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GlossaryCrime classifications

Attempted offense

An attempted offense is recorded as an attempt under the reporting rules. Learn why attempted crime differs from an unconfirmed or unfounded report.

An attempted offense is an offense recorded as attempted rather than completed under the applicable reporting rules. The classification concerns how far the alleged conduct progressed. It does not mean that the report is unsupported, that no harm occurred, or that an investigation remains unfinished.

A reporting field with specific rules

NIBRS includes an attempted/completed/unfounded data element for offenses. Its instructions do not simply translate everyday language into codes: the FBI's 2025.0 manual directs agencies to report attempted murder as aggravated assault and to code assault offenses as completed. FBI NIBRS manual, Data Element 7

This means an attempted-offense filter cannot be assumed to retrieve every event described as an attempt in a narrative or charge. A person may face a charge using the word “attempt,” while the statistical system uses another offense code or completed-status instruction. The two classifications serve different purposes.

The field is associated with an offense, not necessarily with every activity in an incident. An incident containing several offense types may require different status information for those offenses. A single event-level label can hide that detail.

Example

Hypothetical example: A police record describes an unsuccessful attempt to take property and assigns the applicable theft offense an attempted status. In another incident, someone is injured during conduct investigated as attempted murder; the agency's NIBRS submission classifies the offense as aggravated assault under the program's instructions.

A chart using only the attempted-status field would not necessarily place both records in its “attempted offenses” category. The difference reflects coding rules, rather than a conclusion that the second event was less serious or that the investigator abandoned the allegation.

Common confusion

Attempted does not mean unfounded. An unfounded determination concerns whether the reported offense occurred as a crime under the program's criteria. An attempt can be a reportable crime even though its intended result was not achieved.

The term also differs from an open case. Investigation status concerns the work remaining or administrative treatment of the case; attempted status concerns the offense classification. A completed offense can remain unsolved, and an attempted offense can lead to an arrest.

Interpreting totals

Check whether a table includes attempts with completed offenses or separates them. Review offense-specific exceptions before comparing attempted shares across categories. A lower attempted share is not automatically a measure of greater offender success, because different offenses and coding instructions can produce different distributions. Court charging elements and outcomes require their own sources and should not be inferred from the statistical flag.

Sources