she
will answer for the daughter.
c.
:
G
A household m em ber is away on business until after the interview period. His 20 year
old son has already been interviewed and agrees to be a proxy respondent for his
father.
d.
G
:
An 18 year old household m em ber is perm anently physically incapacitated and unable
to be interviewed. His care-taker agrees to conduct the interview while the m other is
at work.
e.
G
:
A fam ily is on vacation until after the interview period, but their in-laws who live next
door are very knowledgeable about the fam ily and agree to conduct the interview.
You have interviewed all of the household m em bers, except the teenaged son who
seem s to always be working or at school when you call. His sister volunteers to
conduct a proxy interview for him .
Acceptable reasons for proxy interviews are: 1) A parent will not allow you to speak to
his/her 12 or 13 year old child to conduct the interview; 2) An eligible household
member is temporarily absent during the entire interview period, or 3) An eligible
household member is physically or mentally incapacitated during the entire interview
period. (NCVS-550, Page C1-19 and C1-20) A proxy respondent should be a
household member who is at least 18 years old, very knowledgeable about the
proxy person, and has already completed his/her own interview by self-response.
(NCVS-550, Page C1-22) (Exceptions found in NCVS-550, Page C1-22, C1-23.)
Section B.
14.
NCVS Screening Questions
W hich of the following are correct procedures for dealing with a respondent who is becom ing
annoyed and im patient with the screening questions (Mark “Correct” or “Incorrect” for each item)
Correct Incorrect
a.
G
:
If the respondent says he is absolutely sure that he has not been a victim of crim e in
the last 6 m onths, enter 'No' responses to all the rem aining NCVS screening
questions to m ove on with the interview.
b.
G
:
To speed up the interview and avoid a refusal, only ask the core question, that is, only
ask “W as something belonging to you stolen?“ or “W ere you attacked or threatened?”
but do not read the rest of the question, which gives exam ples of the kinds of
incidents that m ay have happened.
c.
:
G
Explain that you are required to ask each question as worded, and proceed to do so.
d.
:
G
If you are unable to ask all of the screening questions exactly as worded, code the
respondent as a noninterview.
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Lesson 6 - Review of Knowledge Test
Even if you are interrupted, read each and every subcategory in its entirety. Explain to
the respondent that NCVS procedure is to read all of the categories in order to jog the
respondent’s memory and to ensure consistent application of the screener questions
across all interviews. (NCVS-550, Page A2-35, A2-36, A2-46)
15.
W hich of the following are correct statem ents about the NCVS screening questions? (Mark “Correct”
or “Incorrect” for each item)
Correct
Incorrect
a.
:
G
The screening questions are designed to give the respondent concrete exam ples of
the kinds of crim es included in the NCVS.
b.
G
:
Reading the screening questions with only slight wording changes will not adversely
affect the quality of the data because slight wording changes will not affect which
crim es a respondent reports.
c.
:
G
Screening questions help to prom pt recall of all NCVS incidents that occurred during
the respondent’s six-m onth reference period.
The screening questions are designed to give respondents concrete examples of the
types of crimes included in the NCVS, and they help to prompt recall of all NCVS
incidents that occurred during the six-month reference period. Wording changes, even
slight ones, can affect which crimes a respondent reports, therefore negatively affecting
data quality. (NCVS-550, Pages B3-9 through B3-12)
16.
W hich of the following item s indicate that an incident was reported in a prior screen question? For
exam ple, if a theft was reported in the screening question SQTHEFT, what is different about the
questions asked in the rem aining screening questions? (Mark “Yes” or “No” for each item)
Yes
No
a.
G
:
The interview instruction “If unsure ask” is displayed along with the question text.
b.
G
:
There is no difference; the question is the sam e whether or not a crim e has been
previously reported.
c.
:
G
The phrase “other than any incidents already m entioned” is included in the question
text.
For remaining screen questions, the phrase “other than any incidents already
mentioned” is automatically displayed when at least one incident was reported in a
previous screen question by the current respondent. This lets the respondent know that
they do not need to report it again and helps us to avoid recording duplicate incident
reports for the same incident. (NCVS-550, Page B3-13)
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17.
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 6 - Review of Knowledge Test
If the respondent reports their car was stolen when being asked the question in Item
SQATTACKW HERE, in which screening question do you record the incident? (Mark only one)
G 1. SQTHEFT
Asks if som ething belonging to the respondent was stolen.
G 2. SQMVTHEFT
Asks if a vehicle was stolen, used without perm ission, or was there a
theft or attem pted theft of parts of a m otor vehicle.
