The Center provides both the network and computer infrastructure needed to maintain a relational database implementation of the FBI’s National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data. The Center database contains 21 years of NIBRS data covering the years 1995-2015 and includes over 79.7 million crime incidents. This relational database has enabled Center researchers to extract a wealth of information from NIBRS and perform analyses not possible with the raw data. Center researchers are examining how NIBRS data is changing as agencies adopt new NIBRS compliant systems for operational use and additional jurisdictions participate in NIBRS reporting. Currently, Center researchers are exploring how to update the relational database to track crimes where digital devices play an increasingly significant role. The Center provides criminal justice researchers at John Jay College with access to NIBRS data and has been studying mechanisms for making the data more widely available to practitioners and criminal justice researchers.
Papers and Presentations
- Abdu, E., Salane, D., & Shenkin, P. (December 2017). Making Sense of NIBRS Data with a Relational Database.
- Abdu, E., Salane, D.E., Shenkin, P. (2016), Assessing the Utility of NIBRS Data. Presented at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, Nov. 19, 2016, New Orleans, LA.
- Abdu E., Salane, D.E., Shenkin, P. (2017), Understanding Bias and Item Missing Data in NIBRS. Presented at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, Nov. 17, 2017, Philadelphia, PA.
NIBRS Relational Database
The Center for Cybercrime Studies maintains a relational database implementation of NIBRS data. The databse currently contains 21 years of NIBRS data, 1995-2015. The Center is making the relational database available to interested researchers upon request. Please check the readme file below before requesting the database. Installation requires an existing Oracle database on your system and sufficient computing power to run the NIBRS database.
- The file NIBRS_Data_ReadMe.txt describes how to import the database into an existing Oracle installation.
- The file NIBRS_Data.Log lists the tables in the database and their sizes.
- A compressed file NIBRS_DATA.gz contains the database. In order to request the file (about 4.2 gigabytes), please send e-mail to cybercrimecenter(at)jjay.cuny.edu. Please provide complete contact information along with your organization. Include the NIBRS acronymn in the subject line.
Offenses involving use of a computer: Spreadsheet Pivot Table