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GlossaryCrime classifications

Completed offense

A completed offense has completed status under the statistical rules. It does not mean the investigation is closed or a defendant was convicted.

A completed offense is an offense recorded as completed under the relevant reporting program's criteria. The term describes the offense's statistical status. It does not mean that police have completed their investigation, identified an offender, or obtained a conviction.

Completion has a technical meaning

The FBI's NIBRS manual provides a field distinguishing attempted, completed, and unfounded offenses. Its instructions can differ from everyday descriptions. For example, the 2025.0 manual directs agencies to code all assault offenses as completed and classify attempted murder as aggravated assault. FBI NIBRS manual, Data Element 7

Accordingly, “completed” does not necessarily mean the offender achieved every intended result. It means the record follows the completion rule for that offense. The statistical field should be read alongside the offense category rather than interpreted independently.

The manual also instructs that where the same offense occurs more than once in one incident and one occurrence is completed, the offense is treated as completed. An incident-level summary therefore may not preserve every unsuccessful and successful act as separate completed-status entries.

Example

Hypothetical example: An agency records a burglary in which the offense meets the program's completed criteria. No suspect has been identified, and investigators continue reviewing evidence. The offense-status field says completed while the case-status field says open.

Both statements can be correct. One describes the reported conduct; the other describes the investigation. If an arrest occurs months later, it changes the case's enforcement history without turning the burglary from attempted to completed at that later date.

Common confusion

A completed offense is not a closed case. Administrative closure and clearance have their own criteria. Neither is a synonym for a court's judgment. A police-recorded completed offense remains distinct from the prosecution's responsibility to prove a criminal charge.

Completion also does not establish a particular amount of loss or injury. The offense definition, property fields, injury details, and narrative provide those facts. A completed-status flag alone cannot supply them or rank how serious one event was compared with another.

Using the field in analysis

Before counting only completed offenses, establish whether the published series normally includes attempts and whether removing them breaks comparability. Different offense-specific rules can make comparisons of completion percentages misleading. An agency's local records system may use a separate status vocabulary, so confirm that a field labeled “complete” actually refers to offense completion rather than report entry, supervisory approval, or investigation workflow.

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