: 3. SQATTACKW HERE
Asks if the respondent was attacked, threatened, or had som ething
stolen from them )
Record incidents as a respondent reports them, regardless of whether the screening
question relates to the type of incident reported. (NCVS-550, Page B3-10)
Section C.
18.
NCVS Incident Report
At item LOCATION_GENERAL, which response would you record for the following scenario: An
offender gets into or attem pts to get into an enclosed structure on the sam e property as the
respondent’s hom e. Did this incident happen... (Mark only one).
:1
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
...In your hom e or lodging?
...Near your hom e or lodging?
...At, in, or near a friend’s/relative’s/neighbor’s hom e?
...At a com m ercial place?
...In a parking lot or garage?
...At school?
...In open areas, on the street, or on public transportation?
...Som ewhere else?
Enclosed structures that are on the respondent’s property but are detached from the
main structure are considered to be at the respondent’s home for the NCVS. (NCVS550, B4-19 and B4-20)
19.
W hich of the following are correct statem ents related to the INCIDENTDATE item ? (Mark “Correct”
or “Incorrect” for each item
Correct Incorrect
a.
:
G
W hen you report in item INCIDENTDATE that an incident occurred outside of the
current reference period, a check item appears to confirm that the incident occurred
outside the reference period.
b.
G
:
If you are filling out an incident report and the respondent rem em bers that the incident
occurred seven m onths ago, you should continue to collect the crim e incident report
and indicate that the incident occurred outside the six m onth reference period in the
incident sum m ary.
c.
:
G
If the date of an incident is outside of the reference period, no incident report is
collected.
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Lesson 6 - Review of Knowledge Test
Correct Incorrect
d.
:
G
If you are filling out an incident report and the respondent realizes that the incident
was outside the reference period, you should back up to INCIDENTDATE and change
the entry to reflect the correct incident date.
(NCVS-550, Pages B4-5 and B4-6)
20.
For the following scenarios, indicate whether the respondent was present or not present while the
crim e took place: (Mark “Present” or “Not Present” for each item)
Present Not present
a.
G
:
Respondent is sleeping in her apartm ent while an offender steals tires from her
vehicle, which is in the parking lot outside her front window.
Respondent is not present; she is indoors while the incident takes place outdoors;
therefore not at the immediate scene of the crime. The fact that she is asleep makes no
difference.
b.
G
:
Respondent goes to a concert and hangs her coat on a rack in the lobby of the
concert hall. W hen the concert ends, she discovers that som eone has stolen her
coat.
Respondent is not present because concert hall is a public area; she is not at the
immediate scene of the crime.
c.
G
:
Respondent is inside his residence when he sees a truck pull up. A m an gets out
and rem oves lawn furniture from the yard, putting it into the back of the truck.
If the respondent watched the offender from inside the house, then the respondent was
not present during the incident because they were not at the immediate scene of the
crime. (NCVS-550, Page C3-23)
d.
:
G
Respondent has a cleaning crew in the house; he stays in his den working while
the crew cleans all the other room s. After they leave, he discovers that $200 he
usually keeps in the cookie jar in the kitchen has been stolen.
Respondent is present because he is at the immediate scene of the crime, even though
he was in another room.
e.
:
G
Respondent is out for the evening and com es hom e to find a burglar in his house.
As the respondent com es in the front door, the offender leaves through the back
door.
Respondent is present because he is at the immediate scene of the crime; both the
offender and the victim were in the house at the same time.
f.
:
G
Respondent is inside her residence; offender tries to break through the door on
the attached garage.
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Lesson 6 - Review of Knowledge Test
Respondent is present because garage is attached; therefore considered to be at the
immediate scene of the crime.
Present Not present
g.
G
:
Respondent is inside his residence while offender is trying to break into detached
garage.
Respondent is not present because garage is detached, therefore not considered to be
at the immediate scene of the crime.
h.
G
:
Respondent is inside his residence while offender is trying to steal the
respondent’s car, which is parked in the driveway of the residence.
Respondent is not present; he is indoors while the incident takes place outdoors.
i
:
G
During a party at the respondent’s hom e, the respondent is in his fam ily room
while a party guest steals m oney from the bedroom dresser.
Respondent is present because respondent was at the immediate scene of the crime
(that is, inside the same structure).
j.
G
:
The respondent looks out her kitchen window and sees som eone steal her son’s
bicycle from the backyard.
Respondent is not present; she is indoors while the incident takes place outdoors and
therefore not at the immediate scene of the crime. The fact that she can look out the
window and witness the incident makes no difference.
k.
:
G
The respondent was taking a nap in an upstairs bedroom when som eone stole
the lawnm ower from the attached garage.
