National Incident-Based Reporting System

Last updated
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Seal of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.svg
Badge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.png
Badge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Flag of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.svg
Common nameFederal Bureau of Investigation
AbbreviationFBI
MottoFidelity, Bravery, Integrity
Agency overview
FormedJuly 26, 1908;116 years ago (1908-07-26)
Employees35,104 [1] (October 31, 2014)
Annual budgetUS$8.3 billion (FY 2014) [1]
Jurisdictional structure
Federal agency
(Operations jurisdiction)
United States
Operations jurisdiction United States
Legal jurisdictionAs per operations jurisdiction
Governing body U.S. Department of Justice
Constituting instrument
General nature
Operational structure
Headquarters J. Edgar Hoover Building
Northwest, Washington, D.C.
Sworn members13,260 (October 31, 2014) [1]
Unsworn members18,306 (October 31, 2014) [1]
Agency executives
Child agencies
Major units
Field offices56 (List of FBI Field Offices)
Notables
People
Programs
Significant Operations
Website
www.fbi.gov

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) is an incident-based reporting system used by law enforcement agencies in the United States for collecting and reporting data on crimes. Local, state and federal agencies generate NIBRS data from their records management systems. Data is collected on every incident and arrest in the Group A offense category. These Group A offenses are 52 offenses grouped in 23 crime categories. Specific facts about these offenses are gathered and reported to NIBRS. In addition to the Group A offenses, 10 Group B offenses are reported with only the arrest information.

Contents

History

Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) began in the late 1920s when the Committee on Uniform Crime Records, established by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) in 1927, published the first version of the Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook . With this initiative, the Uniform Crime Reporting program began under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Over the years, the uniform crime report developed into a broad utility for summary-based reporting of crimes. By the late 1970s, the law enforcement community saw the need for a more detailed crime reporting program that would meet the needs of law enforcement agencies in the 21st century.

Testing for the new NIBRS system began in South Carolina. The new system was approved for general use at a national UCR conference in March 1988.

Similarities and differences between SRS and NIBRS

The general concepts, such as jurisdictional rules, of collecting and reporting SRS (Summary Reporting System) data [used by UCR] are the same as in NIBRS. However, NIBRS goes into much greater detail than SRS. NIBRS includes 24 Group A crime categories whereas SRS only has 8 crime categories classified as Part I.

In NIBRS, the definition of rape has been expanded to include male victims. SRS, until recently, defined rape as "the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will" but since has been expanded. Formerly in SRS, sex attacks against males were to be classified only as either assaults or "other sex offenses", depending on the nature of the crime and the extent of the injury.

When multiple crimes are committed by a single person or group of persons during the same basic period of time and same basic location, SRS uses a "Hierarchy Rule" (see UCR for details) to determine which offenses will be reported for that incident. Only the most serious offense is reported. For example, if a criminal burglarizes a residence and assaults the inhabitant, only the assault is reported as it takes precedence over the burglary on the "Hierarchy Rule". NIBRS reports all offenses involved in a particular incident.

SRS has only two crime categories: Crimes Against Persons (e.g., murder, rape, assault, robbery) and Crimes Against Property (e.g., car theft, burglary, larceny, arson). NIBRS adds a third category titled Crimes Against Society for activities such as drug or narcotic offenses and other activities prohibited by society's rules.

Finally, agencies submit SRS data in written documents that must then be hand entered into a computer system for statistical analysis. NIBRS data are submitted electronically in the form of ASCII text files. These files are then processed without the need for a person to input the data (except at the originating agency's initial filing of the report into their computer system).

