Although the U.S. National Crime Survey (NCS) provided the impetus for a similar survey in Great Britain, there were British crime surveys of limited scope before the NCS. By 1980 both the Research Unit of the Home Office and its Crime Policy Planning Unit wre promoting serious consideration of a national survey. Arguments for such a survey included a more accurate picture of crime and crime victims as well as improved data for criminological research. At the time of this chapter's writing, the British Crime Survey (BCS) has been conducted twice (1982 and 1984). BCS core questions screen respondents for victimization and query victims about the details of their crime experiences. Key findings from the two surveys are that only about one in four crimes appear in police records, and crimes covered by the BCS rose 10 percent between 1981 and 1983, less than the 12 percent increase shown in police statistics. Among the contributions of the BCS are its upgrading of crime measurement, its promotion of victim surveys to determine the effectiveness of crime prevention measures, its encouragement of local crime surveys, its provision of a database for secondary analysis, and its theoretical contribution to criminology. 1 note.