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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:31 pm
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Results for murders
56 results foundAuthor: Lauria, Carlos Title: Silence of Death in Mexico's Press: Crime, Violence, and Corruption Are Destroying the Country's Journalism Summary: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) research has identified Mexico as one of the deadliest countries in the world for the press and one of the worst nations in solving crimes against journalists. CPJ researchers have traveled the breadth of the country over the course of four years, interviewing dozens of journalists about the dangers of their work and the devastating self-censorship that has resulted from anti-press violence. CPJ delegations have met with high-ranking Mexican officials, including President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, to discuss the grave problem of impunity in attacks on the press. This report examines the murders of 22 journalists and three media support workers, along with the disappearances of seven journalists, during the Calderón presidency, which began in December 2006. The report identifies systemic law enforcement failures and offers potential solutions. Details: New York: Committee to Protect Journalists, 2010. 43p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 6, 2010 at: http://cpj.org/reports/cpj_mexico_english.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Mexico URL: http://cpj.org/reports/cpj_mexico_english.pdf Shelf Number: 119874 Keywords: CorruptionCriminal ViolenceHomicideJournalistsMurders |
Author: Hopkins, Matt Title: Exploring the Links Between Homicide and Organised Crime Summary: This report summarises research that explored the links between homicide and organised crime. The study was commissioned in the summer of 2009 as part of the commitment to reduce serious and violent crime and aimed to identify what proportion of homicides involve organised crime and the nature of the relationship between organised crime activity and homicide. The findings are based on analysis of Home Office Homicide Index data for 2005-06 and in-depth interviews with police senior investigating officers. Key findings: Six per cent of all recorded non-terrorist homicides in England and Wales in 2005-06 were assessed as having some link to organised crime. In 13 cases (2% of all non-terrorist homicides), organised crime groups with some recognisable structure were involved in the homicide. However, there was little evidence to suggest that these were large-scale criminal enterprises of the kind associated with populist notions of organised crime such as the Mafia or Mob. In homicide cases overall, victims and suspects were predominantly male and fell within the 18-to-29 age group. These patterns were even more pronounced in cases linked to organised crime. There was also a far higher proportion of Black victims and suspects in organised crime homicides than in homicides which were not linked to organised crime. Homicides linked to organised crime occurred mainly on the street, whereas incidents that were not related to organised crime more commonly occurred in the victim's home. Victims in organised crime homicides were more likely to be stabbed or shot than victims in non-organised crime cases, where other methods (such as beatings and strangulation) were more common. Significantly fewer homicides linked to organised crime were detected compared to those homicides not linked to organised crime. Details: London: Home Office, 2011. 5p. Source: Internet Resource: Research Report 54: Accessed July 12, 2011 at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/crime-research/horr54?view=Binary Year: 2011 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/crime-research/horr54?view=Binary Shelf Number: 122029 Keywords: HomicidesMurdersOrganized Crime (U.K.)Violent Crime |
Author: Nagin, Daniel S. Title: Deterrence and the Death Penalty Summary: Many studies during the past few decades have sought to determine whether the death penalty has any deterrent effect on homicide rates. Researchers have reached widely varying, even contradictory, conclusions. Some studies have concluded that the threat of capital punishment deters murders, saving large numbers of lives; other studies have concluded that executions actually increase homicides; still others, that executions have no effect on murder rates. Commentary among researchers, advocates, and policymakers on the scientific validity of the findings has sometimes been acrimonious. Against this backdrop, the National Research Council report Deterrence and the Death Penalty assesses whether the available evidence provides a scientific basis for answering questions of if and how the death penalty affects homicide rates. This new report from the Committee on Law and Justice concludes that research to date on the effect of capital punishment on homicide rates is not useful in determining whether the death penalty increases, decreases, or has no effect on these rates. The key question is whether capital punishment is less or more effective as a deterrent than alternative punishments, such as a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Yet none of the research that has been done accounted for the possible effect of noncapital punishments on homicide rates. The report recommends new avenues of research that may provide broader insight into any deterrent effects from both capital and noncapital punishments. Details: Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2012. 127p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 2, 2012 at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13363#description Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13363#description Shelf Number: 125115 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath Penalty (U.S.)DeterrenceHomicidesMurders |
