Contributions of the National Incident-Based Reporting System to Substantive Knowledge in Criminology: A Review of Research

The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data have been available to the research community for about a decade. The advantages of NIBRS over other official statistics such as summary Uniform Crime Reports, Supplementary Homicide Reports, and the National Crime Victimization Survey have contributed to better evaluation of a number of theoretical perspectives in criminology and criminal justice, and have helped in suggesting possible policy implications. This paper reviews studies using the NIBRS data in the areas of crime clearance, crime rates disaggregated by situational context (including domestic violence, race-specific crime, and gun crime), and lethal and non-lethal outcomes of violent encounters. The paper also discusses limitations of the NIBRS data and cautions for its use, along with future research possibilities.