Respondent is present because respondent was at the immediate scene of the crime
(that is, inside the same structure). Respondent’s being asleep makes no difference.
l.
:
G
The respondent looks out his living room window and sees a stranger steal a
package from his m ailbox. The respondent goes outside and yells at the stranger
to stop, but the offender flees.
If the respondent went outside during the incident and the offender flees because the
respondent attempted to intervene, then the respondent was present during the
incident. Victim and offender were both at the immediate scene of the crime before the
offender fled. (NCVS-550, Page C3-22)
In general, a respondent is “present” during an incident if they 1) were at the immediate
scene of the crime during the incident, and 2) was in a place that was reachable by the
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Lesson 6 - Review of Knowledge Test
offender, so that the offender could have or did attack, threaten to attack, or steal
something directly from the household member. (NCVS-550, Pages C3-19 through C325)
21.
W hich of the following are correct procedures when writing a sum m ary report for a crim e incident?
(Mark “Correct” or “Incorrect” for each item)
Correct Incorrect
a.
:
G
Sum m arize all pertinent facts involving the reported crim e incident.
b.
:
G
Add details that were not included in the incident report item s, if necessary, to
create a clear picture of the incident.
c.
G
:
Use respondent first nam es, if necessary, to avoid confusion.
d.
:
G
Use respondent line num bers to identify respondents in the sum m ary report.
e.
G
:
Include identifying inform ation about the household, such as address or
telephone num ber.
When writing summary reports, summarize all pertinent facts, add clarifying details that
were not included in the incident report items, and use only line numbers to identify
household members. Never use names, addresses, or telephone numbers in the
incident summary. (NCVS-550, Pages B4-282 through B4-288)
Section D. SERIES OF INCIDENTS
22.
True or False: Classifying six or m ore sim ilar incidents as a “series “ should be done only as a last
resort. (Mark only one)
True
False
:
G
Classifying six or more similar incidents as a “series” should be done only as a last
resort, since the NCVS will be losing detailed information for all but the most recent
incident. (NCVS-550, Page C3-4)
23.
W hich of the following are correct statem ents about com pleting one incident report for a series of
incidents? (Mark “Correct” or “Incorrect” for each item)
Correct Incorrect
a.
G
:
Any num ber of separate incidents can be reported as a series of incidents
b.
:
G
All incidents m ust occur during the respondent’s 6-m onth reference period
c.
:
G
All incidents m ust have been reported in the sam e screen item .
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Lesson 6 - Review of Knowledge Test
Correct Incorrect
d.
G
:
The incidents do not have to be sim ilar in nature
e.
:
G
Com plete one incident report for a series of incidents if the respondent cannot
provide enough detail to com plete an incident report for each incident
A series of crimes consists of six or more separate incidents that all occurred during the
six-month reference period, were all reported in the same screener question, are all
similar in nature, and cannot be described separately in enough detail so that you can
complete most items in the incident report section of the instrument. (NCVS-550, Page
C3-4)
Section E. UNDUPLICATION OF INCIDENTS
24.
The following incidents occurred within the reference period. W hich of the incidents are
considered duplicate incidents? (Mark “Yes” or “No” for each item)
Yes No
a.
G
:
Two bikes were stolen from the household respondent during the reference period. One
bike was stolen in May and one bike was stolen in August. Are these duplicate incidents?
These are not duplicate incidents because they happened at two different times.
Although similar in that the same item was stolen, this is not the same incident, so they
are not duplicates. Fill one incident report for each incident. (NCVS-550, Pages C1-26
through C1-28)
b.
:
G
The household respondent reports an attem pted break-in at the sam ple household last
m onth. In her interview, the household respondent’s wife reports the sam e attem pted
break-in of the sam ple address last m onth. Are these duplicate incidents?
These are duplicate incidents because no household member was threatened,
attacked, or personally victimized during the incident, and the incident has already been
reported by the household respondent. We only want to keep one incident report for
each property crime where no household member was personally victimized. Keep only
one incident report. (NCVS-550, Pages C1-26 through C1-28)
Yes No
c.
G
:
A husband and wife both report that last week, as they were leaving a m ovie theater, an
offender threatened to shoot them if the wife didn’t hand over her purse and the husband
didn’t hand over his wallet. Are these duplicate incidents?
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Lesson 6 - Review of Knowledge Test
These are not duplicate incidents because both household members were threatened,
attacked, or personally victimized during the incident. Fill one incident report for each
incident. (NCVS-550, Pages C1-26 through C1-28)
d.
G
:
A respondent reports that her car was stolen from the parking space in front of her
residence and that later that day, she was threatened with harm at work. Are these
duplicate incidents?