Author: Laurikkala, Minna Title: Different Time, Same Place, Same Story? A Social Disorganization Perspective to Examining Juvenile Homicides Summary: In 2007, juveniles were involved in a minimum of 1,063 murders in the United States (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2008), and a concern over juvenile homicide offenders remains. While increasingly more macrolevel research on juvenile homicide offending has been accumulated, particularly since the 1980s, research focusing on macrolevel correlates of juvenile homicides is still relatively scarce (MacDonald & Gover, 2005; Ousey & Campbell Augustine, 2001). In the first part of this study, several variables relating to the offender, victim, setting, and precursors to the homicide by race and gender were examined in order to provide details on the context of youth homicides between 1965 and 1995 in Chicago. The Homicides in Chicago, 1965-1995 data set and Census data for 1970, 1980, and 1990 were used in this study. The results indicate that changes in youth homicides over the 31-year time period involved increases in lethal gang altercations, particularly among Latinos, and increases in the use of automatic weapons. Young females had very little impact on homicide rates in Chicago. The second part of the study examined whether measures of social disorganization can aid in the prediction of homicides committed by youths, and a total of ten negative binomial models were run. The results of the analyses in the three time periods indicate that racial/ethnic heterogeneity, educational deprivation, unemployment, and family disruption are significantly and positively related to homicides. Foreign-born population and median household income were found to be significantly and negatively related to homicides. The significant indicators of social disorganization varied in the seven models for the disaggregated groups. Overall, the results reflect support for social disorganization theory. Limitations, suggestion for future research, and policy implications are also addressed. Details: Orlando, FL: University of Central Florida, Department of Sociology, 2009. 238p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 3, 2012 at: http://digitalcollections.lib.ucf.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/ETD&CISOPTR=4405 Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://digitalcollections.lib.ucf.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/ETD&CISOPTR=4405 Shelf Number: 125149 Keywords: Juvenile HomicideJuvenile OffendersMurdersSocial Disorganization |
Author: McDougal, Topher Title: The Way of the Gun: Estimating Firearms Traffic Across the U.S.-Mexico Border Summary: This new study estimates the volume and value of arms trafficking from the United States to Mexico. We apply a unique GIS-generated county-level panel dataset (1993-1999 and 2010-2012) of Federal Firearms Licenses to sell small arms (FFLs) and we create a demand curve for firearms based on the distance by road from the nearest point on the U.S.-Mexico border and official border crossing. We use a time-series negative binomial model paired with a post-estimation population attributable fraction (PaF) estimator. In this way, we are able to estimate a total demand for trafficking, both in terms of firearms and dollar sales for the firearms industry. Details: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Igarape Institute; San Diego, University of San Diego, Trans-Border Institute, 2013. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 20, 2013 at: http://pt.igarape.org.br/the-way-of-the-gun-estimating-firearms-traffic-across-the-u-s-mexico-border/ Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://pt.igarape.org.br/the-way-of-the-gun-estimating-firearms-traffic-across-the-u-s-mexico-border/ Shelf Number: 128044 Keywords: Border SecurityFirearms TraffickingGun TraffickingGun Violence (U.S., Mexico)HomicidesMurders |
