National Incident-Based Reporting System Data Research Articles

Using National Incident-Based Reporting System Data to Explore Animal Cruelty Incidents that Occur with Intimate Partner and Family Violence: A Brief Report

Abstract Purpose This brief report extends what is known about “the link” between animal cruelty and intimate partner violence (IPV) and family violence (FV). Specifically, it uses animal cruelty data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to explore characteristics of incidents where animal cruelty and IPV or FV occur together. Methods This exploratory study analyzes 278 animal cruelty incidents that occurred with IPV or FV from the 2020 NIBRS data using descriptive and bivariate analyses. Results Findings from the NIBRS animal cruelty data suggest the importance of parsing out specific intimate and family relationships. While these patterns are similar to IPV and FV that occur with crimes outside of animal cruelty, previous research on the link has not examined these relationships. This study also found the majority of animal cruelty incidents that occur with IPV or FV end in an arrest. No previous work has identified arrest patterns in these cases. Conclusions Although exploratory, this study highlights the value of NIBRS animal cruelty data and the opportunity to gain insights at the incident level of details that were previously unavailable from other animal cruelty studies that consider IPV and FV. This study provides a foundation for future research that can inform theoretical development and prevention efforts related to the link.

What Did Obergefell Change? Clearance of Intimate Partner Violence Before and After the Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage.

Historically, same-sex intimate partner violence (IPV) was ignored, and victims often experienced high rates of harassment and intimidation from police, leading to low reporting of same-sex IPV incidents, victims' unwillingness to cooperate with the police, and common arrests in such incidents. Although the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) legalized and legitimized same-sex marriages and relationships in the U.S., mandating the inclusion of same-sex partners in protective order laws and yielding collateral benefits for victims of same-sex IPV, it is unclear if the decision has had a positive effect on same-sex IPV clearance rates. This study uses National Incident-Based Reporting System data to compare IPV clearance (arrest, dual arrest, victim noncooperation, and prosecution declined) pre (2013/2014) and post (2016/2017) Obergefell v. Hodges (2015). Regression results show no substantial changes in same-sex IPV clearance after Obergefell v. Hodges (2015). Compared to opposite-sex IPV, same-sex IPV was less likely to be cleared by arrest but much more likely to be cleared by dual arrest, victim noncooperation, and prosecution declined. Same-sex IPV involving Black couples and married partners were also less likely to be cleared by arrest but more likely to be cleared by dual arrest than Black/White same-sex IPV and incidents involving unmarried partners, respectively. Moreover, same-sex IPV victims experience unfavorable criminal justice outcomes in states with mandatory arrest policies but fare better in states that supported same-sex relationships prior to Obergefell. The implications of these findings for practice and research are discussed.

Stealing tires or copper wires? How the national incident-based reporting system changed how the Arlington, Texas, Police Department addresses larceny-thefts

ABSTRACT When the Arlington, Texas, Police Department (APD) began using the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), its understanding of local crime trends and the factors driving them was transformed. NIBRS has allowed APD to better identify the precise offences driving changes in more aggregated offence categories and to respond to crime more effectively. With larceny-theft as an example, we describe APD’s NIBRS transition, how it altered crime control strategy , and how it impacted APD’s responses to crime. This description serves as an example to the field of the value of NIBRS for developing effective crime prevention strategies and tactics. We also analyse APD’s NIBRS data for the years 2017 and 2018 to demonstrate other possible uses of these data that would allow law enforcement agencies to better understand the factors driving crime in their jurisdiction. We explain how this understanding can lead to more targeted and effective policing strategies and tactics.