These are not duplicate incidents because they happened at two different times.
(NCVS-550, Pages C1-26 through C1-28) Fill one incident report for each incident.
25.
W hich of the following are correct statem ents about unduplication? (Mark “Correct” or “Incorrect”
for each item)
Correct Incorrect
a.
:
G
Unduplication ensures that only one set of incident report questions is com pleted for each
incident or personal victim ization reported in the screen questions.
b.
:
G. Unduplication is used to avoid recording duplicate incidents that happened in a previous
enum eration period and did not happen again during the current enum eration period.
c.
G
:
The unduplication section of the instrum ent com pares each incident reported by a
respondent during the current reference period only to other incidents reported in the
sam e reference period.
d.
:
G
Unduplication is used to avoid recording the sam e household crim e (in which no
household m em bers were threatened or personally victim ized) m ore than once for the
current enum eration period.
Unduplication is an NCVS process to ensure that only one set of incident report
questions is completed for each incident or personal victimization reported in the screen
questions. This process is designed to avoid duplicate incidents that could occur when
the incident actually occurred during a previous enumeration period and did not occur
again during the current enumeration period. It is also designed to avoid duplicate
incidents when an incident was already reported by another household member during
the current enumeration period, such as a household break-in in which no household
members were threatened, attacked, or personally victimized during the crime incident.
(NCVS-550, Pages C1-26, C1-27)
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NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 6 - Review of Knowledge Test
Section F. OTHER/GENERAL
26.
For each of the following statem ents about the NCVS, indicate if the statem ent is true or false.
(Mark “True” or “False” for each item)
True False
a.
:
G
The NCVS is the only ongoing source of detailed national inform ation on the
characteristics of both the victim and the crim e in the U.S.
b.
G
:
The NCVS is sponsored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(NCVS-550, Page A1-2)
c.
:
G
The purpose of the NCVS is to collect inform ation from victim s of nonfatal violent and
property crim es, reported and not reported to the police, against persons age 12 or older.
(NCVS-550, Pages C2-3 through C2-5)
d.
:
G
The NCVS is the only ongoing source of detailed national inform ation on crim es that are
not reported to police in the U.S.
(NCVS-550, Page A1-4)
e.
G
:
The NCVS produces national statistics on hom icides.
(NCVS-550, Pages C2-3 through C2-5)
27.
W hich of the following are correct statem ents about the Contact History Instrum ent (CHI)? (Mark
“Correct” or “Incorrect” for each item)
Correct Incorrect
a.
:
G
The NCVS has special CHI procedures which instruct you to record the line num ber of the
respondent in the STRATOTH screen when you m ake contact with a sam ple unit m em ber
listed on the household roster.
b.
G
:
You cannot see CHI data from previous interview periods.
c.
G
:
Only record inform ation in CHI only when you establish contact and have a personal
interaction with a household m em ber.
You must follow special NCVS CHI procedures for collecting contact information for
each individual household member. CHI data are sent back each month, allowing the
current FR to see how easy or difficult it was to conduct the interview in previous
interview periods. Each time you attempt to make contact or make contact with a
household, enter information into the CHI. (NCVS-550, Page D1-19)
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28.
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 6 - Review of Knowledge Test
True or False: The quality of data collected from sufficient partial interviews is just as good as
fully com pleted interviews. (Mark only one)
True
G
False
G
The correct answer is “False.” For any survey, the data from a completed interview is
better than data from a partial interview. More complete interviews make survey data
more complete and therefore, more accurate. (This item does not count toward test
score.)
29.
True or False: In your opinion, do you get m ore reliable crim e incident inform ation if you interview
each household m em ber privately? (Mark only one)
True
G
False
G
The correct answer is “True.” Research has shown that you get more complete and
reliable information if you interview respondents in private. (This item does not count
toward test score.)
30.
W hich of the following statem ents do you m ost agree with? (Mark only one)
G 1.
Achieving the highest possible response rate is more important than collecting quality
data
G 2.
Achieving the highest possible response rate is equally as important as collecting quality
data
G 3.
Achieving the highest possible response rate is less important than collecting quality
data
The correct answer is 2, “Achieving the highest possible response rate is equally as
important as collecting quality data.” We want you to keep total survey quality in mind
as you complete your monthly assignments. (This item does not count toward test
score.)
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Lesson 6 - Review of Knowledge Test
NOTES
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Lesson 7 - RO Adm inistrative/Miscellaneous Topics
Lesson 7
RO Administrative/Miscellaneous Topics
(Approximate time: 30 minutes)
The objectives of this lesson is to:
!
