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- 09Dec2020
FBI releases 2019 NIBRS data
On Dec. 9, 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released detailed data on nearly 7.7 million criminal offenses reported through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) in 2019.The annual NIBRS report presents data about victims, known offenders, and relationships for offenses reported in 23 categories with 52 offenses. It also presents arrest data for those crimes, as well as 10 additional categories for which only arrest data is collected.
The NIBRS, 2019 report page offers resources to view or download:
- An interactive map to filter data by agency type, state and crime category.
- A Summary of NIBRS, 2019 data
- Data tables available in spreadsheets and PDFs
- Methodology
- Specific reports on Incidents and Offenses, Victims, Arrestees, and Crimes Against Persons, Property, and Society
- Additional NIBRS resources, such as a guide to understanding NIBRS
Report Highlights
In 2019, 8,497 law enforcement agencies, whose jurisdictions covered more than 146.5 million U.S. inhabitants, submitted NIBRS data to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. These agencies accounted for 51.3% of the 16,551 law enforcement agencies that submitted data to the UCR Program in 2019. The remaining agencies submitted their data to the program via the Summary Reporting System (SRS). NIBRS agencies reported 6,572,870 incidents involving 7,688,645 offenses, 8,116,849 victims, and 6,543,257 known offenders. In addition, these agencies reported 3,931,924 arrestees.
Of the reported offenses, 59.6% were crimes against property, 24.6% were crimes against persons, and 15.8% were crimes against society. Among these categories, the offenses most reported include larceny/theft offenses, assault offenses, and drug/narcotic offenses, respectively.
Transition to NIBRS
Beginning January 1, 2021, the UCR Program is completing its transition to NIBRS-only data collection. NIBRS captures details on each single crime incident—as well as on separate offenses within the same incident—including information on victims, known offenders, relationships between victims and offenders, arrestees, and property involved in crimes. Unlike data reported through the UCR Program’s traditional Summary Reporting System—an aggregate monthly tally of crimes—NIBRS goes much deeper because of its ability to provide circumstances and context for crimes like location, time of day, and whether the incident was cleared.
Ms. Karen Lissy is a Justice Information Services Specialist for the Law and Policy Program of SEARCH, The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics. In this position, she provides assistance to state and local justice and public safety agencies to collect, curate, and use National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data and computerized criminal history record (CCH/CHRI) information for policy analysis and development.
She also guides justice and related organizations in how to craft and implement laws, policies, practices, and technology applications to effectively collect and use CCH and related justice/public safety data; address legal, policy, and regulatory issues associated with CCH data; better manage and operate criminal justice information and identification systems; and develop security and privacy policies that protect justice information sharing systems.
Ms. Lissy has nearly two decades of research and data analysis experience, having led projects and tasks in support of two agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (the Bureau of Justice Statistics and National Institute of Justice), as well as the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, and multiple foundations, including Ford, Annie E. Casey, and Hewlett. Prior to joining SEARCH in October 2020, Ms. Lissy served as a Social Science Researcher at RTI International, as a regional Crime Analyst for the Redmond (WA) Police Department, and as Director of a research program with the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. Beginning in 2012, Ms. Lissy’s work has focused on improving data in law enforcement to answer policy questions and improve community/police relations.
Ms. Lissy earned a Bachelor’s degree in Public Policy from Duke University, and a Master’s in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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