The Difference Between UCR and NIBRS
When it comes to reporting on crime data to the FBI, most police departments use one of two ways of reporting - UCR or NIBRS.
UCR (Uniform Crime Reports), established in 1929 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, is a nationwide program that law enforcement agencies across the country voluntarily report data on crimes that occur in their jurisdiction to the FBI. The program was created with the objective to generate reliable, comparable information for law enforcement administration, operations, and management.
Each month, the participating agency reports the number of known index crimes, number of crime cases cleared, and crimes reported to the police in their jurisdiction to the FBI. There are Part I and Part II crimes reported as well as two crime categories - Crimes Against Persons and Crimes Against Property. Yearly reports are published by the FBI on their website.
Part I crimes, also known as Index crimes collectively, are split into two categories - violent and property crimes. Violent crimes include aggravated assault, forcible rape, murder, and robbery. Property crimes include arson, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft.
Part II crimes include simple assault, curfew offenses and loitering, embezzlement, forgery and counterfeiting, disorderly conduct, driving under the influence, drug offenses, fraud, gambling, liquor offenses, offenses again the family, prostitution, public drunkenness, runaways, sex offenses, stolen property, vandalism, vagrancy, and weapons offenses.
NIBRS (National Incident Based Reporting System), established in the 1970's, is an incident-based reporting system also used by law enforcement agencies for collecting and reporting data on crimes to the FBI. The law enforcement community saw the need for a more detailed crime reporting program (compared to UCR) that would meet the needs of law enforcement agencies in the 21st century, thus NIBRS was created. The data collected (generated from a departments records management system) includes every incident and arrest in the Group A offense category and only arrest information in the Group B category. Like UCR, NIBRS reports Crimes Against Persons and Crimes Against Property. Unlike UCR, NIBRS also reports a third category - Crimes Against Society.
Group A category includes arson, assault (aggravated, simple, intimidation), bribery, burglary/breaking and entering, counterfeiting/forgery, destruction/damage/vandalism of property, drug/narcotic offenses, embezzlement, extortion/blackmail, fraud, gambling, homicide, kidnapping, larceny, motor vehicle theft, pornography/obscene material, prostitution, robbery, sex offenses, stolen property offenses, and weapon law violations
Group B includes only arrest information on the following - bad checks, curfew/loitering/vagrancy violations, disorderly conduct, driving under the influence, drunkenness, family offenses, nonviolent, liquor law violations, Peeping Tom, runaway, trespass of real property, and all other offenses.
UCR and NIBRS are both regulated by the FBI and both use the same general concepts. NIBRS goes into greater detail than UCR and has 46 Group A offenses while UCR only has 8 Part I offenses. UCR does not differentiate between completed and attempted crimes while NIBRS does. Also, UCR tends to only report the most serious offense reported when multiple crimes are reported in the same period of time, location, and person/group of people. The great thing about NIBRS is the data can be submitted electronically (yay 21st century!) in the form of ASCII text files, needing no manual input. UCR data is written documents that have to be hand entered into a computer system for analysis.
Not all police departments report crime to the FBI. However, about 95% of agencies do report the FBI. And, those that do report to the FBI, use either UCR or NIBRS, sometimes making it difficult to compare statistics nationwide.
UCR (Uniform Crime Reports), established in 1929 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, is a nationwide program that law enforcement agencies across the country voluntarily report data on crimes that occur in their jurisdiction to the FBI. The program was created with the objective to generate reliable, comparable information for law enforcement administration, operations, and management.
Each month, the participating agency reports the number of known index crimes, number of crime cases cleared, and crimes reported to the police in their jurisdiction to the FBI. There are Part I and Part II crimes reported as well as two crime categories - Crimes Against Persons and Crimes Against Property. Yearly reports are published by the FBI on their website.
Part I crimes, also known as Index crimes collectively, are split into two categories - violent and property crimes. Violent crimes include aggravated assault, forcible rape, murder, and robbery. Property crimes include arson, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft.
Part II crimes include simple assault, curfew offenses and loitering, embezzlement, forgery and counterfeiting, disorderly conduct, driving under the influence, drug offenses, fraud, gambling, liquor offenses, offenses again the family, prostitution, public drunkenness, runaways, sex offenses, stolen property, vandalism, vagrancy, and weapons offenses.
NIBRS (National Incident Based Reporting System), established in the 1970's, is an incident-based reporting system also used by law enforcement agencies for collecting and reporting data on crimes to the FBI. The law enforcement community saw the need for a more detailed crime reporting program (compared to UCR) that would meet the needs of law enforcement agencies in the 21st century, thus NIBRS was created. The data collected (generated from a departments records management system) includes every incident and arrest in the Group A offense category and only arrest information in the Group B category. Like UCR, NIBRS reports Crimes Against Persons and Crimes Against Property. Unlike UCR, NIBRS also reports a third category - Crimes Against Society.
Group A category includes arson, assault (aggravated, simple, intimidation), bribery, burglary/breaking and entering, counterfeiting/forgery, destruction/damage/vandalism of property, drug/narcotic offenses, embezzlement, extortion/blackmail, fraud, gambling, homicide, kidnapping, larceny, motor vehicle theft, pornography/obscene material, prostitution, robbery, sex offenses, stolen property offenses, and weapon law violations
Group B includes only arrest information on the following - bad checks, curfew/loitering/vagrancy violations, disorderly conduct, driving under the influence, drunkenness, family offenses, nonviolent, liquor law violations, Peeping Tom, runaway, trespass of real property, and all other offenses.
UCR and NIBRS are both regulated by the FBI and both use the same general concepts. NIBRS goes into greater detail than UCR and has 46 Group A offenses while UCR only has 8 Part I offenses. UCR does not differentiate between completed and attempted crimes while NIBRS does. Also, UCR tends to only report the most serious offense reported when multiple crimes are reported in the same period of time, location, and person/group of people. The great thing about NIBRS is the data can be submitted electronically (yay 21st century!) in the form of ASCII text files, needing no manual input. UCR data is written documents that have to be hand entered into a computer system for analysis.
Not all police departments report crime to the FBI. However, about 95% of agencies do report the FBI. And, those that do report to the FBI, use either UCR or NIBRS, sometimes making it difficult to compare statistics nationwide.
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