Using National Incident-Based Reporting System data to assess agency differences in clearance rates: a recommendation for law enforcement

ABSTRACT The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) disaggregates crime clearances into crimes cleared by arrest and crimes cleared by exceptional means. This feature is an improvement to the Summary Reporting System and allows law enforcement agencies to perform cross-jurisdiction comparisons of their clearance practices and investigative performances. This study uses sexual assault clearance rates to demonstrate a method of cross-jurisdiction comparison, which can be used to improve agency practices. Findings show much variability in sexual assault clearance rates across agencies, but most of this variation is explained by agency use of clearance by exceptional means. Further, no single agency characteristic examined here explained variability in exceptional clearance rates. Finally, there was additional agency variation in the offense type used to clear a sexual assault by arrest. The article concludes with a discussion of the importance of NIBRS for advancing law enforcement research and practice and the need for greater attention to data quality in NIBRS.

A robbery is a robbery is a robbery? Exploring crime specificity in official police incident data

ABSTRACT Police crime data guide police operations, direct funding, underpin theory testing and policy evaluation, aide private sector decisions, and inform the public. Those applications would benefit from greater crime specificity. The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) should improve police crime data specificity. Using robbery incident data (n = 1,341) with NIBRS variables and narrative reports from the Cincinnati Police Department and qualitative analysis, this study identified thirteen robbery subtypes in the data. Tables and data visualizations demonstrate the same thirteen robbery subtypes cannot be identified using just NIBRS variables. Rather the qualitative narrative reports are most informative. While an improvement, NIBRS data are unlikely to increase the crime specificity police crime data users need. Police crime data users are urged to think carefully about what official crime data measures are used when testing theory, conducting crime analysis, evaluating policy, and so on. Recommendations for improving police data recording practices are also offered.

Turning 75: Why Age Matters for Victims of Assaultive Violence Reported to Police

Americans are able to age in more active and engaged ways than previous generations. These changes bring many positive opportunities, but also might affect the risk of criminal victimization for older adults. In considering these risks, an initial question is how best to identify older adults. One common default is to use age 65 and older, which suggests older individuals are part of a homogenous group. The Census Bureau’s multiple category approach illustrates another option, which captures variations as Americans age. This study explores the risk and characteristics of non-fatal assaultive violence using a multiple-category age definition and uses police data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2016 National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). These data were collected from 34 states and cover a range of crimes including aggravated and simple assaults. NIBRS data are well suited for this study as they collect details about the crime including victim and offender demographics and incident details such as victim-offender relationship, weapons, location and arrest. Preliminary results indicate that 34,689 assault victims were adults over the age of 65. Using a generic measure of older adult (age 65 and above) masks important variations in these assaults. Distinct patterns are observed between those aged 65 to 74, 75 to 84 and 85 and above. Within these age categories, differences also occur across racial and sex groups. The patterns observed can provide more nuanced guidance to challenge traditional assumptions about older adult crime victims and inform policies tailored to support these victims.

Incidents of Sexual Assault Against Older Adults: A Comparison Study

Sexual assault perpetrated against older adults remains understudied. This research examined sexual assault incidents perpetrated against older women and men (aged 60+) reported to law enforcement. It compared these sexual assault incidents with those committed against middle-age (aged 40-59) and younger (aged 18-39) women and men. National Incident-Based Reporting System data (1992-2015) were analyzed using multinomial logistic regression models. Findings showed incidents involving an older woman, relative to a middle-age and/or younger woman, were significantly more likely to involve stranger perpetrators, occur at a private location, and involve additional violent crime or property crime. Incidents involving an older man, relative to a middle-age and/or younger man, were significantly more likely to involve offenders of more than one sex, older offenders, stranger perpetrators, and additional violent crime or property crime. Results are discussed in relation to prior work and future directions.

Same-Sex Couples and the Police: A 10-Year Study of Arrest and Dual Arrest Rates in Responding to Incidents of Intimate Partner Violence

Despite concern, little research has been conducted on whether victims in same-sex relationships receive disparate treatment from law enforcement. Utilizing 2000 through 2009 National Incident-Based Reporting System data, the authors examine the police response to incidents involving same-sex and heterosexual couples in 2,625,753 cases across 5,481 jurisdictions in 36 states and Washington, D.C. Results show that incidents with same-sex couples are less likely to result in arrest, but far more likely to result in dual arrests, in most incident configurations. Racial effects were also observed. The policy implications of these findings are discussed with the need for broad-based training highlighted.

