The National Crime Victimization Survey and National Incident-Based Reporting System: A Complementary Picture of Crime in 2023

• NCJ Number: 309439
• Author(s): Rachel E. Morgan, PhD, BJS Statistician; Lizabeth Remrey, PhD, BJS Statistician
• Date Published: November 2025
• Publication Series: NCVS and NIBRS Comparisons
• Publication Type: Publication

Description

This report describes the similarities and differences between crime data collected in BJS’s National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). It also includes violent and property crime estimates for 2022 and 2023. The NCVS and NIBRS measure a set of criminal offenses that overlap but are not identical. The NCVS interviews persons age 12 or older about crimes both reported and not reported to police, and NIBRS collects data on crime recorded by law enforcement agencies. Taken together, these two measures provide a comprehensive picture of crime in the United States. The report compares key statistical estimates for 2022 and 2023 between the two data collections.