Go over any miscellaneous regional office administrative and/or
supervisory topics.
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Lesson 7 - RO Adm inistrative/Miscellaneous Topics
NOTES
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Lesson 8 - NCVS Data Quality Indicators
Lesson 8
NCVS Data Quality Indicators
(Approximate time: 30 minutes)
The objective of this lesson is to:
!
Discuss the NCVS Data Quality Indicators and their meaning and
importance to field representatives.
Over the course of this training we have spent a lot of time discussing a renewed
focus on improving data quality. W hile BJS and the Census Bureau are seeking
to improve quality in every aspect of the NCVS program, the work you do is
central to this effort. In Lesson 2, we talked about the need to ask every screener
question as worded. In Lesson 3, we discussed the structure of the crime incident
report and the procedures for completing it correctly. Another aspect of this focus
on quality involves measuring and monitoring the work you do and providing
continuous feedback to let you know what you are doing well and in what areas
you need improvement.
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Lesson 8 - NCVS Data Quality Indicators
In order to accomplish this we plan to introduce changes to the NCVS program
that will allow us measure, monitor, and provide feedback to you on a continuous
basis once you complete this refresher training. Further, we also plan to expand
the criteria used to evaluate your performance as an NCVS field representative
by revising your performance plan. The goal in doing this is to align your interest
in achieving a fully successful performance review with the sponsor’s and Census
Bureau goals of improving and maintaining overall NCVS data quality. The
additional metrics that will be incorporated into your individual performance plans
will be exactly the same or a subset of the indicators that we will provide to you
on a continuous basis. This approach encourages you to improve and maintain
your performance and the quality of the NCVS data you collect over time. We
need and expect your total commitment to improving NCVS data quality. The
integrity of the NCVS estimates and the reputation of the Census Bureau as a
premier data collection agent depend on it.
W e intend to produce a number of indicators that will identify field representatives
who do not meet specific performance or quality thresholds. The purpose of this,
as we’ve said, is both to monitor performance, as well as to identify those areas
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Lesson 8 - NCVS Data Quality Indicators
of your job that you need to focus on and improve. This feedback will be part of
the enhanced observation and reinterview program and the performance review
modifications I just mentioned.
I want to spend a few minutes reviewing the data quality indicators that will be
introduced after this refresher training and continual quality improvement
program. Yesterday, we learned that a majority of NCVS field representatives are
administering the NCVS screener questions in less than 1.5 minutes per person
interview. Since it is highly improbable that the screener questions can be read as
presented, in their entirety, and at a normal interviewing pace in this amount of
time, it is an indicator that the screener questions are not being administered as
designed or intended. W e also learned that you must read the screener questions
in their entirety as worded at a pace that is not hurried or rushed in order to
enable respondents to recall crimes that they may have experienced. Changing
the words or omitting parts of the NCVS questions could change the way the
respondent interprets the question. W e want each respondent to interpret the
NCVS questions the same way, so the answers we receive will be comparable
throughout the entire sample. Not asking the screener as intended may result in
fewer incidents collected and an underestimate of crime.
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Lesson 8 - NCVS Data Quality Indicators
Since it is not possible to observe every interview and therefore know whether the
screener questions have been asked as designed, we are using screener
question times as an indicator of the pace and completeness with which the
questions are asked. Therefore one indicator will measure and monitor the actual
amount of time it takes you to administer the NCVS screener questions for each
person you interview. W e will then take the result and compare it to thresholds
that we have developed through timing a number of interviews done at the
appropriate pace. The thresholds will define the minimum acceptable amount of
time it should take to administer the NCVS screener questions. There will be two
different minimum thresholds to account for the different numbers of screener
questions that can be asked since the household respondent has more questions
than other household members. If the amount of time it takes you to complete
the screener questions is less than the threshold, that person‘s interview along
with your FR code will be identified on an outlier report. The outlier reports will be
reviewed by your RO supervisor. I/your Supervisor will be required to contact you
to provide you with feedback regarding your ‘quick’ screener time. As I said there
are two different thresholds:
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1.
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 8 - NCVS Data Quality Indicators
Interview with household respondent with at least one vehicle in the
household (asked all 10 NCVS screener questions)
2.
Interview with an individual respondent (asked 7 of 10 NCVS screener
questions)
Since individual respondents are only asked 7 of the 10 screener questions that
are asked of household respondents, the predetermined threshold will be shorter.
Thus, the amount of time it takes you to administer the screener questions for
interviews with individual respondents will be compared to the shorter threshold.
The quick screener time indicator is but one example of a dozen primary
indicators that we plan to monitor, track, and provide feedback to you on a regular
basis. Turn to page 7-1 in your workbook to follow along as we discuss these
data quality indicators.
