Criminal Victimization Surveys: Whom to Question? Alfredas Kiškis, Mykolas Romeris University Faculty of Law This research was funded by a grant (No. SIN-08/2010) from the Research Council of Lithuania 27th Baltic Criminological Conference, Vilnius 27 June 2014

Criminal Victimization Surveys 2 Measure rates of: victims (have you suffered from...) crimes (how many times have you suffered...) Two types of respondents (crimes): Households (household break-in, car theft, theft from a car, etc.) Individuals (robbery, theft of personal property, sexual offenses, assault, etc.)

The problem of assessing prevalence rate of crimes 3 We need numbers of crimes and numbers of victims. Using household surveys: We try to avoid situations where several individuals suffer from the same crime. It helps to calculate crime rate more precisely. But from individual surveys it is seen that there are situations when several persons suffer from the same offense: Robbers can rob a few people at the same time; Drunken man at home can beat his wife and children... There is one crime, but several victims.

How to solve this problem? 4 We can include the question in questionnaire: How many other people suffered from the same crime (incident) as you (you know it exactly)? Then we would question only individuals, not the households. It‘s cheaper and more accurate.

The survey 5 Representative survey was conducted from 24 February to 31 March The investigation territory was Lithuania residents aged between 15 and 74 were interviewed. The investigation period was 2011.

6 Type of criminal offence Respondents that suffered Additional individuals that suffered, % Total persons that suffered Fraud %175 Extortion of property %18 Violation of public order %156 Causing physical pain or health impairment %128 Unlawful influence on el. data %37 Destruction of or damage to property %163 Offering, giving or selling drugs %82 Threatening to murder or terrorising %44 Theft %250 Robbery 34721%41 Sexual harassment 38411%42 Claim a bribe %162 Sexual assault 100%1 TOTAL %1299

Assessed prevalence rate of crimes per 100 thousand inhabitants 7