Indicator 16.3.1 - Proportion of victims of violence in the previous 12 months who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms - Indicators For The Sustainable Development Goals

Percent of US violent victimizations reported to the police
Year	Value
2000	46.0
2001	49.0
2002	50.8
2003	47.5
2004	50.3
2005	45.8
2006	46.6
2007	44.9
2008	46.4
2009	44.1
2010	51.1
2011	49.0
2012	44.2
2013	45.6
2014	46.0
2015	46.5
2016	43.9
2017	44.9
2018	42.6
2019	40.9
2020	40.2
2021	45.6
2022	41.5

This table provides information on metadata for SDG indicators as defined by the UN Statistical Commission. Complete global metadata is provided by the UN Statistics Division.

Indicator

Indicator 16.3.1: Proportion of victims of (a) physical, (b) psychological and/or (c) sexual violence in the previous 12 months who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms

Target

Target 16.3: Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all

Organisation

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Definition and concepts

Definition:

Number of victims of violent crime in the previous 12 months who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms, as a percentage of all victims of violence in the previous 12 months.

Reporting rates to be computed separately for physical, sexual and psychological violence. For each of the indicators of violence (physical, psychological and sexual), countries should calculate the share of victims who reported their victimization. Those reporting rates are published separately.

Concepts:

Competent authorities include police, prosecutors or other authorities with competencies to investigate relevant crimes, while “other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms” may include a variety of institutions with a role in the informal justice or dispute resolution process (i.e. tribal or religious leaders, village elders, community leaders), provided their role is officially recognized by state authorities. The operationalization of these concepts is to be provided by national implementation teams by adding appropriate response categories for the authorities and mechanisms to which victims may report the violence they have experienced.

Physical violence: This concept corresponds to physical assault and robbery.

Assault is defined in the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS) as: the intentional or reckless application of physical force inflicted upon the body of a person. ^[1] This includes the intentional or reckless application of serious physical force resulting in serious bodily injury, and the intentional or reckless application of minor physical force resulting in no injury or minor bodily injury. According to the ICCS, these are defined as:

Serious bodily injury, at minimum, includes gunshot or bullet wounds; knife or stab wounds; severed limbs; broken bones or teeth knocked out; internal injuries; being knocked unconscious; and other severe or critical injuries.
Serious physical force, at minimum, includes being shot; stabbed or cut; hit by an object; hit by a thrown object; poisoning and other applications of force with the potential to cause serious bodily injury.
Minor bodily injury, at minimum, includes bruises, cuts, scratches, chipped teeth, swelling, black eye and other minor injuries.
Minor physical force, at minimum, includes hitting, slapping, pushing, tripping, knocking down and other applications of force with the potential to cause minor bodily injury.

In addition to acts of assault, acts amounting to serious physical threats are also included in the definition of physical violence. As defined in the ICCS, serious physical threats refer to threats with the intention to cause death or serious bodily injury.^[2]

Furthermore, physical violence also covers acts of robbery, defined in the ICCS as unlawfully taking or obtaining property with the use of force or threat of force against a person with intent to permanently or temporarily withhold it from a person or organization.^[3]

Physical violence only counts as such when it is non-consensual, for example, acts of physical violence (punching, kicking, etc.) experienced while exercising a regulated combat sport or combat training will not count towards victimization prevalence.

In the absence of suitable data on physical violence, it is possible to use data on physical assault or robbery , given they are both component of physical violence.

Psychological violence: There is no consensus at the international level on the precise definition of psychological violence. Psychological violence may be defined as any intentional and reckless act that causes psychological distress to an individual. Psychological violence can take the form of, for example, coercion, defamation, humiliation, intimidation, credible threats of violence, excessive verbal attacks or bullying, or harassment. Often, psychological violence is a pattern of behaviours, but it may be a distinct incident as well. Psychological violence is often experienced in domestic contexts. The internationally standardized and tested SDG 16 survey questionnaire provides a methodology and a core set of questions to measure psychological violence (see Section 4.c. Method of computation).