(Note for Instructor: We understand that you may be concerned about
taking more time to conduct interviews and the impact it may have on your
Household Response and Type Z Non-Response rates. We’ll talk about this
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Lesson 8 - NCVS Data Quality Indicators
in a few minutes. Are there any other questions? Try to defer questions
about impact until later.)
Some indicators lend themselves to be produced on a weekly basis while others
are more appropriate to produce on a less frequent basis, say monthly.
Traditional measures of interview performance such as the Household Response
Rate (Type A) indicator is an example of an indicator that is more appropriate to
produce on a monthly basis. Similarly, the Type Z Non-Response Rate indicator
will be produced monthly. The actual screener time indicator will be produced
weekly along with other indicators such as the overnight starts indicator that will
track person interviews started between 10pm to 7 am local time, and the early
starts indicator that will track any case where person level interviews begin before
the 1 st of the interview month.
W e also felt it is critical to monitor the quality of the crime incident report data you
collect. To accomplish this we plan to produce an indicator that identifies the
number of incident data items that are changed during the editing/coding
operations. An incident data item refers to a single question in the crime incident
report. During Lesson 1 we provided an overview of the entire NCVS operation
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Lesson 8 - NCVS Data Quality Indicators
and discussed how your approach to your data collection responsibilities
everyday not only impact others within the Census organization but the NCVS
estimates. Specifically, we indicated how every incident report you collect is
reviewed by a clerical unit in the National Processing Center. During the
editing/coding operation clerks compare the written summary and case notes to
the responses provided throughout the crime incident report data items to verify
they meet NCVS standards. Data inconsistencies can and do result in changes
being made during editing/coding to specific incident data items. These changes
in incident data items will be the basis of the quality of the crime incident report
indicator.
Another indicator we would like to follow would be late starts where the FR’s date
of first contact is attempted mid-way (15th of the month) through the interview
month or later. NCVS FRs who regularly delay the start of their NCVS
assignment until later in the interview month may leave themselves so little time
to complete their interviews that it could lead an FR to consistently perform below
average in terms of household and person non-response.
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Lesson 8 - NCVS Data Quality Indicators
W e would like to track the completeness of the NCVS screener questions. This
indicator would report the number and percent of NCVS person interview that
have two or more screener questions with a don’t know or refused response. W e
will also track the completeness of the crime incident data items. This indicator
would report the number and percent of NCVS person interviews that have 50
percent or more of the crime incident data items with a don’t know or refused
response.
Just like the indicator that will measure and monitor the actual amount of time it
takes to administer the NCVS screener questions for each person you interview,
we will also monitor and track the amount of time it takes to complete the NCVS
crime incident report. This report will identify all incident reports that don’t meet
the minimum established time for asking the crime incident questions based on
the different types of crime.
Finally regarding the Contact History Instrument, we plan to monitor and provide
feedback on 1) whether you are filling out CHI for every NCVS case in your
assignment, and 2) following the special NCVS CHI procedures.
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Lesson 8 - NCVS Data Quality Indicators
(Note for Instructor: Break for discussion on the Data Quality Indicators.
Emphasize to the FRs there will be a renewed focus on improving NCVS
data quality and the continuous feedback they will receive on their
performance.)
For month in sample 2-7 cases, we encourage telephone interviews to minimize
interviewing costs. Monitoring interviews is another critical component to ensuring
data quality and identifying the challenges you face while administering the
NCVS. Therefore, field observations by Regional Office staff, Headquarters, and
BJS staffs will become more frequent. These interactions should be viewed as
your opportunity to express first-hand what works and what doesn’t work with the
NCVS as well as our opportunity to observe and help you improve your
performance. Discuss your challenges with observers candidly, as sometimes
specific challenges might not be apparent or manifested during the observation.
Also, since a majority of NCVS interviews are conducted by phone there has
been a recent push to monitor CAPI phone interviews to determine if there are
specific challenges you experience related to phone interviews. W e are working
towards developing procedures for both the observer and you, the Field
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Lesson 8 - NCVS Data Quality Indicators
Representative. W hen a phone interview is being observed, you will be required
to notify each respondent that the interview is being monitored for quality control
purposes. You may be asked to accommodate monitoring of those cases in your
assignment that you plan to conduct over the phone. We are also looking into
using Computer Audio Recorded Interviewing, also known as CARI, as a way to
provide feedback to field representatives. CARI is a laptop software application
that allows the computer to act as a tape recorder as the field representative
administers a Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) questionnaire.