Reported offense categories

Group A offenses [2]

  1. Animal Cruelty [3]
  2. Arson
  3. Assault (Aggravated, Simple, Intimidation)
  4. Bribery
  5. Burglary/Breaking and Entering
  6. Counterfeiting/Forgery
  7. Destruction/Damage/Vandalism of Property
  8. Drug/Narcotic Offenses (including drug equipment violations)
  9. Embezzlement
  10. Extortion/Blackmail
  11. Fraud (false pretenses/swindle/confidence game, credit card and ATM fraud, impersonation, welfare and wire fraud)
  12. Gambling (betting, wagering, operating/promoting/assisting gambling, gambling equipment violations, sports tampering)
  13. Homicide (murder and non-negligent manslaughter, negligent manslaughter, justifiable homicide)
  14. Human Trafficking
  15. Kidnapping/Abduction
  16. Larceny (pocket picking, purse snatching, shoplifting, theft and all other larceny)
  17. Motor vehicle theft
  18. Pornography/Obscene Material
  19. Prostitution Offenses (prostitution, assisting or promoting prostitution)
  20. Robbery
  21. Sex Offenses, Forcible (forcible rape, forcible sodomy, sexual assault with an object, forcible fondling)
  22. Sex Offenses, Non-forcible (incest, statutory rape)
  23. Stolen Property Offenses/Fence
  24. Weapon Law Violations

Group B offenses [2]

  1. Bad Checks
  2. Curfew/Loitering/Vagrancy Violations
  3. Disorderly Conduct
  4. Driving Under the Influence
  5. Drunkenness
  6. Family Offenses, Nonviolent
  7. Liquor Law Violations
  8. Peeping Tom
  9. Trespass of Real Property
  10. All Other Offenses

Use of NIBRS in the U.S.

As of October 31, 2020, 8,742 law enforcement agencies representing 48.9 percent of the population were reporting NIBRS data to the UCR program. At that time, 43 states were NIBRS-certified as having records management systems that meet the FBI's requirement for collecting crime data according to established technical specifications. [FBI]. [4] As of January 1, 2022, 11,794 law enforcement agencies representing 69 percent [5] of the population were reporting NIBRS data to the UCR program. [6] This generated concerns [7] over the effect of the incomplete data on public interpretations.

As of the 2023 Quarter 2 Uniform Crime Report data with 13,363 participating agencies (out of 18,892 agencies across the country) the FBI was still "unable to make confident statements about national crime trends" because of incomplete participation which did not achieve a "minimum of 60 percent population coverage for these most in-population cities" [8] (for example, at the time, NYPD and LAPD were both missing data [9] ). Compliance is an even greater challenge in small agencies, with agencies covering <25,000 people having an average compliance of only 55 percent. [10]

The participation rose by 2023 Quarter 4 with 82 percent of the population covered by 15,199 participating agencies (of 19,152) reporting data [11] , including NYPD and LAPD [12] .

A number of states, such as Texas and South Carolina, use a customized version of NIBRS. These versions return the basic data required by the FBI, but include additional data required by the state. This additional data are supplied with an additional segment type (see below for information on data segments) or appended to the appropriate segment line. For example, the Texas system (TIBRs) includes an additional segment (Segment Level 8) with additional data elements such as number of drug labs or fields seized, precursor drug chemicals involved and family violence data. The South Carolina system (SCIBRs) includes data like second location type, victim's usage of drugs or alcohol and space for additional offenses on arrests (other than the specific offense for which the person was arrested). These data are appended to the appropriate segment type.[ citation needed ]

Data format

NIBRS data are submitted in an ASCII text format. There are 8 segments in the NIBRS system (numbered 0–7). Each segment is represented in a single line in the text file. Lines are separated with a newline character.

Zero-reporting segment

The Level 0 segment is only filed if an agency does not have any criminal offenses or arrests to report during a given reporting period.

Administrative segment

The Level 1 segment contains administrative information for a single incident. This information includes the incident number, date, time and a list of offenses. Only one Level 1 segment is submitted for each incident with an offense in the Group A category. For each Level 1 segment, there may be one or more segments from Levels 2 through 6.

Offense segment

A Level 2 segment is submitted for each offense and provides details on the offense such as the UCR offense code, whether or not the offense was completed, the location type, number of premises entered (only valid for burglaries), type of criminal activity and the type of weapon or force used in the crime.

Property segment

Any property involved in an offense is recorded in the Level 3 segment. The loss type (stolen, recovered, burned, seized, damaged, etc.), value, description and recovery date (only for recovered property) are provided as well as data on stolen and recovered motor vehicles and seized drugs.

Victim segment

Every victim involved in the incident is detailed in the Level 4 segment. The victim's age, sex, race, ethnicity, relationship to the offender(s), type of injury and special circumstances for certain offense types are recorded.