Author: Kolbe, Athena R. Title: The Economic Costs of Violent Crime in Urban Haiti. Results from Monthly Household Surveys, August 2011- July 2012 Summary: Crime and victimization are amongst the most pressing concerns cited by Haitian citizens today. Surveys conducted on a monthly basis between August 2011 and July 2012 indicate that violent crime is increasingly common, particularly in the densely packed `popular` zones of Haiti’s largest urban centers. Paradoxically, in spite of increased international investment in restoring the capacities of the Haitian National Police, ordinary Haitians struggle to access basic policing services. This Strategic Brief is the second of a series that features findings from longitudinal surveys using random sampling methods. The assessment is focused principally on households residing in urban areas of Port-au-Prince, Les Cayes, Cap Haitien, Gonaives, St. Marc, Jacmel and Leogane. All respondents were randomly selected and surveyed about their experiences with crime, their quality of life, and their ability to access basic services such as health care. Taken together, these surveys also demonstrate the serious economic costs of insecurity amongst ordinary Haitians. The findings of the Strategic Brief are: • The crude murder rate for Port-au-Prince increased from 60.9 to 76.2 murders per 100,000 between February and July 2012, with residents of “popular zones” being 40 times more likely to be murdered than other urban dwellers. • The costs of a physical or sexual assault on a household member amounts to roughly 20 per cent of the household’s annual income while a murder can leave households with expenses that are 5.5 times the annual average annual income. • Children are particularly vulnerable to adverse outcomes after the victimization of a household member. When compared with children from households not experiencing crime, victimized children were more likely to be sent to live with other families as restaveks (unpaid domestic servants), to experience food insecurity, and to be forced to withdraw from school. • Funeral and burial costs averaged USD $4,958.70. Nearly all of the households surveyed took out loans to pay for the costs of the funeral; the interest charged on loans from moneylenders and morticians ranged from 50-150 per cent. • Reports of police bribes increased between A A ugust 2011 and July 2012. Nearly 25 per cent of victims of physical assaults and 19 per cent of victims of property crime said they were asked for or paid a bribe to police to facilitate the progress of their case. • More than half of sexual assault victims and household members who tried to report the crime to the police complained that officers refused to make a report or tried to dissuade the victim or family members from doing so. Roughly 12 per cent of sexual assault victims reported paying or being asked for bribes by police; the average bribe given was 1,209 gourdes (SD: 744.3 gourdes), about USD $30. Details: Rio de Janeiro: Igarape Institute, 2012. 13p. Source: Internet Resource: Strategic Note 2: Accessed March 20, 2013 at: http://igarape.org.br/wp-content/themes/igarape_v2/pdf/Strategic_Note_2.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Haiti URL: http://igarape.org.br/wp-content/themes/igarape_v2/pdf/Strategic_Note_2.pdf Shelf Number: 128045 Keywords: Costs of CrimeCrime Statistics (Haiti)HomicidesMurdersVictimization SurveysViolent Crime |
Author: Kolbe, Athena R. Title: Haiti's Urban Crime Wave? Results from Monthly Household Surveys August 2011 - February 2012 Summary: Haiti exhibited a dramatic escalation in criminal violence with Haitians reporting declining confidence in police institutions during the last six months (August 2011 to February 2012). For the first time since 2007, the incidence of violent crime and victimization has shown a consistent increase, and confidence in public institutions appears to be dropping quickly. Random household surveys conducted on a monthly basis between August 2011 and February 2012 indicate that violent crime is increasingly common, particularly over the past few months in the densely packed ‘popular’ zones of Haiti’s largest urban centers. This assessment is based on a longitudinal survey using random sampling methods. Specifically, households in the urban areas of Port-au-Prince, Les Cayes, Cap Haitien, Gonaives, St. Marc, Jacmel and Leogane were randomly selected and surveyed about their experiences with criminality and faith in public institutions. The survey sought to measure their exposure to insecurity and opinions regarding future safety. Collectively, these surveys demonstrate an increasing dissatisfaction with the government of Haiti after five years of growing confidence as well as fears that political uncertainty and turmoil will increase crime. The preliminary findings of the assessment are: • The number of reported homicides across all urban settings increased considerably between November 2011 and February 2012. Half of the reported murders occurred during armed robbery or attempted armed robbery. While Port-au-Prince’s overall homicide is low in comparaison to other Caribbean cities, this nevertheless represents a rate of 60.9 per 100,000, one of the highest recorded rates since 2004; • Property crime increased dramatically between October 2011 and February 2012. These property crimes often entailed the theft of modest amounts of cash and personal assets such as mobile phones; • Residents of low-income popular zones were more likely to be victims of crime than others. For instance, in January 2011, residents of these areas were 20 times more likely to be subjected to a property crime, 18 times more likely to be physically assaulted and 27 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than residents in wealthier and less densely populated areas; • Complaints of police misconduct, including being asked for bribes and sexual harassment by uniformed officers, increased during the study period. For the first time since 2007, overall support for the Haitian National Police is on the decline with residents expressing concerns that police are unable or unwilling to protect them from crime. Since November 2011, there has been a marked deterioration in public support for the police. Details: Rio de Janeiro: Igarape Institute, 2012. 9p. Source: Internet Resource: Strategic Note 2: Accessed March 20, 2013 at: http://igarape.org.br/wp-content/themes/igarape_v2/pdf/Strategic_Note_1.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Haiti URL: http://igarape.org.br/wp-content/themes/igarape_v2/pdf/Strategic_Note_1.pdf Shelf Number: 128046 Keywords: HomicidesMurdersUrban AreasVictimization SurveysViolent Crime (Haiti) |
