National Crime Victimization Survey

NCVS-522.1
(7/2008)

National Crime Victimization Survey
CAPI Blaise Initial Training

Classroom Workbook
This document does not contain any Title 13 data or other Personally Identifiable Information. 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
former Census Bureau employees.

NCVS-522.1 (7/2008)

NCVS CAPI Initial Training
Classroom Workbook
______________________________________________________________________________

Household Membership
1

Paul Moe is staying in the sample unit, but is looking for another place to
live. He has no other residence. Is Paul a household member?
Yes

2

Janet Voe is a paid housekeeper who lives in the sample unit. Is Janet a
household member?
Yes

3

No

When you contact the Coe household, Pamela Coe, the household
respondent, tells you that her husband, John, is serving with the Army and
stationed in Iraq. Is John a household member?
Yes

5

No

When you interview the Zoe household, Mr. Zoe tells you that his
daughter Emily is away at college. Is Emily a household member?
Yes

4

No

No

If you list someone as living and staying at the sample unit as of the night
before the interview and then determine at HSEMEMURE that the person
usually lives somewhere else, what precode do you enter in
HSEMEMURE?
Precode 1, Yes

Precode 2, No

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NCVS CAPI Initial Training
Classroom Workbook
______________________________________________________________________________

Function Keys
If you press this
function key:

You can perform this operation within the instrument during the
interview:

F1

QUESTION HELP
Displays any help screens for the current question. Help screens are
designed to aid you with a particular concept, to define the meaning or
intent of a particular word, to provide specific probes, and so forth.

F4

JUMP MENU
Accesses a AJump@ menu, which enables you to jump back to a previously
answered section of the incident report items. Note that this function only
works in the incident report items, which are part of the middle section of
the NCVS instrument.

F7

ITEM NOTES/REMARKS
Allows you to view or add comments and explanations for the screen
current displayed. After pressing F7, a pop-up “Notes” box appears.
Enter the text of your note, and then click the “Save” button in the box to
leave the F7 notes mode. When F7 notes are entered for an instrument
screen, a paperclip icon will appear next to the item name on the form
pane telling you that a “Note Exists.”

F8

RETURN
Allows you to return or skip back to the item from which you pressed the
F10 key, which skips to the end of the interview. This would come in
handy if you should press the F10 key by mistake.

F10

EXIT
Skips from the present question to the end of the instrument when a
respondent breaks off the interview before you can complete it or
whenever you must make an early exit from the interview. After pressing
the F10 function key, you will skip to the back section of the instrument
to the callback screen where you can schedule a callback. The instrument
sets a person’s interview status to “partially completed,” so that you can
resume the interview for that person later when the respondent is
available.

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NCVS CAPI Initial Training
Classroom Workbook
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SHIFT + F1

DISPLAY HOUSEHOLD ROSTER
Acessess the household roster at the SHOWROS_CP screen. You can
access the household roster at any time during an NCVS interview to
reference the information shown on this screen. The SHOWROS_CP
screen does not allow you to make changes to the household roster.

SHIFT + F2

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Accesses the help screens for nine frequently asked NCVS questions from
the FAQMain screen. These help screens will help you answer
respondent’s questions.

SHIFT + F5

LANGUAGE
Switches to the Spanish version of the NCVS instrument for the current
question and all subsequent questions. To return to the English version,
press the SHIFT and F5 keys simultaneously again and select “English”
from the pop-up menu.

SHIFT + F7

VIEW NOTES
Allows you to only view notes. To add more notes use the F7 function
key.

SHIFT + F11

SHOW STANDARD ABBREVIATIONS
Displays the standard recommended and acceptable abbreviations for the
NCVS. Abbreviations can be used to conserve space when entering text
in item text boxes that allow only a limited number of characters to be
entered.

END

Takes you to the next unanswered question in the instrument path.

CTRL + D

DON=T KNOW
Allows you to record a don=t know response to a question when a separate
ADon=t Know@ response category is not part of the question answer list.

CTRL + R

REFUSED
Allows you to record a refusal to a question by the respondent.

CTRL + T

INTERVIEW TIME PREFERENCES
Accesses the BOOST/BLOCK feature of the instrument for you to view
or record the best times or worst times to contact the household.

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NCVS-522.1 (7/2008)

NCVS CAPI Initial Training
Classroom Workbook
________________________________________________________________________

Practice Exercise #1
(Household Roster)

Who to List:
• All persons living or staying at the sample address at the time of your
contact.
• All persons who usually live at the sample address, but who are
temporarily away for reasons such as visiting friends or relatives,
traveling for their jobs, in “general” hospitals, and so forth.
• All children who usually live at the sample address, including infants
under 1 year of age.
• Any lodgers, servants, hired hands, and other persons who usually live
at the sample address.
• Visitors and other persons who are not household members (do not
usually live at the sample address), but are in the sample household at
the time of your interview and have stayed at the sample address at
least one night before your interview, such as a visitor or student with
a usual residence elsewhere.
• Households consisting entirely of persons who are not household
members and who have a usual residence elsewhere. If you determine
that the entire household has a usual residence elsewhere (URE), you
will classify the household as a Type B noninterview, “Temporarily
occupied by persons with URE.”

