J. Neil Schulman writes:
If you start a survey by asking "Have you ever been a crime victim?"
and do not survey people who answer NO because (a) their DGU prevented
them from being damaged so they don't think of themselves as victims,
therefore they are telling the truth but don't get counted AND
The NCVS does not ask any question like "Have you ever been a crime
victim?". You haven't actually read the questions in the NCVS have
you?
This is the current screening used by the NCVS for their violent
crimes survey. It replaces one which was even more crime-oriented
than threat-oriented, in use for fifty percent of households as
recently as the 1994 NCVS.
Violent crime screener questions
New
Has anyone attacked or threatened you in any of
these ways --a. With any weapon, for instance, a gun or
knife --b. With anything like a baseball bat, frying
pan, scissors, or stick --c. By something thrown, such as a rock or
bottle --d. Include any grabbing, punching, or
choking,e. Any rape, attempted rape or other type of
sexual attack --f. Any face to face threats --
OR
g. Any attack or threat or use of force by
anyone at all? Please mention it even if you are
not certain it was a crime.Incidents involving forced or unwanted sexual
acts are often difficult to talk about. Have you
been forced or coerced to engage in unwanted sexual
activity by --a. someone you didn't know before
b. a casual acquaintance OR
c. someone you know well
Notice that the question "Have you ever been a crime victim?" does not
appear. I would have thought that Mr Schulman would apologize for
misleading the readers of the newsgroup, but he didn't.
Now, I just used that screening on my father, who as I said, defended
himself five times.His answer was "No" to these questions, and the survey would have
ended there.My father would not have been surveyed because in all his DGU's,
he perceived the threat early enough not to be taken by surprise,
and pre-empted it by letting the potential attackers know that
he was armed.
Huh? Question 1g asks about any sort of threat at all. Yet you say he
"perceived the threat". Was there or was there not a threat?
The National Self Defense Survey, by focusing on the act of defense
itself in its screening, is designed to detect them. The NCVS -- as
Kleck and Wolfgang have written -- does not.
Utterly false. Kleck only counted cases where "the defender could
state a specific crime that was being committed at the time of the
incident" (p162). You would expect such an incident to show up when
the NCVS asks questions about that specific crime.