Analyzing the NIBRS Data: the Impact of the Number of Records Used per Segment

In an effort to upgrade and improve criminal justice statistics, the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program is currently in the process of transitioning from the Summary Reporting System (SRS) to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). While this transition will increase the capacity for law enforcement agencies and analysts to make informed decisions regarding crime and policing policy, the detail of NIBRS increases analytic complexity. More specifically, NIBRS includes variables in six data segments, five of which can include multiple records per incident. As a result, analysts must decide how many records to use. However, there is currently no guidance for best practices in making this decision. This research addresses this gap by examining the impact of this decision on descriptive analyses and regression estimates. Results indicate some estimates are measured accurately using only one record, using three records reduces inaccuracy, and with some exceptions, using more than three records is methodologically unnecessary. As the NIBRS data become increasingly representative and useful in the coming years, it will be important that they are used both efficiently and effectively. Taken together, this research suggests that for most analyses there is substantial consistency when using at least three records per data segment but that there are some cases for which the number of records is consequential and researchers should consider the methodological and theoretical implications of each strategy when choosing between them.

Race/Ethnicity and Measures of Violence at the Macro Level

An abundance of scholarship has examined the racial invariance thesis positing that the causes of violence, especially markers of disadvantage, are similar across racial/ethnic groups. More recently, research has adopted “yardsticks” to provide more meaningful assessments of the thesis, including incorporating Latinos into analyses and using statistical tests to compare disadvantages’ effects across groups. Less attention, however, has been given to the measure of violence the thesis applies to. Although intended to explain offending, criminologists commonly substitute measures of race-/ethnic-specific arrest and victimization. Using 2010–2014 National Incident-Based Reporting System data for 453 census places, we examine whether the relationship between structural disadvantage and race-/ethnic-specific violence varies across measures of offending, arrest, and victimization. Consistent with “lenient interpretations” of the thesis, we find that disadvantage is generally associated with higher rates of violence among Whites, Blacks, and Latinos, regardless of the measure of violence. However, at odds with “strict interpretations” of the thesis, there are significant differences in the magnitude of disadvantages’ effects across groups and these differences are conditioned somewhat by the measure of violence examined. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are considered.

Race and the Likelihood of Intimate Partner Violence Arrest and Dual Arrest

Research on the impact of race on the likelihood an incident of intimate partner violence will result in arrest is mixed. Some scholars find racial minorities to be at lower risk of arrest, some find racial minorities to be at higher risk of arrest, and some find no difference in arrest likelihood based on race of the involved parties. Using a data set comprising 10 years of National Incident-Based Reporting System data (2000–2009) from 5,481 jurisdictions in 36 states and the District of Columbia, the authors examine the impact of victim and offender race on the likelihood of arrest and dual arrest. Accounting for such factors as seriousness of offense, location, and sex, the authors found that there are significant differences in the likelihood of arrest and dual arrest based on the victim and offender racial dyad. Generally, regardless of offender race, incidents with a White victim evince the highest likelihood of arrest, while interracial incidents involving a Black offender and White victim evince the lowest likelihood of dual arrest. Research and policy implications of these findings are discussed.