Continuous monitoring and feedback on your performance and the quality of your
monthly assignment is an important first step in establishing a cycle of
maintaining and improving data quality. W e can’t expect improvement in
performance or data quality if we do not provide you with specific feedback on
where your performance or the quality of the data you collect does not meet
NCVS standards.
W e also recognize that it is not sufficient to just identify the problems in
performance but to provide you with the resources and coaching to get your
performance to an acceptable level and maintain that level of performance.
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Lesson 8 - NCVS Data Quality Indicators
Initially as we roll out this continuous monitoring and feedback process, if the
indicators we monitor inform us of some sort of performance problem I/your
NCVS Supervisor will contact you to discuss and coach you on how you can
improve.
W e recognize the need for better approaches to training. This includes training
options that are more engaging and interactive. We are currently developing
computer based trainings that address specific NCVS procedures and concepts.
These additional training resources would be available outside yearly refresher
training.
(Note for Instructor:
This is the time to address concerns about increased type A and Z rates.
Say something like:
•
The rates will be monitored and standards adjusted as necessary.
•
The intent is not to penalize FR’s but to improve overall data quality.
•
An improperly conducted interview is worse than no interview at all
because the information obtained is not of sufficient quality to be
useful.
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•
NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 8 - NCVS Data Quality Indicators
Census is working towards introducing performance standards for
each of the twelve NCVS data quality indicators in developing the
rating system for NCVS field representatives for FY2012 once you
have completed refresher training.)
Another component to improving your performance and data quality is the
reintroduction of regular general performance reviews (also known as GPRs). As
discussed in Lesson 1, GPRs were discontinued during the flat funding years.
These GPRs will be specific to the NCVS program, which is different than what
you are used to in the current GPRs. The level of GPRs will be reevaluated each
year to determine whether there is a need to adjust the level of GPRs up or down.
The renewed focus on NCVS data quality involves monitoring the NCVS more
closely then we have in the past. This monitoring includes the twelve primary
NCVS data quality indicators mentioned earlier and the use of GPRs specific to
the NCVS program.
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Lesson 8 - NCVS Data Quality Indicators
W ith this new extension of continuous monitoring of the NCVS, the Regional
Offices will be able to provide feedback to you and afford you the opportunity to
comment back regarding tasks that you face as a NCVS field representative.
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Lesson 8 - NCVS Data Quality Indicators
NOTES
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Lesson 9 - Conclusion
Lesson 9
Conclusion
(Approximate time: 20 minutes)
The objectives of this lesson are to:
!
Summarize what we have learned in this refresher training; and
!
Supply you with a quick reference guide to use to reinforce
important information and help you complete your monthly
assignment.
The BJS wants you to know that they are committed to investing in you. They
also want you to know that they understand and appreciate the critical role you
play in the statistics they publish every year. The BJS and the Census Bureau are
both concerned with improving and maintaining NCVS data quality. Because it
has been so long since a refresher training has been conducted for the NCVS we
developed this training session to “reintroduce” the survey and its concepts and
procedures. W e felt this was a good place to start the first of more regularly
scheduled Refresher Trainings. The BJS plans to conduct annual refresher
trainings to help you keep up on your knowledge of NCVS procedures and
concepts. As the NCVS budget allows, there is a potential of a conducting
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Lesson 9 - Conclusion
centralized training so that FRs across all ROs can share best practices with
respect to their NCVS work.
Let’s review what we’ve covered in this training:
!
In Lesson 1 we reviewed the importance of the NCVS and provided an
overview of the survey process and the essential role you play as an NCVS
Field Representative. The primary objective of Lesson 1 was to help you
realize how fundamental your role is to the final product we produce,
victimization estimates. W ithout the data you collect we could not produce
the estimates.
!
Lesson 2 explored the NCVS screener. Together, we established a
minimum expectation for how long it takes to ask the NCVS screen
questions. W e deconstructed the screen question into its respective parts,
the screener “stem” and the “cues.” W e discussed why it is important to
ask each NCVS screen question as worded and in its entirety. W e
examined how cues were specifically designed to clarify and elicit the recall
of the types of crimes and victimization experiences we collect in the
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Lesson 9 - Conclusion
NCVS. In this lesson you learned that different screen questions were
designed to ask about the same type of crime from a different context or
frame of reference. W e discussed why the pace of the NCVS interview is
so important and that under no circumstance should you hasten the NCVS
interview to gain cooperation.
!
Lesson 3 examined the NCVS crime incident report. W e explored what the
crime incident report does and how the crime incident report works. To
reinforce your understanding of the nuances of the crime incident report,
we also did some practice interviews. Another goal of this lesson was to
help you understand what crime incident report questions you should
expect to ask, based on the type of crime the respondent is reporting.