Author: Coy, Maddy Title: Violent Disorder in Ciudad Juarez: A Spatial Analysis of Homicide Summary: This HASOW Discussion Paper considers how demographic and socioeconomic factors correlate with homicidal violence in the context of Mexico's "war on drugs". We draw on Ciudad Juarez as a case study and social disorganization theory as an organizing framework. Social disorganization is expected to produce higher levels of homicidal violence. And while evidence detects several social disorganization factors associated with homicidal violence in Ciudad Juarez not all relationships appear as predicted by the theory. Drawing on public census and crime data, our statistical assessment detects 6 significant variables (or risks) positively associated with homicidal violence in Ciudad Juarez between 2009 and 2010. Likewise, the assessment finds 6 specific variables (or protective factors) that are negatively associated with above average homicide in the city between 2009 and 2010. The data and level of analysis do not conclusively present causation, nor was this the intent. Rather, we propose a baseline model for testing spatial-temporal dynamics of organized violence. Details: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Humanitarian Action in Situations other than War (HASOW), 2012. 24p. Source: Internet Resource: HASOW Discussion Paper 1: Accessed March 20, 2014 at: http://www.hasow.org/uploads/trabalhos/68/doc/1934668792.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Mexico URL: http://www.hasow.org/uploads/trabalhos/68/doc/1934668792.pdf Shelf Number: 131979 Keywords: Drug-Related ViolenceHomicideMurdersViolenceViolent CrimeWar on Drugs |
Author: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Title: Global Study on Homicide 2013: Trends, Contexts, Data Summary: The Global Study on Homicide 2013 seeks to shed light on the worst of crimes - the intentional killing of one human being by another. Beyond resulting in the deaths of nearly half a million people in 2012, this form of violent crime has a broad impact on security - and the perception of security - across all societies. This study, which builds on the ground-breaking work of UNODC's first Global Study on Homicide in 2011, is particularly timely as the international community is engaged in defining the post-2015 development agenda. As United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has made clear, development progress cannot be achieved or sustained amid violence, insecurity and injustice. By improving understanding of the underlying patterns and trends related to different forms, settings and risk factors of homicide at the global, regional, national and sub-national levels, this study can be a strategic tool in supporting governments' efforts to address root causes and enhance criminal justice responses. Alongside intentional homicide related to other criminal activities and socio-political agendas, the study examines homicide related to interpersonal conflict, which includes homicides perpetrated by intimate partners or family members. Unlike other forms of homicide, which vary significantly across regions and from year to year, intimate partner and family-related homicide remains persistent and prevalent. While the vast majority of global homicide victims are men, it is overwhelmingly women who die at the hands of their intimate partners or family members. Normative standards for improving criminal justice responses to eliminate violence against women have been agreed by all United Nations Member States; clearly more must be done to improve States' capacities to effectively prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish all forms of violence against women. With regard to different settings in which lethal violence occurs, the study indicates that homicide and violence in countries emerging from conflict can become concurrent contributors to instability and insecurity. If we want to build peace, interventions must address not only the conflict itself but also surges in homicide resulting from organized crime and interpersonal violence, which can flourish in settings with weak rule of law. Specific risk factors such as alcohol and drug use and the availability of weapons are also examined in the study in order to improve understanding of how they shape patterns and prevalence of lethal violence. Deeper understanding of these enablers can inform and enhance policies aimed at preventing intentional homicides from happening in the first place. Ultimately, efforts to prevent unlawful homicide will not be effective unless governments and the international community address those who are most at risk, of both offending or becoming a victim of homicide. More than half of all global homicide victims are under 30 years of age. Much of this violence takes place in urban areas. Effective policies and strategies must not only target at-risk young people but involve them and local communities to work together to break the cycle of violence. Details: Vienna: UNODC, 2014. 155p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 6, 2014 at: http://www.unodc.org/documents/gsh/pdfs/2014_GLOBAL_HOMICIDE_BOOK_web.pdf Year: 2014 Country: International URL: http://www.unodc.org/documents/gsh/pdfs/2014_GLOBAL_HOMICIDE_BOOK_web.pdf Shelf Number: 132257 Keywords: Alcohol Related Crime, DisorderCrime StatisticsDrug Abuse and CrimeHomicidesInterpersonal ViolenceMurdersOrganized CrimeViolent Crime |
