Using Victimization Reporting Rates to Estimate the Dark Figure of Domestic Violence

Objectives: To illustrate how factoring in variables associated with reporting and underreporting can be used to adjust official statistics and generate an estimate of the true prevalence of domestic violence in a community. Methods: Combine data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Incident Based Reporting System as well as the Bureau of Justice Statistics National Crime Victimization Survey. Results: We show several jurisdictions that have increased aggravated domestic rates in recent NIBRS data. Our up-adjusted total crime counts suggest using only NIBRS data is on average 40% smaller, with the underreporting varying from 23% to 76% across larger NIBRS reporting agencies. Conclusions: Combining law enforcement reports and victimization survey data, we provide more accurate estimates of the number of aggravated domestic violence incidents that occur in individual jurisdictions. Work supported by the Council on Criminal Justice. Replication materials at https://github.com/apwheele/dvtrends.