Explain some limitations of the Supplemental Reporting System (SRS) and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

This largest limitation of the SRS and NIBRS system is not all crime is reported. More than half the crimes committed are not reported. Some crimes that are series victimization, where a person is abused over a long period of time, are not reported as separate incidents. This means that a person who is the victim of years of abuse only has one crime reported. Rather than several hundred crimes because the incidents run together. This again comes back that most long period abuse is not reported. Victims of longtime bullying or abuse do not report what is happening to them, that is part of the abuse. SRS/NIBRS cannot account for crimes that are not reported. Next is the data reported can be manipulated to meet certain political agendas. Some law enforcement chiefs are politically elected. This compilation of election may cause them to not provide an accurate numbers when reporting. This does not happen often, but it has happened and will happen again. SRS and NIBRS are both voluntary reporting, which means that agencies are not required to report the statistics to the SRS/NIBRs. SRS/NIBRS will take the incomplete or incorrect data and add it into the database. It is not always the agencies failure to report that allows for bad data being added into the system. If agencies fail to fill out the FBI reported correctly or accurately the data will still be added into the database. This does not happen a lot, and the size of the data collect will not entirely be skewed by these mistakes, it is still not correct reporting and can hurt the entirety of the data. Lastly, as crime rates changing year to year, it cannot be confirmed that crime is actually changing or the reporting to law enforcement has been changing. The SRS/NIBRS system has flaws, but compiling big data from thousands of law enforcement agencies will not be perfect every time. The system has flaws, but it is still a great tool in helping law enforcement.