GlossaryCrime classifications
Intimidation
Intimidation has a specific meaning in NIBRS crime statistics. Learn how threatening conduct differs from assault and from a jurisdiction’s legal charges.
Intimidation, in National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) statistics, means unlawfully placing a person in reasonable fear of bodily harm through threatening words or conduct, without displaying a weapon or physically attacking the person. It is a specific reporting category, narrower than the everyday use of “intimidating.”
Reading a threat classification
The North Carolina SBI definitions place intimidation within assault offenses. This reporting context matters: the word can also appear in ordinary narratives or in statutes addressing particular conduct, such as interference with witnesses. Those uses should not automatically be mapped to the same statistical code.
A brief call label might reflect a concern reported before investigators determine the circumstances. A later offense classification reflects a different stage of recordkeeping. Neither the call label nor the offense heading alone supplies the evidence contained in the full report.
Example
Hypothetical example: A resident reports that a neighbor sent repeated messages threatening to injure them. No weapon was displayed and no physical attack occurred. After evaluating the reported circumstances, the agency records intimidation.
The record describes a threat-related offense classification. It does not support adding an assault injury to a summary, because none is described. It also does not establish a conviction or tell the reader whether prosecutors selected a charge with the same name.
Common confusion
Simple assault involves an unlawful physical attack within its reporting definition. Aggravated assault has different weapon or injury criteria. Intimidation should not be treated as a less detailed spelling of either category.
Stalking concerns a course of conduct directed at a person. An intimidation entry does not, on its own, document the complete pattern needed for a stalking determination. Extortion additionally concerns obtaining value through coercion.
Applying the right definition
Check whether the source is a dispatch codebook, a NIBRS offense table, or a charging document. The same word can serve different functions in each. For legal elements and consequences, use the applicable jurisdiction's law rather than the statistical glossary.