A review of the incidence and prevalence of criminal victimization considers rates of victimization, trends in victimization, correlations of victimization (age, sex, race, family income, urbanization, and time and space dimensions), and homicide. A discussion of the dynamics of victimization focuses on the nature of the victim/offender relationship in criminal events and interactions between the victim and the offender during the victimization event, specifically regarding victim resistance and victim precipitation. A discussion of the consequences of victimization addresses victim reporting to the police, physical injury, and economic loss. Some conclusions from the study of the data are that serious crimes, especially violent offenses, are relatively rare events; the risk of victimization varies across population groups, time, and space; there was an overall decline in crime from 1973 through 1986; and although the direct economic costs of crime for individual victims are not generally large, the indirect costs for the criminal justice system and communities as a whole are enormous. 1 table, 4 figures, 8 notes, and 44 references