Offender segment

Each offender's age, sex and race are reported using the Level 5 segment.

Arrestee segment

The Level 6 segment is filed for each person arrested under a Group A offense. The data submitted via this segment includes the arrest date, type and offense code. The arrestee's age, sex, race, ethnicity and resident status (whether or not the arrestee is a resident of the arresting agency's jurisdiction) are reported along with any weapons with which the arrestee was armed and a disposition code for arrestees under 18 years of age.

Group B arrest segment

Each person arrested under a Group B offense is reported using a Level 7 segment. The arrestee's age, sex, race, ethnicity and resident status are reported along with any weapons with which the arrestee was armed. A disposition code for arrestees under 18 years of age is also reported.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Bureau of Investigation</span> U.S. federal law enforcement agency

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. An agency of the United States Department of Justice, the FBI is a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence. A leading U.S. counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, the FBI has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime statistics</span> Official statistics on criminal behavior

Crime statistics refer to systematic, quantitative results about crime, as opposed to crime news or anecdotes. Notably, crime statistics can be the result of two rather different processes:

The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program compiles official data on crime in the United States, published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). UCR is "a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of nearly 18,000 city, university and college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting data on crimes brought to their attention".

A violent crime, violent felony, crime of violence or crime of a violent nature is a crime in which an offender or perpetrator uses or threatens to use harmful force upon a victim. This entails both crimes in which the violent act is the objective, such as murder, assault, rape and assassination, as well as crimes in which violence is used as a method of coercion or show of force, such as robbery, extortion and terrorism. Violent crimes may, or may not, be committed with weapons. Depending on the jurisdiction, violent crimes may be regarded with varying severities from homicide to harassment. There have been many theories regarding heat being the cause of an increase in violent crime. Theorists claim that violent crime is persistent during the summer due to the heat, further causing people to become aggressive and commit more violent crime.

In the United States, the relationship between race and crime has been a topic of public controversy and scholarly debate for more than a century. Crime rates vary significantly between racial groups; however, academic research indicates that the over-representation of some racial minorities in the criminal justice system can in part be explained by socioeconomic factors, such as poverty, exposure to poor neighborhoods, poor access to public and early education, and exposure to harmful chemicals and pollution. Racial housing segregation has also been linked to racial disparities in crime rates, as black Americans have historically and to the present been prevented from moving into prosperous low-crime areas through actions of the government and private actors. Various explanations within criminology have been proposed for racial disparities in crime rates, including conflict theory, strain theory, general strain theory, social disorganization theory, macrostructural opportunity theory, social control theory, and subcultural theory.

Crime in St. Louis includes an overview of crime both in the city of St. Louis and in the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. Crime in the city increased from the 1960s through the early 1990s as measured by the index crime rate. Despite decreasing crime, rates of violent crime and property crime in both the city and the metropolitan area remain higher than the national metropolitan area average. In addition, the city of St. Louis consistently has been ranked among the most dangerous cities in the United States. As of April 2017, St. Louis has the highest murder rate in America. At the end of 2017, St. Louis metropolitan had 205 murders, 159 of which were within the city limits. In 2018, the new Chief of Police, John Hayden said two-thirds (67%) of all the murders and one-half of all the assaults are concentrated in a triangular area in the north part of the city.

The Criminal Justice Information Services Division is a division of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) located in Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia. The CJIS was established in February 1992 and is the largest division in the FBI.

Crime has been recorded in the United States since its founding and has fluctuated significantly over time. Most available data underestimate crime before the 1930s, giving the false impression that crime was low in the early 1900s and had a sharp rise after. Instead, violent crime during the colonial period was likely three times higher than the highest modern rates in the data we have, and crime had been on the decline since colonial times. Within the better data for crime reporting and recording available starting in the 1930s, crime reached its broad, bulging modern peak between the 1970s and early 1990s. After 1992, crime rates have generally trended downwards each year, with the exceptions of a slight increase in property crimes in 2001 and increases in violent crimes in 2005–2006, 2014–2016 and 2020–2021.

Crime in Atlanta, Georgia is above the national median and has been a major problem for the city since the middle 20th century.

