FBI Releases 2018 NIBRS Crime Data

The FBI released details on nearly 6.6 million criminal offenses reported to its National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) in 2018.

Last year, 7,283 law enforcement agencies reported their crime data through NIBRS, which is scheduled to become the national vehicle for crime reporting in 2021.

The FBI has been tracking voluntarily reported crime statistics through its Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for nearly 90 years. But the FBI is now transitioning from the traditional Summary Reporting System to the more comprehensive data collection.

NIBRS offers law enforcement more detailed data to use their resources strategically. NIBRS provides contextual information of crimes to law enforcement, such as time of day and location, instead of simple numbers and types of crimes.

Highlights from NIBRS, 2018 include:

Of the reported offenses, 59.5 percent were crimes against property, 24.1 percent were crimes against persons, and 16.4 percent were crimes against society.
Data from 2018 included information on more than incidents with nearly 7 million victims. (Victims included in this count are not only individuals but also businesses, organizations, the general public, and unknown victims.)
Of the about 4.7 million victims who were individuals, a little more than half (51.1 percent) were female and 48.1 percent were male. Gender was unknown for less than 1 percent of the victims.
Law enforcement reported information on about 5.6 million known offenders via NIBRS.
Of the known offenders, most offenders (61.5 percent) were male, 25.5 percent were female, and gender for 13.0 percent was unknown.
More than half (51 percent) of the victims knew their offenders (or at least one offender when more than one was present) but did not have a familial relationship to the offender.
Nearly 25 percent of the victims were related to their offenders (or at least one offender when more than one was present).

More information is available in the full NIBRS report, NIBRS interactive map, and in the Crime Data Explorer tool.

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