Back when the NCVS was conducted on paper, it was easier for FRs who
worked on the survey to develop an understanding of the flow of the
questionnaire, because the paper questionnaire displayed the skip patterns
while the CAPI instrument determines the skip patterns for you. You had to
understand the flow and skip patterns in order to conduct an efficient,
correct interview. W hile CAPI makes your interviewing job easier, it does
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Lesson 9 - Conclusion
have one disadvantage: it makes it more difficult for you to understand the
flow of the interview. Because of that, it is very important for you to review
the content and flow of the crime incident report on a regular basis, as we
did in Lesson 3. For this reason we reviewed the different sections of the
Crime Incident Report.
!
In Lesson 4 we talked about the importance of filling out the Contact
History Instrument (CHI) and following the special NCVS CHI procedures.
You learned how CHI benefits you and gives us good information about the
level of effort you put into completing each NCVS case. W e learned that by
not filling out CHI for each contact attempt you under-represent the amount
of effort you invest in each NCVS case.
!
Lesson 5 identified some of the survey concepts that we know FRs often
struggle with. These concepts included: race, presence, location of
incident, series of crimes, and weapons. W e also discussed the Editing
and Coding process and the types of edits done during that process. As
well as how miscoding in data collection can effect the data. Just collecting
an incident report does not mean we have a crime that will factor into the
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Lesson 9 - Conclusion
crime rate. Instead, we need to be sure we collect an incident report and
code it properly so the type of crime the respondent reported is what the
crime classifies as.
!
W e also went over the answers to the knowledge test that you took before
this training. This test was conducted to assess the current level of
knowledge of the NCVS concepts and procedures across all Frs. W e’ll also
use the results to help plan future trainings.
!
Last, we discussed how interviews will be monitored more closely. As
discussed in the last lesson, the results of that monitoring will be used to
provide feedback. The twelve data quality indicators will also be
incorporated into your performance plans. This process will create a forum
for providing you with feedback, but also for you to provide information
back to your supervisor and headquarters. Although we should always be
focused on quality data, this renewed focus of data quality is being
implemented from the top down, so everyone is accountable for the data
we produce.
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NCVS CAPI Refresher Training Guide
Lesson 9 - Conclusion
The topics we covered over the last day and a half were discussed to help you do
your job as a field representative on the NCVS. As Director Lynch of the BJS said
in yesterday’s video message, “You are the public face of the NCVS.” In
collecting NCVS interviews, you represent both the BJS and the Census Bureau.
The rapport you establish with respondents goes a long way in selling the survey
and gaining/keeping respondent cooperation.
As Director Groves said, “Your time and talent are not only valuable contributions
to this project, but also to maintain the Census Bureau’s mission of serving as the
leading source of quality data about the nation’s people.” We understand the job
you do can be difficult. Collecting data is not easy these days with so many
demands on a household’s time. Using the resources you have, such as the
contact information in the CHI, the NCVS interviewer’s manual, attending training,
and other handouts can assist you in successfully completing your monthly
assignments.
Are there any questions at this point?
(Answer questions)
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Lesson 9 - Conclusion
If you have any questions after we leave today about what you see in the
reference guide, all this information is outlined in detail in your other NCVS
materials – the NCVS-550 FR Manual, the NCVS-554 Information Card Booklet,
and the NCVS-550.1 “At a Glance.” I want to encourage you to use all of these
manuals and job aids if you ever have any questions about the survey. If after
consulting all of your NCVS materials, you still can’t find an answer to your
questions, get in touch with (me/your supervisor).
W hat I’m going to distribute next is the NCVS Refresher Training Reference
Guide, which is a summary of what we discussed in this training session.
(Distribute Reference Guide, allow time for questions)
Are there any questions about this reference guide?
(Answer questions)
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Lesson 9 - Conclusion
Now please take a moment to write down any remaining questions you have.
W rite them on the index cards you were given at the beginning of training.
(Allow time, then collect cards. Answer the questions you can. After
completion of training session, bundle cards and send to your FLD
HQ contact as directed in “Instructions to the Trainer.”)
I’d like to thank you all for your attention and participation as we’ve gone over all
the information in this training session. W e hope that what you have reviewed
and learned here will help you collect complete and quality data in your future
NCVS assignments.
There’s one last piece of business before we leave. Please fill out the training
evaluation form that I’m passing out now. Once you have finished, please turn
them in to me.
(Distribute/collect evaluation form)
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| File Type | application/pdf |
| File Modified | 2011-08-08 |
| File Created | 2011-07-18 |