Rape in the United States is defined by the United States Department of Justice as "Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim." While definitions and terminology of rape vary by jurisdiction in the United States, the FBI revised its definition to eliminate a requirement that the crime involve an element of force.

In 2019, there were 7,545 violent-crime incidents, and 8,237 offenses reported in the U.S. state of Iowa.

According to the Louisiana Uniform Crime reporting program, there were 177,710 crimes reported in the U.S. state of Louisiana in 2018. 2018 had the least amount of non-violent criminal offenses since at least 2008. Violent crime decreased from 2017 to 2018, but 2012 still remains the lowest with its record of 22,868. Rape went up 12.7% from 2017 while murder/non-negligent manslaughter declined 7.8%. Additionally, robbery dropped 15% and aggravated assault dropped 1.5%. Handguns remain the leading murder weapon with a rate of 44.7% with firearm following close behind at 35.7%. Together, these two contribute for 80.4% of the murders. Similarly, robberies were committed mostly with firearms in 2018. Firearms were leading with 52% and strongarm listed with a percentage of 35%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in Minnesota</span>

Crime in Minnesota encompasses a wide range of unlawful activities that occur within the state, regulated by both state and federal laws. While crime rates in Minnesota are generally below the national average, certain areas and types of crime have garnered public attention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Combined DNA Index System</span> United States national DNA database

The Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) is the United States national DNA database created and maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. CODIS consists of three levels of information; Local DNA Index Systems (LDIS) where DNA profiles originate, State DNA Index Systems (SDIS) which allows for laboratories within states to share information, and the National DNA Index System (NDIS) which allows states to compare DNA information with one another.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ODIS</span>

ODIS, or the Offender Data Information System is a web based, computerized records management software application to improve the capture, maintenance and quality of law enforcement data that is capable of running in any combination of centralized or decentralized network environments. It is designed using Microsoft's DNA programming model, constructed using three tiers: database for storage, compiled application components to handle the business logic and the presentation layer which is what the user see.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FBI Science and Technology Branch</span>

The Science and Technology Branch (STB) is a service within the Federal Bureau of Investigation that comprises three separate divisions and three program offices. The goal when it was founded in July 2006 was to centralize the leadership and management of the three divisions. The mission of the STB is discover, develop, and deliver innovative science and technology so that intelligence and innovative investigation is enhanced.

Crime rates in Connecticut are lower than in the United States as a whole and have fallen significantly over the past decade, according to the 2021 Crime in Connecticut Report. This pattern holds true overall, and for most types of crime.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Frequently Asked Questions". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 2016-09-02.
  2. 1 2 "Federal Bureau of Investigation National Incident-based Reporting System – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)". www2.fbi.gov. Retrieved 2016-02-10.
  3. "FBI — Tracking Animal Cruelty". www.fbi.gov. Archived from the original on 2016-02-02.
  4. FBI (November 10, 2020). "UCR Focuses on NIBRS and Other Tools to Make More Relevant Data Available to Users". FBI.gov. Retrieved 2021-01-19.
  5. "FBI Crime Data Explorer". cde.ucr.cjis.gov. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  6. Rosenfeld, Richard (11 October 2022). "Was Crime Up or Down in 2021? Why the FBI Can't Tell Us". The Crime Report. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  7. Li, Weihua; Ricard, Jasmyne (13 July 2023). "Many Large U.S. Police Agencies Are Missing from FBI Crime Data". The Marshall Project. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  8. "Quarterly Uniform Crime Report data". cde.ucr.cjis.gov. FBI. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  9. LI, WEIHUA; RICARD, JASMYNE (13 July 2023). "Many Large U.S. Police Agencies Are Missing from FBI Crime Data". The Marshall Project. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  10. Asher, Jeff (25 March 2024). "NIBRS Noncompliance Has Become More of a Small Agency Problem". Jeff-alytics. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  11. Asher, Jeff (19 March 2024). "FBI Quarterly Data Points to Declining Crime in 2023". Jeff-alytics. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  12. Li, Weihua; Lartey, Jamiles (27 June 2024). "Crime Rates and the 2024 Election: What You Need to Know". The Marshall Project. Retrieved 26 August 2024.