Author: Violence Policy Center Title: When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2012 Homicide Data Summary: When Men Murder Women is an annual report prepared by the Violence Policy Center detailing the reality of homicides committed against females by single male offenders. The study analyzes the most recent Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) data submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The information used for this report is for the year 2012. Once again, this is the most recent data available. This is the first analysis of the 2012 data on female homicide victims to offer breakdowns of cases in the 10 states with the highest female victim/male offender homicide rates, and the first to rank the states by the rate of female homicides. The key findings in this year's release of When Men Murder Women include: - Nationwide, 1,706 females were murdered by males in single victim/single offender incidents in 2012, at a rate of 1.16 per 100,000. - For homicides in which the victim to offender relationship could be identified, 93 percent of female victims nationwide were murdered by a male they knew. Of the victims who knew their offenders, 62 percent were wives, common-law wives, ex-wives, or girlfriends of the offenders. - Firearms - especially handguns - were the weapons most commonly used by males to murder females in 2012. Nationwide, for homicides in which the weapon used could be identified, 52 percent of female victims were shot and killed with a gun. Of the homicides committed with guns, 69 percent were killed with handguns. - The overwhelming majority of these homicides were not related to any other felony crime, such as rape or robbery. Nationwide, for homicides in which the circumstances could be identified, 85 percent of the homicides were not related to the commission of another felony. Most often, females were killed by males in the course of an argument between the victim and the offender. The study also ranks each state based on the homicide rate for women murdered by men. Below are the 10 states with the highest rate of females murdered by males in single victim/single offender incidents in 2012. Details: Washington, DC: Violence Policy Center, 2014. 26p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 13, 2014 at: https://www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2014.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: https://www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2014.pdf Shelf Number: 133643 Keywords: Crime StatisticsFamily ViolenceGun-Related ViolenceHomicide (U.S.)Intimate Partner ViolenceMurdersViolence Against Women |
Author: Aurora Fire Department (Colorado) Title: Century Theater Shooting: Aurora Fire Department Preliminary Incident Analysis Summary: On July 20th, 2012, at approximately 12:40 am, a gunman opened fire in Century 16 Theater #9 where more than 400 people were attending the premier of The Dark Knight Rises. By 12:46 am the Aurora Fire Department and Rural Metro Ambulance were on scene and treating injured patients. By 1:33 am 70 patients were transported to area hospitals. 12 people died from their injuries. Each section of this preliminary incident analysis (PIA) evaluates a different aspect of the response. - Initial Response - ICS structure - Emergency Medical Services Details: Aurora, CO: Aurora Fire Department, 2014. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 15, 2014 at: https://www.llis.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/Aurora%20Colorado%20Theatre%20Shooting.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: https://www.llis.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/Aurora%20Colorado%20Theatre%20Shooting.pdf Shelf Number: 133913 Keywords: Gun-Related ViolenceHomicidesMass MurdersMass Shootings (Colorado)Murders |
