What Is the National Incident-Based Reporting System?

What is the National Incident-Based Reporting System?

The NIBRS is an incident-based reporting system which agencies collect data on each single crime. The data is received from local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. It is a replacement collection system developed by the FBI to take the place of the older UCR system.

The NIBRS collects data on every single incident or arrest within 22 offence categories. Some crimes are reported are arson, burglary, kidnapping, and homicide offences. There are a lot more crimes that are considered Group A offences, these are just a few. Group B offences can consist of bad checks, run away, and DUI.

The NIBRS collects information about crimes using a computer. It also collects data on drug offences. It was revised in the 1980’s to allow law enforcement to record case information from about 46 types of criminal activity. Data collection began in 1991.

The NIBRS provides information on each incident reported to the police, including; relationship between the victim and the offender, injuries, weapons used, arrests made and location are some of the advantages. It requires officers to report multiple offences, victims, and offenders. This allows researchers to compare and analyze multiple incidents.

The benefits can provide information on nearly every major criminal justice issue facing law enforcement today. Law enforcement can better a case to acquire the resources needed to fight crime.

The goals are to enhance the quality, quantity, and timeliness of crime data collected by law enforcement and to improve the methodology used for compiling, analyzing, auditing, and publishing the collected crime data. The major advantage is the capability to break down and combine crime offence data into specific information.