FBI, BJS Trend Report Suggests Rise in Murders, Prefaces Incomplete Data Collection
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a trend reportlast week that revealed the number of murders reported in the United States ticked up in 2021. However, the bureau prefaced the data by stating that nearly half of law enforcement agencieswere unable to turn over their data due to changes to the FBI's data collection program.
FBI data indicates that murders in the US have risen by 4.3 percent since 2020, but officials believe this is not an accurate picture considering that only 11,794 of 18,806 law enforcement agencies sent expanded homicide reports. As a result, the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) concluded that participation for 2021 remained below a statistically acceptable level for being representative of the population at large.
The FBI's analysis of trends over the past year does not include most law enforcement agencies in populous states like California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Florida. The New York City Police Department, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office, the San Francisco Police Department, and the Phoenix Police Department did not report data.
“We're certainly not saying it's a wash. We have all the confidence in the world about these estimations. It's not that we don't have confidence in what they're producing,” stated a senior BJS official in response to the trend report. “There's just a certain level of uncertainty around the estimates.”
To address the gap in data, the FBI and BJS have beentransitioning to a more comprehensive and granular reporting system: the National Incident-Based Reporting System(NIBRS). Using an enhanced collection system, additional information is gathered about victims, offenders, and those who were arrested, such as their age, sex, race, and potential relationships.
“NIBRS will tell a more complete story about public safety in America. Under the old SRS, law enforcement agencies that responded to a multi-offense incident—where more than one crime was committed—would document only the most serious crime. When someone was murdered during a robbery, only the murder would be reflected in the data. Now, both offenses will be recorded,” stated Michael A. Christman, Criminal Justice Information Services Division Assistant Director at the FBI, and Alexis R. Piquero, BJS Director, in a press release.
The NIBRS also breaks down offenses by state and provides information on suspected drug or alcohol use by an offender. Furthermore, the trend report suggested that the data will provide more details on specific crimes, including human trafficking and bribery.
According to the Justice Department, with this data, “the American public will have access to an unprecedented trove of information about criminal incidents and the circumstances surrounding them.”