Sexual violence: As defined in the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS), sexual violence includes unwanted sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act without valid consent or with consent as a result of intimidation, force, fraud, coercion, threat, deception, use of drugs or alcohol, or abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability. This includes rape and other forms of sexual assault, excluding non-physical sexual assault (e.g. sexual harassment). Sexual violence may be perpetrated by casual partners, by acquaintances or by strangers, but such acts also occur in established or even in formalized intimate partnerships, including in marriages. Sexual violence most often, but not exclusively, targets women. Sexual violence may also take place in same-sex contexts.

More details on the set of behaviours to be used to measure physical, psychological and sexual violence are provided in Section 4.c. Method of computation.

See ICCS 02011 Assault. ↑

As per ICCS, a “threat” refers to any type of threatening behaviour if it is believed that the threat

could be enacted. ↑

See ICCS 0401 Robbery. ↑

Unit of measure

Percent (%)

Data sources

Acts of violence are heavily underreported to the authorities, so this indicator should be derived from population surveys, not administrative data sources.

Experience of violent victimization and the reporting of such an experience to competent authorities are collected through a series of questions on concrete acts of violence suffered by the respondent and whether these were reported (see Section 4.c. Method of computation)

The questions can be part of an add-on module on physical, psychological and sexual violence, to be incorporated into other ongoing general population surveys (such as surveys on quality of life, public attitudes, or surveys on other topics) or be part of dedicated surveys on crime victimization.

Data should be collected as part of a nationally representative sample of the adult population residing in the country, irrespective of legal residence status. The sampling frame and sample design should ensure that results can be disaggregated at sub-national level. The sample size should be sufficiently large to capture relevant events and compute needed disaggregations.

Data providers

Data are collected through official nationally representative surveys. In most countries and most cases, such surveys are conducted by National Statistical Offices (NSOs). In some cases, other national institutions or other entities may conduct surveys on crime victimisation according to the same methodological standards.

Data are sent to UNODC by Member States, usually through national UN Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (UN-CTS) Focal Points, which in most cases are national institutions responsible for data production in the area of crime and criminal justice (National Statistical Offices, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, etc.).

Comment and limitations

Crime victimization surveys are able to capture experience and reporting of violence suffered by adult population of both sexes; however, due to the complexity of collecting information on experiences of violence, it is likely that not all experiences and reporting of violence are duly covered by these surveys, which aim to cover several types of crime experience. Other dedicated surveys on violence usually focus on selected population groups (typically women, children or the elderly) or specific contexts (domestic violence, schools, prisons, etc.), but they are not able to portray levels and trends of violence in the entire population.

Victimization surveys (as dedicated surveys or as modules of household surveys) are usually restricted to the general population living in households above a certain age (typically 15 or 18 years of age and older), while sometimes an upper age limit is also applied (typically 65, 70 or 75 years of age).

Questions on violence reporting require national adaptations of the formal authorities that in the national context are eligible and normally function as law enforcement agents (various branches of police, specialized branches of military responsible for law enforcement, or religious police) or other nationally relevant mechanisms, including informal authorities that are widely used to obtain redress for victims of violence. NSOs are advised to keep the police and medical services in first two positions and should be included by default. Among informal competent authorities, NSOs may consider mechanisms in public and private institutions for addressing the experience of violence (e.g. offices of internal affairs or internal disciplinary control) or traditional leadership structures such as tribal or religious leaders or community elders.

Method of computation

The indicator is calculated as the number of survey respondents who were victims of (a) physical, (b) psychological, and(c) sexual violence in the previous 12 months and who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms, divided by the total number of survey respondents who were victims of (a) physical, (b) psychological, and(c) sexual violence in the previous 12 months (also called the ‘crime reporting rate’).

Three separate indicators should be computed, one for each type of violence.

The indicators refer to the individual (“direct”) experience and reporting of the respondent, who should be randomly selected among eligible household members. Experiences and reporting of violence by other members of the household should not to be included in the computation.

The internationally standardized and tested SDG 16 Survey questionnaire and the accompanying Implementation Manual, which can be used by countries for collecting data SDG indicator 16.3.1, provide a core set of questions about specific behaviours that allow for the measurement of the reporting rate of physical, sexual and psychological violence in the population. The Latin America and the Caribbean Crime Victimization Survey Initiative (LACSI) also offers a standardised methodology to measure violence reporting. While the precise formulation and wording of the pertinent survey questions may need national customization, a core set of behaviours have been identified as indicative of physical, psychological and sexual violence exercised towards a person.

