Publication: Surviving NIBRS: Restoring America’s Unreported Homicides and Exploring the Influences for Law Enforcement’s Declining Cooperation in Crime Reporting
Date
2023-11-30
Authors
Hargrove, Thomas Kirk
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Abstract
FBI adoption of the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) in 2021 as the mandatory reporting standard for crime data resulted in an unprecedented decline in police reporting to the federal government. Only 57 percent of the nation’s homicides were reported that year. This study obtained more than 6,000 unreported homicides from local and state police agencies using Freedom of Information Act and Open Record Act requests. The study compares FBI data and the study’s augmented dataset for accuracy and completeness using the National Vital Statistics System as a reference. This study also used a 3,134-county regression analysis to explore the socioeconomic factors associated with police decisions to participate, or to decline participation, in the more complex NIBRS program.
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Keywords
NIBRS, Uniform Crime Report, missing records, homicide, unreported, National Incident Based Reporting System