Individual and situational influences on injurious assaults against the police

PurposeViolence against the police represents an ongoing and serious problem in the USA. In 2014, over 48,000 law enforcement officers assaulted while on duty. Although over one in four of these resulted in injury, little is known about the conditions under which injury is likely to occur. The purpose of this paper is to provide an assessment of the individual and situational factors that predict injurious assaults against law enforcement.Design/methodology/approachUsing logistic regression, the current study analyzes data from the 2012 National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) on all assaults against the police (n=8,987) in order to understand, within a routine activities theoretical framework, how individual-level characteristics (i.e. officer and offender characteristics) and situational influences (i.e. assignment type, activity type, and location) predict the likelihood that an assault will result in injury.FindingsOverall, findings suggest support for a routine activities theory of violence against the police. Initiating an arrest, one-officer vehicle type, and incidents occurring on highways/roads were all more likely to result in injurious assaults against the police. Other predictors of injury include officer and offender demographics as well as the time the incident took place.Research limitations/implicationsThis research was unable to control for some factors that may influence the likelihood of injury such as wearing body armor. Additionally, NIBRS data are not nationally representative, which limits the generalizability of the findings.Originality/valueThis is one of the first papers to use national data to examine the individual and situational factors that predict injurious assaults against law enforcement.

Assessing the Coverage and Representativeness of the National Incident-Based Reporting System

This article examines the coverage of the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) as of 2013. We use NIBRS, Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), and Supplementary Homicide Reports to assess the population coverage and index crime coverage of NIBRS. We also examine the correspondence of crime rates between the UCR and agencies that do and do not participate in NIBRS. We found that NIBRS covers 29.3% of the U.S. population and 28% of UCR index crimes. We also found that the crime rates in NIBRS jurisdictions are appreciably lower than jurisdictions that do not participate in NIBRS. As of 2013, therefore, NIBRS data are not representative of the U.S. population, crime counts, or crime rates.

Police Responses to Violent Crime

This work advances the relatively limited literature pertaining to police clearances of serious violent crimes by comparing and contrasting the correlates of homicide clearance with clearance of nonlethal violent crimes. Using 5 years of National Incident-Based Reporting System data from 2008 to 2012 and survival models, we analyze the impact of various victim and incident characteristics on time to clearance outcomes for four offense types: homicide, aggravated assault, robbery, and sexual assault. Examining longitudinal trends of clearance rates reveals important differences across violent crime types. Results of survival models also reveal substantial variation in the effects of victim and incident characteristics on time to clearance across types of violent crime. These findings indicate that results from previous studies on homicide case outcomes are not applicable to other types of violent crimes, and police efforts to solve violent crimes differ markedly. As such, the theoretical frameworks of mobilization of law and bounded rationality explanations for variation in police responses to violent crime may be more viable than found in previous studies. However, future research will need to consider these nuances to confirm if such dynamics extend to other forms of criminal behavior.

Deconstructing Incidents of Female Perpetrated Sex Crimes.

Very little is known about co-offending by female sexual offenders (FSOs), especially in terms of diverse forms of offender groupings. To address this gap in the literature, this study uses 21 years (1992-2012) of National Incident-Based Reporting System data to analyze incidents of sexual offending committed by four female groupings: solo FSOs ( n = 29,238), coed pairs consisting of one male and one FSO ( n = 11,112), all-female groups ( n = 2,669), and multiple perpetrator groups that consist of a combination of three or more FSOs and male sexual offenders (MSOs; n = 4,268). Using a multinomial logistic regression model, the data show significant differences in offender, victim, and crime context incident characteristics. The data also indicate that incidents with solo FSOs and all-female groups have similar characteristics, coed pairs and multiple perpetrator incidents have similar characteristics, and these two categorizations are fairly distinct from one another. Implications of this research are discussed in addition to directions for future research on female sexual offending.

Same-Sex and Race-Based Disparities in Statutory Rape Arrests.