Questions on physical, psychological and sexual violence are to be measured separately. Both numerator and denominator are measured through sample surveys of the general population.

Table 1: Question schedule for measuring experiences and reporting of violence

Content of question	Instruction
Experience of physical violence in the 12 months, by type of physical violence (see Table 2 for the set of acts/behaviors indicative of physical violence)	If no physical violence was experienced, skip to 4, otherwise go to 2.
Most recent type of physical violence experienced	Continue with 3.
Did you report this last incident to the police or to any other competent authority where you could seek assistance or justice?	Go to 4.
Experience of psychological violence in the 12 months, by type of psychological violence (see Table 2 for the set of acts/behaviors indicative of psychological violence)	If no psychological violence was experienced, skip to 7, otherwise go to 5.
Most recent type of psychological violence experienced	Continue with 6.
Did you report this last incident to the police or to any other competent authority where you could seek assistance or justice?	Go to 7.
Experience of sexual violence in the 12 months, by type of sexual violence (see Table 2 for the set of acts/behaviors indicative of sexual violence)	If no sexual violence was experienced, skip to END, otherwise go to 8.
Most recent type of sexual violence experienced	Continue with 9.
Did you report this last incident to the police or to any other competent authority where you could seek assistance or justice?	Go to END.

Table 2: Types of acts or behaviours indicative of physical, psychological and sexual violence.

Physical violence^[4]
A.	THREATEN TO HURT PHYSICALLY WITH A WEAPON (stick, knife, firearm, etc.)
B.	THREATEN TO HURT PHYSICALLY WITHOUT A WEAPON, but in a really frightening way
C.	PUSH, SHOVE or SHAKE
D.	SLAP or PUNCH
E.	THROW A HARD OBJECT
F.	GRAB, PULL HAIR or DRAG
G.	BEAT WITH FIST OR A HARD OBJECT, OR KICK
H.	BURN
I.	Try to SUFFOCATE or STRANGLE
J.	CUT OR STAB
K.	SHOOT at
L.	BEAT HEAD AGAINST SOMETHING
X.	SOMETHING ELSE TO PHYSICALLY HURT, NOT COUNTING A SEXUAL ATTACK
Psychological violence^[5]
A.	HURT, THREATEN TO HURT, OR THREATEN TO TAKE AWAY CHILDREN
B.	LIMIT CHOICES ABOUT FAMILY PLANNING, for example, by forbidding use of contraception or misleading about own use of contraception
C.	EXPECT TO BE ASKED PERMISSION TO SEE A DOCTOR
D.	TRY TO PREVENT TALKING TO OTHER MEN/WOMEN out of jealousy, OR INSIST ON KNOWING WHEREABOUTS at all times
E.	CONTROL WHAT CLOTHES ALLOWED TO WEAR AND TELL HOW TO DRESS
F.	SCARE OR INTIMIDATE ON PURPOSE, for example, by yelling and smashing things, using threatening expressions/words.
G.	DAMAGE OR DESTROY POSSESSIONS OR PROPERTY, including pets, to scare or hurt
H.	HARM, OR THREATEN TO HARM, SOMEONE CLOSE (apart from the cases already discussed)
I.	RESTRICT FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT, for example, by locking up or taking away I.D. or passport
J.	Try to LIMIT CONTACT WITH FAMILY OR FRIENDS or restrict use of social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter
Sexual violence
A.	FORCED SEXUAL INTERCOURSE by threatening, holding down or hurting in some way. Sexual intercourse means vaginal or anal penetration, including with objects, or oral sex.
B.	ATTEMPT to FORCE SEXUAL INTERCOURSE by threatening, holding down or hurting in some way, but intercourse DOES NOT OCCUR.
C.	FORCED SEXUAL INTERCOURSE when UNABLE TO REFUSE owing to the influence of alcohol or drugs
D.	FORCED or attempted to FORCE or THREATEN or BLACKMAIL TO HAVE SEXUAL INTERCOURSE WITH SOMEONE, inlcuding forced to have sex in exchange for money, goods or favours.
E.	Unwanted sexual intercourse BECAUSE AFRAID OF WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN IF REFUSED
F.	STRIP, TOUCH INTIMATE PARTS – GENITALS OR BREASTS –OR KISSED when not wanted.
G.	Do something or forced to do something else of sexual nature that is perceived as DEGRADING OR HUMILIATING.
H.	THREATEN WITH VIOLENT SEXUAL ACTS, SUCH AS RAPE (OR FORCED PREGNANCY) in a really frightening way

