It is very rare in criminology research to use quantitative data that no one has ever used before. It does happen. Primarily in surveys that the authors wrote themselves - including modifying past surveys - but also through collecting administrative data yourselves, such as data sharing agreements or FOIA requests. The majority of papers, however, rely on data that other people have used before. Often thousands of times before since many criminology papers use publicly available administrative data from government agencies such as the FBI, BJS, or local police departments.