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GlossaryCrime classifications

Negligent manslaughter

Negligent manslaughter, in the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), is the unlawful killing of another person through negligence.

Negligent manslaughter, in the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), is the unlawful killing of another person through negligence. It is a statistical offense category for reported deaths meeting the program's criteria. It should not be used as a label for every accident that causes a death.

What the category establishes

The FBI's 2025.0 NIBRS manual identifies this category as 09B. Its explanation includes certain negligent firearm and driving deaths while excluding accidental deaths that do not result from gross negligence and deaths caused by the deceased person's own negligence.

This makes the source and reporting period particularly important. An older summary-reporting table may use different exclusions from a newer incident-based manual. A trend assembled from both requires more than matching the words in the column heading.

Example

Hypothetical example: An agency investigates a fatal collision and records circumstances it determines meet its reporting program's negligent-manslaughter criteria. The incident is entered under 09B; the related court matter remains pending.

The classification describes how the reported death is categorized for statistics. It does not establish that a court has convicted the driver of an offense with the same name. A summary should preserve both the statistical classification and the unresolved court status.

Common confusion

Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter belong to a different NIBRS category. The distinction concerns the reporting criteria, not simply whether someone died.

“Accidental” is also not enough to select a category. The agency's findings about negligence and the applicable reporting instructions matter. A news description cannot replace those instructions.

This page uses the 2025.0 NIBRS manual, dated June 23, 2025, as a named reference rather than a claim that no later edition exists. For a particular dataset, use the manual that governed its submission. State charging law separately determines the legal offense and its elements.

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