The FBI released detailed data on nearly 7.7 million criminal offenses reported via the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) in 2019. The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s latest report, NIBRS, 2019, presents data about victims, known offenders, and relationships for offenses reported in 23 categories with 52 offenses. It also presents arrest data for those crimes, as well as 10 additional categories for which only arrest data is collected.
Highlights of NIBRS, 2019
In 2019, 8,497 law enforcement agencies, whose jurisdictions covered more than 146.5 million U.S. inhabitants, submitted NIBRS data to the UCR Program. These agencies accounted for 51.3% of the 16,551 law enforcement agencies that submitted data to the UCR Program in 2019. The remaining agencies submitted their data to the program via the Summary Reporting System (SRS). NIBRS agencies reported 6,572,870 incidents involving 7,688,645 offenses, 8,116,849 victims, and 6,543,257 known offenders. In addition, these agencies reported 3,931,924 arrestees. (Currently, the FBI does not estimate for agencies that do not submit NIBRS data.)
Of the reported offenses, 59.6% were crimes against property, 24.6% were crimes against persons, and 15.8% were crimes against society. (Due to rounding, some percentage breakdowns may not add to 100%.) Among these categories, the offenses most reported include larceny/theft offenses, assault offenses, and drug/narcotic offenses, respectively.
Victims
Victim types, collected for all offenses reported via NIBRS, include individuals, businesses, institutions, or society as a whole. For 2019, the data regarding the 5,547,758 victims who were individuals reveal the following:
- Of these victims, 23.6% were between 21 and 30 years old.
- A little more than half (51%) were female, 48.2% were male, and the gender of 0.8% of victims was unknown.
- Most victims (68%) were white; 23.3% were Black or African American, 1.9% were Asian, 0.7% were American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.5% were Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. The race of 5.6% of victims was unknown.
Known Offenders
Law enforcement reported information about 6,543,257 known offenders, meaning some aspect of the suspect—such as age, gender, or race—was known.
- Of these offenders, 38.4% were between 16 and 30 years of age.
- By gender, most offenders (61.7%) were male, 25.4% were female, and gender for 12.9% was unknown.
- By race, more than half (51.9%) of known offenders were white, 29.5% were Black or African American, and 2.2% were of other races. The race was unknown for 16.4% of reported known offenders.
Victim-to-Offender Relationships
Relationship data were captured for 1,888,491 victims of crimes against persons (e.g., murders, sex offenses, assault offenses) and robbery offenses, which are from the crimes against property category.
- Just over half (50.4%) 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 them.
- Approximately one quarter (24.4%) of the victims were related to their offenders (or at least one offender when more than one was present).
- Of the remaining 25.1% of victims, the relationships to their offenders were categorized as strangers, mutual combatants (victim was offender), or unknown.
Arrestees
Law enforcement agencies submitted data to the UCR Program through incident reports and arrest reports for 3,931,924 arrestees.
- Of these arrestees, 31.5% were 21 to 30 years of age.
- By gender, 71.5% were male; and 28.5% were female.
- By race, most arrestees (68.1%) were white, 26.4% were Black or African American, and 2.9% were of other races. The race was unknown for 2.6% of arrestees.
Agency-level NIBRS Data
State offense tables present statistics for each agency that reported 12 months of NIBRS data in 2019. In addition, federal offense tables present statistics for each federal agency that reported 12 months of NIBRS data. The interactive NIBRS map on the home page of NIBRS, 2019, also provides agency-level data.
Availability of NIBRS Data
In addition to the annual NIBRS report, the UCR Program’s Crime Data Explorer (CDE) provides NIBRS data, including national- and state-level downloads. Users can also access the CDE to build customized tables and to view SRS data for 2019 and previous years by state.
Note: This edition of NIBRS and the previous annual reports released earlier this year are the final UCR crime data publications to be released in the traditional format on fbi.gov. Beginning January 1, 2021, UCR data will be released exclusively to the FBI’s CDE. The traditional publications for 2019 and previous years will remain on fbi.gov for the foreseeable future.
On January 1, 2021, the FBI will complete its transition to a NIBRS-only crime data collection. The original data collection, the SRS, will be decommissioned effective that day. Although the FBI will continue the long-running index on the CDE, data presentations will include more detailed data captured through NIBRS.
