Better Crime Data, Better Crime Policy
Executive Summary
Timely, accurate, complete, and usable crime trends data are critical to guiding efforts to control and prevent crime in the U.S. But despite recent improvements, national crime data still fall short of what are needed to sufficiently inform policy, practice, and political dialogue. At stake are billions in government spending on public safety and criminal justice, the viability of businesses and urban centers, and the extent to which Americans are safe, and feel safe, in their homes and communities.
In April 2023, the Council on Criminal Justice convened expert producers and consumers of crime data, the Crime Trends Working Group, to explore changing crime patterns and propose ways to improve the country’s crime data infrastructure.
Working Group deliberations produced consensus on multiple areas for urgent action by federal, state, and local agencies. Taken together, the group’s proposals create an actionable roadmap essential to accelerating progress toward the collection and dissemination of timely, accurate, complete, and usable national crime trends data.
FINDINGS
1. Timeliness
The 9-to-10-month lag in the release of comprehensive annual data on crimes reported to police limits the value of the data to law enforcement agencies, policymakers, the public, and the media. The delay has become more problematic in recent years as the internet, social media, and other technologies permit the rapid spread of new types of crime.
2. Accuracy
Quality data are dependent on a number of factors, some of which are common to large data enterprises (enhancing quality control and reducing errors), while others emerge when comparing data sources that measure crimes in different ways as well as reports that measure crime across different time periods. These factors can pose challenges to the interpretation and use of the data. In addition, data involving firearms are often inaccurate due to the miscoding of some assaults as accidents.
3. Completeness
There has been significant progress in transitioning law enforcement agencies to the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), but substantial obstacles to generating a more comprehensive view of American crime remain. These include achieving full NIBRS coverage, effectively tracking non-fatal firearms assaults and injuries data, and expanding coverage of other important types of crime, such as white-collar, environmental, and cybercrimes, that are not captured well by existing systems.
4. Usability
Law enforcement agencies tend to see national crime data reporting as an administrative task; few make full and effective use of the insights that the rich NIBRS data can provide. The primary federal online data tool is cumbersome and does not always allow even expert users to easily extract the statistics they seek.
5. Governance and Funding
A variety of federal agencies collect crime-related data across multiple departments, but the Executive Branch lacks a structure for coordinating these efforts. Years of underfunding have made it difficult for the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to perform its mandated functions.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Improve the nation’s capacity to collect and analyze crime data
- Increase the number of law enforcement agencies reporting to NIBRS to cover 90% of the U.S. population by the end of 2025 and 98% by the end of 2027 to match the level of Summary Reporting System coverage in 2020
- Create a direct working relationship between FBI and BJS: FBI should continue to collect NIBRS data; BJS should be the lead agency in releasing official crime trends statistics
- Set standards for funding and staffing state Uniform Crime Reporting Programs
- Support state efforts to develop low- or no-cost records management systems
- Permanently fund the Crime and Corrections Analyst in Residence Program for small and mid-sized departments
- Create a National Justice Data Analysis Center
2. Publish monthly crime trends reports
- Publish monthly crime trends data from a national representative sample of jurisdictions
- Overhaul the BJS website to permit users to generate their own crime trends reports
3. Create a comprehensive portrait of crime in America
- BJS should publish a comprehensive annual compendium of crime in the U.S. beginning in 2025 with NIBRS and victim survey data, along with explanatory text.
- Expand the compendium to cover cybercrime, securities fraud, and other important crime types
- Improve health surveillance systems that collect information on non-fatal injuries
- Produce regular reports on trends in firearm-related crimes
FUNDING RECOMMENDATIONS
To implement its recommendations, the Crime Trends Working Group recommends that Congress increase BJS appropriations to $75 million for FY2025, scaling up to $93 million in FY2026. In addition, the Working Group made several one-time and annual funding recommendations regarding other federal agencies, including the FBI, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.