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NCVS-522.1 (7/2008)

NCVS CAPI Initial Training
Classroom Workbook
________________________________________________________________________

Practice Exercise #1
(Armed Forces)
A household member is considered as “in the Armed Forces” when the
person is:
• Serving on active duty at the time of the interview in the U.S. Army,
Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps.
• In the reserve branch of any of the above Armed Services and is
currently on active duty status for several months.
• In the U.S. Public Health Service as commissioned officers who are
attached to any branch of the above Armed Services.
• In the National Guard in Federal Service (if his/her unit has become
part of the regular forces by Presidential Order.)
• In the U.S. military academies as Cadets.

Members of the regular component of any branch of the Armed Forces are
ALWAYS considered to be on active duty, unless they are retired. Members
of the reserve component of any branch of the Armed Forces are only
considered to be on active duty when they have been called to duty by
military order and are currently on active duty for several months.
Q:

Let’s say that a household member is in the U.S. Army Reserves and
spends two weeks on active duty in June of each year. If you are
conducting an interview on June 7th and his wife says that he is away
on active duty with the Army Reserve, what do you enter in
ARMEDFORCES and why?

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NCVS-522.1 (7/2008)

NCVS CAPI Initial Training
Classroom Workbook
________________________________________________________________________

Practice Exercise #2
(Household Respondent)

The household respondent is someone who is at least 18 years old and the
most knowledgeable household member, that is, the one who appears to
know or might reasonably be expected to know the answers to the household
questions. Most frequently this will be the reference person or spouse.

Exceptions:
• In households in which the reference person and/or spouse are under
18, either of them may be the household respondent.
• If ALL household members are under 18, interview the most
knowledgeable household member as the household respondent.
The household respondent MUST be the first person interviewed in a
household whether you are conducting the interview in person or by
telephone.

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NCVS-522.1 (7/2008)

NCVS CAPI Initial Training
Classroom Workbook
________________________________________________________________________

Practice Exercise #4
(Noninterview Reasons by Noninterview Type)
TYPE A
211 Duplicate/2000 sample design only
213 Language problems
216 No one home
217 Temporarily absent
218 Refused
219 Other occupied
TYPE B
225 Temporarily occupied by persons with usual residence elsewhere
(URE)
226 Vacant - regular
227 Vacant - storage of HH furniture
228 Unfit or to be demolished
229 Under construction, not ready
230 Converted to temporary business and storage
231 Unoccupied site for mobile home, trailer, or tent
232 Permit granted, construction not started
233 Other
TYPE C
240 Demolished
241 House or trailer moved
242 Outside segment
243 Converted to permanent business or storage
244 Merged
245 Condemned
246 Built after April 1, 2000
247 Unused line of listing sheet
248 Other (including permit abandoned)
256 Removed during subsampling
257 Unit already had a chance of selection

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NCVS-522.1 (7/2008)

NCVS CAPI Initial Training
Classroom Workbook
________________________________________________________________________

Practice Exercise #7
(Reference Person)

The reference person is one of the persons who owns or rents the sample
unit or is any adult household member if the unit is occupied without
payment of cash rent.

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NCVS-522.1 (7/2008)

NCVS CAPI Initial Training
Classroom Workbook
________________________________________________________________________

Practice Exercise #7
(Example of Soft Edit Screen)

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NCVS-522.1 (7/2008)

NCVS CAPI Initial Training
Classroom Workbook
________________________________________________________________________

Practice Exercise #7
(Example of Hard Edit Screen)

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NCVS-522.1 (7/2008)

NCVS CAPI Initial Training
Classroom Workbook
________________________________________________________________________

Practice Exercise #7
(Reference Period)

Incoming and Replacement Households
For first period households and replacement households, the reference
period begins on the first day, six months preceding the month of interview
and extends up to the day prior to the day of interview.
Second and Subsequent Enumeration Periods
For second and subsequent enumeration periods, the reference period is from
the day of the last interview to the day prior to the current interview. Each
person within a household may have a different reference period depending
on the day each household member was interviewed.
For households that were a Type A noninterview the previous enumeration
or persons who were a Type Z noninterview in previous interview period,
the reference period begins on the first day, six months preceding the month
of interview and extends up to the day prior to the day of interview

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NCVS-522.1 (7/2008)

NCVS CAPI Initial Training
Classroom Workbook
________________________________________________________________________

Practice Exercise #7
(Incident Summary for Brian Public)
Use the following information to write your summary report for Brian
Public.
Household Roster
L2 Brian Public
L3 Michael Goe
L4 Will Loe
L5 Megan Moe
In 4/06 lawn ornaments stolen from L2’s front yard. Ornaments belonged to
entire HH. Incident not reported to police because not important enough.
Also L2 didn’t want to take the time to report it. Value of property stolen
was $51. L2 doesn’t know who took the ornaments.