Author: System Planning Corporation, TriData Division Title: Aurora Century 16 Theater Shooting: After Action Report for the City of Aurora, Colorado Summary: The City of Aurora chose to conduct an independent after action review (AAR) of its response to the July 20, 2012 mass shooting at the Century 16 Theater movie complex, and the associated threat of explosive devices at XXXXXXX apartment on Paris Street. The City competitively selected TriData Division, System Planning Corporation, to undertake the review. TriData had completed over 50 after action reviews of major emergency incidents, including previous mass shootings at Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University, and Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Scope The After Action Review started in May 2013, almost a year after the incident. The delay was due to a court-imposed gag order on information connected with the case, which had not yet come to trial. The case still had not yet come to trial during this review, which confined the scope to the response, and not the investigation or background of XXXXXXX. The review focused primarily on the response of the City's emergency forces during the first three days, including actions by police, fire and emergency medical services (EMS), private ambulances, hospitals, public safety communications, and public information personnel. Also included was the first week of family and victim assistance, assistance to first responders, and healing support for the community. The roles played by regional and national agencies and other city departments were reflected in the review. The investigation of the crime itself was largely outside the scope of the review, except for initial steps taken to gather and organize theater witnesses, and the actions of the coroner. XXXXXXX background and motivation were outside the scope, as was the issue of preventing these types of incidents. The charge to the team was to first describe the event and actions taken by the City's emergency personnel, then to evaluate what was done, draw lessons learned, and make recommendations for the future. The project team was also to review measures taken by the City after the incident to improve future emergency responses. The report attempts to make a reasonable compromise between level of detail and readability. The goal was to provide a sufficiently detailed description of events so that readers would understand the key aspects. In some cases, details were withheld out of concern that they might be too useful to future perpetrators. Some timeline information is provided in each chapter to help the reader understand the flow of events. The Appendix has a detailed combined timeline developed by the Aurora Police Department that is based largely on radio transmissions, telephone recordings, the automated vehicle location system, and interviews of participants. Details: Arlington, VA: System Planning Corporation, 2014. 188p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 15, 2014 at: http://www.courts.state.co.us/Media/Opinion_Docs/14CV31595%20After%20Action%20Review%20Report%20Redacted.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://www.courts.state.co.us/Media/Opinion_Docs/14CV31595%20After%20Action%20Review%20Report%20Redacted.pdf Shelf Number: 133912 Keywords: Emergency Response TeamsGun-Related ViolenceHomicidesMass MurdersMass Shootings (Colorado)Murders |
Author: Violence Policy Center Title: Lost Youth: A County-by-County Analysis of 2012 California Homicide Victims Ages 10 to 24 Summary: Homicide is the second leading cause of death for California youth and young adults ages 10 to 24 years old. In 2011, the most recent year for which complete data is available from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), homicides in California were outpaced only by unintentional injuries-the majority of which were motor vehicle fatalities-as the leading cause of death for this age group. Of the 633 homicides reported, 83 percent were committed with firearms. Nationally in 2011, California had the 15th highest homicide rate for youth and young adults ages 10 to 24. Broken out by gender, homicide retains its number-two ranking for males and drops to number four for females for this age group in California. For males, of the 581 homicides reported, firearms were the weapon used in 84 percent of the killings. For females, of the 52 homicides reported, firearms were the weapon used in 67 percent of the killings. When analyzed by race and ethnicity, however, the rankings become less uniform and the severe effects of homicide on specific segments of this age group increasingly stark. For blacks ages 10 to 24 in California in 2011, homicide was the leading cause of death. For Hispanics it was the second leading cause of death. For Asian/Pacific Islanders it was the third leading cause of death. For whites it was the fourth leading cause of death, and for American Indian and Alaska Natives it was the fifth leading cause of death. Details: Washington, DC: Violence Policy Center, 2014. 61p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 23, 2014 at: https://www.vpc.org/studies/cayouth2014.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: https://www.vpc.org/studies/cayouth2014.pdf Shelf Number: 133806 Keywords: Crime StatisticsGang ViolenceHomicides (California)MurdersViolent CrimeYouth Violence |
