Current and New Frontiers: Exploring How Place Matters Through Arkansas NIBRS Reporting Practices

Abstract

The current study focuses on criminal incidents reported to the National Incident Based Reporting System for the state of Arkansas, USA, in 2016. Arkansas law enforcement agencies are mandated to report their crime data to the Arkansas Crime Information Center (ACIC). The current study attempts to showcase the advantages that will be gained by the collection of address-identified NIBRS data throughout Arkansas and for other states that follow suit. In particular, we compare (1) statewide NIBRS data that is publicly available to (2) the address-level data for the city of Little Rock. To illustrate this variation, we use Arkansas as an example of the spatial variation in crime occurrence at a macro-level then move toward meso and micro-level agency-based analyses.