Updated FBI Uniform Crime Reports now available

The NICAR Database Library has updated the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, one of the best resources for national crime statistics. The most current reports are for 2012.

WHAT’S IN IT?

Law enforcement agencies around the countr​y ​​voluntarily* submit reports to the FBI on what are known as "index" crimes: Murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor-vehicle theft and arson. These crimes are meant to serve as an index for gauging fluctuations in both the overall volume and rate of crime. The data include the number of crimes by agency and by month. Geographic information include region, state, county, city, and metropolitan statistical area (MSA).

Included in the data: 

• The Hate Crimes Report (HCR), containing information on specific offenses of bias crime. This is the​second year NICAR has included the HCR.

• The Supplemental Homicide Report (SHR) which has information on homicides, including demographic information about victims and offenders (where applicable – unsolved homicides are included).

• Information on number of police officers (men, women, in cars, on foot) by agency.

• Demographics on people arrested for all major crimes (including drug offenses, gambling, and DUIs).

Please note that data for some agencies may not be included if they didn't report, reported late, or reported in the wrong format. See NICAR documentation or the FBI website for more information. 

​*​The FBI tells us that a total of 18,290 agencies report, including city, county, state, university, tribal and federal agencies, which is the vast majority (they estimate that there are 18,000 - 19,000 agencies in the US).

WHAT FORMAT?

UCR data are now available in CSV format and SQL format (for MySQL users only). If you'd like something different, contact us and we'll do our best to help you out.  Email datalib@ire.org or call (573) 884-7711.

WHAT CAN I DO WITH IT?

UCR data can help you track different crimes in your community, as well as crime rates over time.

Peruse IRE tipsheets for help:

How to Investigate Police Crime Reporting and Statistics: a cookbook

Telling Readers What They Want to Know About Crime

The IRE Resource Center also sells the handy guide Understanding Crime Statistics, by Kurt Silver and Ted Gest. Call 573-882-3364 or email rescntr@ire.org for more information.

WHERE CAN I GET IT?

To order the full data online, visit the online store at https://www.ire.org/nicar/database-library/databases/fbi-uniform-crime-reports/ or contact the library.

datalib@ire.org

(573) 884-7711

NICAR is a joint program of IRE and the Missouri School of Journalism. Since 1989, NICAR has maintained a library of databases containing government data on a wide array of subjects and also trained thousands of journalists in the practical skills of getting and analyzing electronic information.​