Introduction: Special Issue on Research Using the National Incident-Based Reporting System

• DOI: 10.3818/JRP.9.2.2007.1
• Date: 01 December 2007
• Published date: 01 December 2007
• Subject Matter: Article

Introduction • 1

* Introduction: Special Issue on Research

  Using the National Incident-Based

Reporting System

Donald Faggiani, Guest Editor

University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

This special edition of Justice Research and Policy focuses on criminal justice

research that capitalizes on an underutilized information source—the Federal

Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) National Incident-Based Reporting System

(NIBRS). The papers presented in this edition demonstrate the usefulness of

NIBRS for conducting research on a broad range of justice and policy issues.

More

importantly, these papers address research topics that prior to the intro-

duction of NIBRS would have required original data collection or the use of

“made-to-t” data, that is, data that were readily available but may not have

been the correct unit of analysis for the research topic.

In criminal justice research it is not uncommon for a researcher to have a

great idea only to nd that the resources for original data collection do not ex-

ist

(or may be prohibitively expensive) and the only data available do not t the

research question. In many situations the researchers turn to one of three tradi-

tional data sources – the FBI’s summary-level Uniform Crime Reports (UCR),

the incident-level Supplemental Homicide Reports (SHR), or the National Crime

Victimization Survey (NCVS). While all three sources serve a purpose, the utility

of their data for addressing a broad spectrum of criminal justice topics

is limited

to analysis at macro-level units such as city, county, state, or national levels or

restricted to the study of homicide. Consequently, authors often have to caveat

their ndings with a statement related to their unit of analysis, the lack of avail-

able data, and the need for more detailed or incident-level data.

In September 1982, a special Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)–FBI task force

completed a study that examined the issues and concerns associated with the

FBI’s summary reporting system. The outcome of this study, The Blueprint for

the Future of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, suggested improvements

to