The computation of this indicator requires the inclusion of a short question schedule (Table 1) in a representative population survey, which elicits whether the respondent has, in the past 12 months, personally experienced and reported any acts or behaviours indicative of physical, psychological and sexual violence (Table 2).^[6]

Based on the responses about experiences and reporting of different types of violent acts or behaviours listed in Table 2, the following indicators can be computed:

Indicator 16.3.1a: Proportion of victims of physical violence in the previous 12 months who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms.

This indicator in computed by taking the number of respondents who experienced at least one form of physical violence^[7] in the past 12 months and who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms, divided by the total number of survey respondents who were victims of at least one form of physical violence in the past 12 months. The result needs to be multiplied by 100.

$I n d i c a t o r 16.3.1 a = \frac{N u m b e r o f r e s p o n d e n t s w h o e x p e r i e n c e d a n d r e p o r t e d a t l e a s t o n e f o r m o f p h y s i c a l v i o l e n c e i n t h e p a s t 12 m o n t h s}{N u m b e r o f r e s p o n d e n t s w h o e x p e r i e n c e d a t l e a s t o n e f o r m o f p h y s i c a l v i o l e n c e i n t h e p a s t 12 m o n t h s} X 100$

Indicator 16.3.1b: Proportion of victims of psychological violence in the previous 12 months who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms.

This indicator in computed by taking the number of respondents who experienced at least one form of psychological violence in the past 12 months and who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms, divided by the total number of survey respondents who were victims of at least one form of psychological violence in the past 12 months. The result needs to be multiplied by 100.

$I n d i c a t o r 16.3.1 b = \frac{N u m b e r o f r e s p o n d e n t s w h o e x p e r i e n c e d a n d r e p o r t e d a t l e a s t o n e f o r m o f p s y c h o l o g i c a l v i o l e n c e i n t h e p a s t 12 m o n t h s}{N u m b e r o f r e s p o n d e n t s w h o e x p e r i e n c e d a t l e a s t o n e f o r m o f p s y c h o l o g i c a l v i o l e n c e i n t h e p a s t 12 m o n t h s} X 100$

Indicator 16.3.1c: Proportion of victims of sexual violence in the previous 12 months who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms.

This indicator in computed by taking the number of respondents who experienced at least one form of sexual violence in the past 12 months and who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms, divided by the total number of survey respondents who were victims of at least one form of sexual violence in the past 12 months. The result needs to be multiplied by 100.

$I n d i c a t o r 16.3.1 c = \frac{N u m b e r o f r e s p o n d e n t s w h o e x p e r i e n c e d a n d r e p o r t e d a t l e a s t o n e f o r m o f s e x u a l v i o l e n c e i n t h e p a s t 12 m o n t h s}{N u m b e r o f r e s p o n d e n t s w h o e x p e r i e n c e d a t l e a s t o n e f o r m o f s e x u a l v i o l e n c e i n t h e p a s t 12 m o n t h s} X 100$

$X 100$

⁴

In cases where survey data on physical violence are not available, survey data on robbery can be used as a suitable proxy measure. For suitable survey questions to measure experiences of robbery, please refer to Items C2.5a/b in the LACSI Initiative Core Questionnaire, available at: https://www.cdeunodc.inegi.org.mx/index.php/questionnaire/ ↑

⁵

Please note that the provided list of acts indicative of psychological violence is not exhaustive. ↑

⁶

See SDG 16 Survey Questionnaire (available in English, Arabic, Spanish, French, and Chinese): https://www.sdg16hub.org/topic/sdg-16-survey-initiative-questionnaire ↑

⁷

In many cases victims of violence may experience several acts of violence at the same time. When reported to the police or other competent authorities, only the most serious act(s) may be recorded depending on the laws or registration rules. ↑

