Assessing the Utility of NIBRS Data

• In Event: Advances in Measurement

Abstract

Data produced by the FBI’s National Incident-Based Crime Reporting System (NIBRS) offers researchers, policy analysts and practitioners exceptional opportunities for understanding crime. Many assume, however, the data are biased due to lack of national coverage, over-representation of smaller population areas, and incomplete reporting of item data. This effort attempts to measure the bias in NIBRS data and establish how that bias is changing over time as agencies increasingly employ NIBRS reporting. In addition, the project will establish standards for item missing data in NIBRS by tracking the reporting of various incident-level details over a sixteen year period.

Authors

• Douglas Salane, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

• Peter Shenkin, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

• Eman Abdu, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

• Henry Gallo, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY