PUBLICATION ADVISORY

BJS Releases Publications on NIBRS Estimation

      WASHINGTON — The Bureau of Justice Statistics, a division of the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division today released Estimation Procedures for Crimes in the United States Based on NIBRS Data and NIBRS Estimation Summary.  These publications describe efforts to generate national estimates of crime known to law enforcement based on data reported to the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).

      Estimation Procedures for Crimes in the United States Based on NIBRS Data describes the estimation process for crime statistics that will be published by the FBI based solely on data submitted by state and local law enforcement agencies to NIBRS.  It provides a basic background on general estimation and the use of confidence intervals around the estimates.  Additionally, the report describes why estimation is needed, discusses how the new estimation process will differ from the previous process, details how the new procedures account for the challenges faced when estimating crime based solely on NIBRS, and explains how the estimates will serve as a reliable and accurate source of information about crime known to law enforcement, regardless of changes to the statistical methodology or the underlying data source.

      NIBRS Estimation Summary highlights the BJS and FBI-CJIS efforts to expand the number of law enforcement agencies reporting crime data to NIBRS, the growth in NIBRS reporting between 2016 and 2021, the wider range of offenses and crime characteristics, and the estimation techniques that will produce reliable estimates of crime.

      TITLES:  Estimation Procedures for Crimes in the United States Based on
                      NIBRS Data (NCJ 305108) and NIBRS Estimation Summary
                      (NCJ 305107)

      WHERE:  bjs.ojp.gov

      The Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice is the principal federal agency responsible for collecting, analyzing and disseminating reliable statistics on crime and criminal justice in the United States.  Doris J. James is the acting director.

      The Office of Justice Programs provides federal leadership, grants, training, technical assistance and other resources to improve the nation’s capacity to prevent and reduce crime, advance racial equity in the administration of justice, assist victims and enhance the rule of law.  More information about OJP and its components can be found at www.ojp.gov.

The FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division is a high-tech hub in the hills of West Virginia that provides a range of state of-the-art tools and services to law enforcement, national security and intelligence community partners, and the general public.  For more information on FBI-CJIS, visit https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis.

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OFFICE:  bjs.ojp.gov
CONTACT:  Tannyr Watkins at 202-532-3923 or [email protected]