Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2012, $500,000)
The Crime Victims with Disabilities Awareness Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-301) directed the Department of Justice to include in the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) statistics relating to the nature of crimes against people with developmental disabilities; and the specific characteristics of the victims of those crimes. As a result, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) began collecting information on the disability status of crime victims in the NCVS. Beginning in 2009, BJS began releasing its studies on crime against persons with disabilities using NCVS data. These estimates of crime against persons with disabilities have the potential to suffer from coverage error and potential bias. The current NCVS estimates are based on data from non-institutionalized, residential population residing in the United States, including some types of group quarters such as college dormitories. Other types of group quarters are not directly identifiable on the NCVS, such as assisted living communities. The NCVS explicitly excludes persons living in other types of group quarters such as nursing facilities, patient hospice facilities, and correctional facilities. Because persons in these facilities are not covered in the survey and these facilities may include a large number of persons with disabilities, estimates taken solely from the NCVS may underestimate or distort the amount of crime faced by persons with disabilities. To investigate this gap in the NCVS coverage, BJS issued a solicitation to design, develop, and test data collection procedures for self-report data on criminal victimization of persons with disabilities residing in group. This project will include the preparation of a pilot study in which Westat will collect data from various group quarters population on disability and crime. Westat will also incorporate the use of an advisory panel help in the planning of this pilot study. ca/ncf