U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Evaluation of Direct Variance Estimation, Estimate Reliability, and Confidence Intervals for the National Crime Victimization Survey

NCJ Number
249242
Author(s)
Rick Williams; David Heller; Lance Couzens; Bonnie Shook-Sa; Marcus Berzofsky; Hope Smiley-McDonald; Chris Krebs
Date Published
December 2015
Length
55 pages
Annotation
This study examined the feasibility of using direct variance estimation (DVE) on data obtained by the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), and it offers recommendations regarding the calculation of confidence intervals (CIs) and the identification of unstable estimates.
Abstract

Examines the feasibility of using direct variance estimation for the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). It compares generalized variance function (GVF) estimates to two direct variance estimation methods (Taylor Series Linearization and Balanced Repeated Replication). It also provides recommendations for calculating confidence intervals and identifying unstable estimates. A companion user's guide has been developed to describe how to implement the direct variance techniques detailed in this report using different software packages. Access to GVF User's Guides and other documentation is available online.