Metadata update

2024-03-28

International organisations(s) responsible for global monitoring

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Related indicators

Indicator 5.2.1: Proportion of ever-partnered women and girls aged 15 years and older subjected to physical, sexual or psychological violence by a current or former intimate partner in the previous 12 months, by form of violence and by age

Indicator 5.2.2: Proportion of women and girls aged 15 years and older subjected to sexual violence by persons other than an intimate partner in the previous 12 months, by age and place of occurrence

Indicator 11.7.2: Proportion of persons victim of non-sexual or sexual harassment, by sex, age, disability status and place of occurrence, in the previous 12 months

Indicator 16.2.3: Proportion of young women and men aged 18–29 years who experienced sexual violence by age 18

Indicator 16.1.3: Proportion of population subjected to (a) physical violence, (b) psychological violence and/or (c) sexual violence in the previous 12 months

Indicator 16.a.1: Existence of independent national human rights institutions in compliance with the Paris

Indicator	Proportion of victims of (a) physical, (b) psychological and/or (c) sexual violence in the previous 12 months who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms
Organisation	Bureau of Justice Statistics
Definition and concepts	The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) measures the number and rate of violent victimizations in the previous 12 months for persons age 12 or older. The NCVS also collects information on whether these crimes were reported or not reported to police and on the reasons why the crime was reported or not reported. Violent crime includes physical violence (robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault) and sexual violence (rape and sexual assault). The NCVS does not measure psychological violence.
Unit of measure	Percent of violent victimizations reported to police within the past 12 months
Data sources	National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
Data providers	Bureau of Justice Statistics
Comment and limitations	The NCVS is administered to persons age 12 or older from a nationally representative sample of U.S. households. It collects information on nonfatal personal crimes (rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, simple assault, and personal larceny (purse snatching and pocket picking)) and household property crimes (burglary or trespassing, motor vehicle theft, and other types of theft). The survey collects information on threatened, attempted, and completed crimes. Survey respondents provide information about themselves (including age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, marital status, education level, and income) and whether they experienced a victimization. For each victimization incident, respondents report information about the off ender (including age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, and victim-off ender relationship), characteristics of the crime (including time and place of occurrence, use of weapons, nature of injury, and economic consequences), whether the crime was reported to police, reasons the crime was or was not reported, and experiences with the criminal justice system. For more information on the sample size and response rates see https://bjs.ojp.gov/data-collection/ncvs NCVS data can be used to produce several types of estimates, including victimization, incident, and prevalence rates. Data for this indicator are based on victimization estimates. As the NCVS is based on a nationally representative sample, the indicator is subject to sampling error. The national estimate in 2022 had a standard error of 1.83%. For other years, see National Crime Victimization Survey Data Dashboard: https://ncvs.bjs.ojp.gov/Home
Method of computation	Number of violent crime incidents reported to police or other authorities divided by the number of violent crime incidents during the previous 12-month period and multiplied by 100, yielding the percentage of the violent victimizations reported to police.
Actual indicator available - description	Percent of violent victimizations reported to police within the past 12 months
Date of national source publication	September 2023
Periodicity	The NCVS is a self-report survey that is administered annually from January 1 to December 31. Annual NCVS estimates are based on the number and characteristics of crimes that respondents experienced during the prior 6 months, excluding the month in which they were interviewed. Therefore, the 2022 survey covers crimes experienced from July 1, 2021 to November 30, 2022, with March 15, 2022 as the middle of the reference period. Crimes are classified by the year of the survey and not by the year of the crime.
Scheduled update by national source	September 2024
Date metadata updated	July 2024
Disaggregation geography	None
Disaggregation categories	Sex
International and national references	Criminal Victimization, 2022 (NCJ 307089, BJS, September 2023), https://bjs.ojp.gov/document/cv22.pdf National Crime Victimization Survey Data Dashboard, https://ncvs.bjs.ojp.gov/Home
Time period	2000-2022

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Indicator 16.3.1 Proportion of victims of violence in the previous 12 months who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms

Percent of violent victimizations reported to the police.

Headline data

Percent of US violent victimizations reported to the police