NIBR Essay

A Description of NIBR

Law enforcement agencies have collected and analyzed data in effort to combat crime since the mid-1990s. It began with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) creating the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) program in 1930 to determine crime statistics for national comparisons. Today, the FBI compiles the UCR data from county, state, and federal agencies then releases that data in an annual summary report. The UCR served as the most important source of information on crime for law enforcement and legislators until a 1980s-report revealed the need for a more comprehensive and detailed crime reporting program. To serve this growing need, the FBI created the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS).

The NIBRS has many characteristics. Worth noting is its data, which reflects only crimes known and voluntarily reported by police; Law enforcement agencies are under no obligation to report NIBRS data to the FBI. Equally, the NIBR system uses revised and new offense definitions not included in the UCR; For example, the NIBRS redefined the

UCR’s definition of forcible rape to include male victims of this offense (the UCR program only considers female victims of this offense).

NIBR Advantages and Disadvantages
The NIBR system has far reaching effects on the US.

For example, it plays a role in the legislative branch of government; Legislators use NIBR data during the policy-making process as it provides background information for the policy they want to develop. Moreover, it also plays a role in law enforcement; Policing agencies use NIBR data to both reveal criminal trends and to guide solution building efforts to approach those problems. Nevertheless, the numerous effects come with certain advantages and drawbacks. The two main advantages are that it offers detailed information on 23 categories of offenses, and that it collects 53 data elements that most of which arn’t included in the traditional UCR data. Conversely, the two main disadvantages is that it requires increased data entry requirements and data processing abilities on the part of local law enforcement, and that it lacks resource

funding.
NIBR Advantages
Researchers and law enforcement agencies view the UCR as a summary report because it collects data on only 8 index offenses. This restricted collection of data is inefficient because it fails to provide an in-depth picture of the crime problem. The NIBR, on the other hand, provides information on 23 categories of offenses and therefore is preferred over the UCR. The categories include, arson, assault offenses, vandalism, homicide offenses, prostitution offenses, robbery, and weapon law violations, just to name a few (Doerner & Lab, 2015).
While 23 categories alone provide a more in-depth picture, the NIBRS goes even further by collecting 53 data elements, which reveal detailed information about the victim, the victim-offender relationship, injuries, and property loss. For example, the NIBRS collects information about when and where the incident occurred (offense information), the type and value of property loss (property segment), the type, age, sex, and race of the victim (victim segment), the age, sex, and race of the offender (offender segment), and the date and type of arrest (arrestee segment) (Doerner & Lab, 2015). Criteria determines whether the offenses within an incident are Group A or Group B offense, which include the seriousness or significance of the offense, the frequency or volume of its occurrence, and the prevalence of the offense nationwide (FBI, 2013).
NIBR Disadvantages
The NIBR has two important disadvantages which harms its effectiveness and prevents its national reach. Firstly, NIBR requires data entry skills and data processing abilities that many law enforcement agencies lack. As a result, only 33% of agencies currently participate in the NIBRS program (Sibley, 2015). Therefore, in order for agencies to meet these stringent guidelines, it requires funding and resources, which leads to the second disadvantage: inadequate funding. As a result of these two disadvantages, the FBI has a long way to go to achieve their goal of providing nationally representative data. The FBI acknowledges this, stating “the data is still not pervasive enough to make broad generalizations about crime in the United States.”
The Great Advantage of NIBRS Data
According to Victimology, the great advantage of NIBRS data is “the ability of law enforcement and researchers to gain a more in-depth picture of the crime problem and to use that information to decide on appropriate courses of action” (Doerner & Lab, 2015). Because U.S. law enforcement agencies strive to use evidenced-based strategies, it’s important to understand why. Firstly, empirically based decisions are more effective than decisions based on popular belief or intuition; In fact, it’s counterproductive in reducing crime because many intuitive beliefs are provocative to those who don’t carry them. Moreover, the U.S. is a pluralistic society with various religious and political belief systems. It isn’t enough, therefore, to base a decision on mere intuition or popularity, but rather on reason and empirical evidence. So, rather than provocation, empirical data improves policing and police-community relations.
Next, according to the Task Force on 21st Century Policing, “greater acceptance of the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System could benefit policing practice and research endeavors” (Harshaw, 2015) Today, law enforcement agencies use NIBRS data for crime preventative techniques; One popular technique is problem-oriented policing (POP). Enforcement agencies use NIBRS data to identify and prioritize crime problems, design interventions, and initiate responses by exploring questions, such as, “What types of crimes are being committed?” and “how has the amount of crime in the area changed over time?” (Belvins, 2013).