This study tests a liberation hypothesis for statutory rape incidents, specifically that there may be same-sex and race/ethnicity arrest disparities among statutory rape incidents and that these will be greater among statutory rape than among forcible sex crime incidents. 26,726 reported incidents of statutory rape as defined under state statutes and 96,474 forcible sex crime incidents were extracted from National Incident-Based Reporting System data sets. Arrest outcomes were tested using multilevel modeling. Same-sex statutory rape pairings were rare but had much higher arrest odds. A victim-offender romantic relationship amplified arrest odds for same-sex pairings, but damped arrest odds for male-on-female pairings. Same-sex disparities were larger among statutory than among forcible incidents. Female-on-male incidents had uniformly lower arrest odds. Race/ethnicity effects were smaller than gender effects and more complexly patterned. The findings support the liberation hypothesis for same-sex statutory rape arrest disparities, particularly among same-sex romantic pairings. Support for race/ethnicity-based arrest disparities was limited and mixed.

Does Gender Change Things? Analysis of the Difference Between Male and Female Violent Crime for Solo and Co-Offenders

Abstract The narrowing of the gender gap among violent male and female offenders has led to inquiry of the relationship between gender and violent co-offending relationships. This study examines the relationship between offender/offense and victim characteristics to offender categories: solo or co-offender, offender categories according to number and gender, and the presence of a female offender (no female, one female, or two females) using official National Incident-Based Reporting System data. The findings indicate that co-offenders were significantly more likely than solo offenders to have multiple victims. Incidents involving at least one female offender are more likely to have multiple victims and at least one female victim. Several factors were significantly related to incidents involving more severe offenses: a lack of the presence of a female offender, co-offenders, suspected weapon use, an offender who is a minority, male victim, victim is not related to the offender(s), and a solo victim. As the...

Analyses of crime patterns in NIBRS data based on a novel graph theory clustering method: Virginia as a case study.

This paper suggests a novel clustering method for analyzing the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data, which include the determination of correlation of different crime types, the development of a likelihood index for crimes to occur in a jurisdiction, and the clustering of jurisdictions based on crime type. The method was tested by using the 2005 assault data from 121 jurisdictions in Virginia as a test case. The analyses of these data show that some different crime types are correlated and some different crime parameters are correlated with different crime types. The analyses also show that certain jurisdictions within Virginia share certain crime patterns. This information assists with constructing a pattern for a specific crime type and can be used to determine whether a jurisdiction may be more likely to see this type of crime occur in their area.

Reliability in NIBRS Reporting of Substance Use in Incidents of Intimate Partner Violence

This article examines the reliability and validity of National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data pertaining to substance use in incidents of intimate partner violence. The study sample included 2,441 incidents of intimate partner violence involving intimidation, simple assault, and aggravated assault submitted to the FBI from 25 agencies across four states. We compared variables from the NIBRS federal data source with those gathered independently from the originating local police agency reports. Our independent data collection effort found more substance use in incidents of domestic violence than the NIBRS data reported. Reasons for this variation were examined and an assessment was made of how reliability in substance use reporting may be related to arrest outcomes. A weaker association between substance use and arrest was found in agencies judged to be highly reliable in reporting substance use than in agencies with low reporting reliability. The policy implications of the findings are discussed.

Filicide: A gendered profile of offender, victim, and event characteristics in a national sample of reported incidents, 1995–2009

Filicide is the intentional act of a parent killing their own child. Encompassing both neonaticide (victims less than a day old), and infanticide (victims less than a year old), filicide is often defined to include biological and stepparents as offenders with victims under the age of 18. As the risk of becoming a victim of homicide is greatest during the first year of life, and parents or stepparents are the most likely perpetrators, there is a pressing need for further research in this area. Existing work has been limited by definitional variation, small sample sizes, and inconsistent or conflicting findings. Furthermore, there is a notable lack of research incorporating a comparison of maternal versus paternal filicide. The present exploratory and descriptive study examines a large sample of reported incidents, using 15 years of National Incident-Based Reporting System data (1995 to 2009), to provide a much needed and more comprehensive source of aggregate-level baseline information on this understudied violent crime. Presenting a comparison of maternal and paternal filicide, basic demographic characteristics including victim/offender age, sex and race are explored in relation to incident characteristics including, substance abuse, location, and weapon usage.