The FBI used the Summary Reporting System (SRS), which tallied each incident once, and switched to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) in 2021; NIBRS counts each victim rather than each incident.
January 01, 2021
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temporal
Change in federal crime-data collection methodology.
The FBI defines violent crime as comprising four categories: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
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descriptive
Official FBI definition of core violent crime categories used in national crime statistics.
Counting crime by victimizations records each person harmed as a separate count so a single incident with multiple victims produces multiple counts, whereas counting by incidents records the event once regardless of the number of victims.
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descriptive
Difference between victim-based and incident-based crime counting methodologies.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics includes 'simple assault'—attacks where no weapon was used and that did not result in serious injury—in its violent crime measures and also incorporates crimes not reported to police using annual victimization surveys.
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descriptive
Scope and sources used by the Bureau of Justice Statistics when estimating violent crime.