Strategies for studying crime seriousness are considered, as are the requirements for using magnitude estimation techniques. Problems with the NSCS are identified and discussed. Among these problems are: (1) most NSCS sub-groups differences in crime perceptions are not interpretable because of the variant of magnitude estimation used in the NSCS; (2) their cross-modality laboratory studies are irrelevant to evaluating the adequacy of the NSCS method; (3) some of the NSCS results allow the interpretation that as many as one-quarter of the respondents failed to make magnitude estimations; (4) the unsystematic introduction of status information in some NSCS items introduces variance which cannot be assessed effectively; and (5) the NSCS method for developing a crime index weighted by the seriousness of crimes is less feasible than other alternatives. The authors report briefly on a method study to measure crime seriousness. 1 table, 8 notes, and 48 references (Author abstract modified)