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NCVS-522.1 (7/2008)

NCVS CAPI Initial Training
Classroom Workbook
________________________________________________________________________

Practice Exercise #10
(Incident Summary for Michael Goe)
Use the following information to write your summary report for Michael
Goe.
Household Roster
L2 Brian Public
L3 Michael Goe
L4 Will Loe
L5 Megan Moe

In 3/06 lawn decorations taken from L3’s front yard at night. Decorations
belonged to the HH. Incident not reported to police since kid’s stuff. Stolen
items valued at $50. Shrubs damaged; cost to replace shrubs was $50. L3
doesn’t know who took the ornaments. No time lost from work.

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NCVS-522.1 (7/2008)

NCVS CAPI Initial Training
Classroom Workbook
________________________________________________________________________

Practice Exercise #11
(NCVS Proxy Rules)
Household Member Proxy Respondent
The proxy respondent MUST be a household member who is at least 18
years old with the exception of those households in which the reference
person and/or spouse or all members of the household are under 18 years. In
this case, select a knowledgeable household member to serve as the proxy
respondent.
Nonhousehld Member Proxy Respondent
A nonhousehold member may serve as a proxy respondent for a household
member only if ALL of the following five (5) conditions apply:
1.

All household members are unable to be interviewed because of
health problems or mental incompetence.

2.

All the household members have been unable to leave home
unaccompanied during the ENTIRE reference period.

3.

One of the proxy interviews obtained using a nonhousehold member
proxy respondent must be the household respondent’s.

4.

The proxy respondent is 18 years of age or older.

5.

The proxy respondent has had responsibility for the care of the
individual household member for the entire reference period.

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NCVS-522.1 (7/2008)

NCVS CAPI Initial Training
Classroom Workbook
________________________________________________________________________

Practice Exercise #11
(Acceptable Proxy Reasons)
You may obtain information about an individual household member by
conducting a proxy interview only under ONE of the following
circumstances:
• If a household member is 12 or 13 years old, you should obtain a selfresponse interview. However, if the parents or guardian refuse to let
you speak to the 12 or 13 year old, you may instead conduct a proxy
interview with the parent or guardian.
• If a household member 12 years of age or older is temporarily absent
and is NOT expected to return to the sample household at all during
the entire interview period, you may instead accept a proxy interview
for him/her.
• If a household member 12 years of age or older is physically or
mentally incapacitated. For a household member to be physically or
mentally incapacitated, the person MUST be unable to be interviewed
due to health problems or mental incompetence. This condition
MUST be continuous during the entire interview period and DOES
NOT include colds or flu, drunkenness, drugs, or problems that might
be aggravated because the questions are upsetting. Old age alone is
NOT an acceptable reason for proxy interview.

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NCVS-522.1 (7/2008)

NCVS CAPI Initial Training
Classroom Workbook
________________________________________________________________________

NCVS DEFINITION OF RAPE

Force sexual intercourse includes both psychological coercion as
well as physical force. Forced sexual intercourse means vaginal,
anal, or oral penetration by the offender(s). This category also
includes incidents where the penetration is from a foreign object
such as a bottle.

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NCVS-522.1 (7/2008)

NCVS CAPI Initial Training
Classroom Workbook
________________________________________________________________________

Practice Exercise #14
FARMSALES
Remember these three things about FARMSALES:
1

This question refers to the “past 12 months.” If you are interviewing
on February 5, 2008, “past 12 months” means January 1, 2007 through
January 31, 2008.

2

FARMSALES asks for the amount of farm sales. Do not include food
grown for the consumption of household members themselves; only
include farm products that were actually sold.

3

This question refers to sales of farm products from this place. We are
not concerned with who was living on the farm during the past 12
months. For example, if a respondent moved to a farm 5 months ago, it
is possible the respondent may know the amount of farm sales during
the entire 12 months before the interview.

Exercise:

Jimmy Voe bought a cucumber farm two months ago. Since
the time he bought the farm, he has sold about $500 worth of
cucumbers. The previous owner, Carl Loe, told Mr. Voe that
he sold almost $800 worth of cucumbers during the last three
months that he owned the farm. Which box do you mark in
Item FARMSALES?

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