International audience This article seeks to show the validity of the use of victimization surveys for better knowledge of the university student world in France. Why study the feeling of insecurity and victimization amongst this population? And for what results? are the questions to which the article attempts to provide answers. In order to do so we must first define the main data collection tool: the victimization survey. The study and knowledge of crime is the result of a political and scientific history. In the absence of a consensual definition, we seek to define the university student world, which is home to a particular group of youth. French-language literature doesn’t contain specific elements that make it possible to discuss victimized experiences on university campuses, unlike the Anglo-Saxon studies on which we propose to base our work. Tools that measure student victimization and personal insecurity are necessary to better understand, protect and act. Moreover, the planned end of the “Cadre de vie et Sécurité” (Living Environment and Security) survey requires us to rethink the tool and the areas to be investigated.