Overview
The series of Crime Victim Surveys started in the early 1970s in the Netherlands. Changing policy needs, stakeholders, and available interview modes have repeatedly led to important adjustments in the methodology, compromising comparisons of results over the years. Nevertheless, interesting trends spanning four decades can be constructed for some crime types. In this entry, an overview is given of the eight subsequent versions of the Dutch Victim Survey and their main characteristics. Next, longtime trends are presented for victimizations by burglary, bicycle theft, violent crime, and total crime. Trends in feelings of unsafety are shown from the early 1990s onwards.
Introduction
Already in the early 1970s, the need for a survey to measure crime by asking the general population about their experiences instead of relying on police records only was felt in the Netherlands. In 1973, the Ministry of Justice funded a pilot study by Jan Fiselier who experimented with different...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsRecommended Reading and References
Buelens B, Van der Laan J, Schouten B, den Brakel V, Burger J, Klausch T (2012) Disentangling mode-specific selection and measurement bias in social surveys, discussion paper. Statistics Netherlands, Heerlen
van Dijk JJM, Steinmetz CHD (1980) The RDC victim surveys, 1974–1979. Ministry of Justice, The Hague
van Dijk JJM(2009) Approximating the truth about crime; comparing crime data based on population surveys with police figures of recorded crimes; synthetic report, CRIMPREV, Groupe Europeen de recherches sur les Normativites (GERN/CNRS)
van Dijk JJM, Mayhew P, Van Kesteren J, Aebi M, Linde A (2010) Final report on the study on crime victimisation (commissioned by Eurostat). INTERVICT, University of Tilburg, Tilburg
Fiselier JPS (1978) Slachtoffers van Delicten; een onderzoek naar verborgen criminaliteit. Ars Aequi, Utrecht
Goudriaan H, Wittebrood K, Nieuwbeerta P (2006) Neighbourhood characteristics and reporting crime. Effects of social cohesion, confidence in police effectiveness, and socio-economic disadvantage. Br J Criminol 46:719–742
Vollaard B, Van Ours J (2011) Does regulation of built-in security reduce crime? Evidence from a natural experiment. Econ J 121(May):485–504
Wilsem van J (2003) Crime and context: the Impact of individual, neighborhood, city and country characteristics on victimization. Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen, Nijmegen
Wittebrood K (2008) Comparing crime data in The Netherlands, paper CRIMPREV WP 7, GERN/CNRS
Wittebrood K, Junger K (2002) Trends in violent crime: a comparison between police statistics and victimization surveys. Soc Indic Res 2(59):153–173
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Smit, P.R., Dijk, J.V. (2014). History of the Dutch Crime Victimization Survey(s). In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_450
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_450
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5689-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5690-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law