Author: United Nations Development Programme Title: Citizen Security with a Human Face: Evidence and Proposals for Latin America Summary: The HDR "Citizen Security with a Human Face: evidence and proposals for Latin America" reveals a paradox: in the past decade, the region experienced both economic growth and increased crime rates. Despite social improvements, Latin America remains the most unequal and most insecure region in the world. While homicide rates reduced in other regions, they increased in Latin America, which recorded over 100,000 murders per year, totaling more than a million from 2000-2010. While homicide rates stabilized and even declined in some parts of Latin America, it is still high: in 11 of the 18 assessed countries the rate is higher than 10 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, reaching epidemic levels. Moreover, the perception of security has worsened, with robberies hiking threefold in the last 25 years, says the regional HDR. Details: New York: United Nations Development Programme, 2013. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 24, 2014 at: http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/citizen_security_with_a_human_face_-executivesummary.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Latin America URL: http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/citizen_security_with_a_human_face_-executivesummary.pdf Shelf Number: 133810 Keywords: Homicides (Latin America)MurdersSecurityViolent Crimes |
Author: Cotter, Adam Title: Homicide in Canada, 2013 Summary: Homicide continues to be a relatively rare event in Canada, accounting for about 0.1% of all police-reported violent crime and about 0.2% of all annual deaths. In a given year in Canada, there are about 4 times more deaths from motor vehicle accidents and about 7 times more deaths from suicide than there are deaths from homicide. While rare, homicide is the most serious criminal offence in Canada and can have devastating consequences for families, communities, and society more broadly. Homicides also require considerable police and criminal justice resources and, due to their visibility, can contribute to the public's perception of safety (Romer et al. 2003). Since 1961, police services have been reporting detailed information on homicides in Canada through Statistics Canada's Homicide Survey. In 1974, the survey was expanded to include manslaughter and infanticide. Using data from the Homicide Survey, this Juristat explores the characteristics of homicide incidents, victims, and accused persons in 2013 and compares these findings to short- and long-term trends. Details: Ottawa: Minister of Industry, 2014. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: Juristat vol. 34(1): Accessed January 22, 2015 at: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2014001/article/14108-eng.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Canada URL: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2014001/article/14108-eng.pdf Shelf Number: 134439 Keywords: Crime StatisticsHomicides (Canada)MurdersViolent Crime |
Author: New Orleans. Mayor's Office Title: NOLA for Life: A Comprehensive Murder Reduction Strategy Summary: Mayor Mitch Landrieus top priority is to end the cycle of death and violence on the streets of New Orleans, and to create a culture that celebrates life. For decades, this problem has held us back. From 1979, the City of New Orleans has had a murder rate that on average was 7 to 8 times higher than the national rate. In 2011, on the streets of New Orleans, 199 individuals lost their lives to murder. This is unacceptable and must be stopped. NOLA For Life is a comprehensive, holistic approach that seeks to address the problem of murder on a variety of different levels. This document lays out the citys Comprehensive Murder Reduction Strategy going forward, which builds upon and expands the work done from May 2010 to present. The city is committed to taking a public health approach to reducing murders. Our initiatives can be broken down into five main categories: Stop the Shooting, Invest in Prevention, Promote Jobs and Opportunity, Get Involved and Rebuild Neighborhoods and Improve the NOPD. Mayor Landrieu has tapped Police Chief Ronal Serpas, Criminal Justice Commissioner James Carter and Health Commissioner Dr. Karen DeSalvo to lead this effort on behalf of City Hall. It is our mission to have youth and families flourishing in safe and healthy neighborhoods, with access to quality educational, economic and cultural opportunities that allow them to become self-reliant, self-sufficient and creative human beings capable of giving back to the world. Details: New Orleans, LA: Mayor's Office, 2012. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 11, 2015 at: https://www.nola.gov/nola/media/Mayor-s-Office/Files/2012%20SOTC/NOLA-FOR-LIFE-A-Comprehensive-Murder-Reduction-Strategy.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: https://www.nola.gov/nola/media/Mayor-s-Office/Files/2012%20SOTC/NOLA-FOR-LIFE-A-Comprehensive-Murder-Reduction-Strategy.pdf Shelf Number: 134895 Keywords: Crime Prevention Homicides (New Orleans) MurdersViolent Crime |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: Mexico's Disappeared: The Enduring Cost of a Crisis Ignored Summary: When Enrique Pena Nieto took office in December 2012, he inherited a country reeling from an epidemic of drug violence. The "war on drugs" launched by his predecessor, Felipe Calderon, had not only failed to reduce violence, but also led to a dramatic increase in human rights violations. Throughout most of his presidency, Calderon denied abuses had occurred and failed to take adequate steps to ensure they were prosecuted. That responsibility now falls to President Enrique Pena Nieto. And nowhere is it more urgent than in the crime of disappearances: where people have been unlawfully taken against their will and their fate is still unknown. Mexico's Disappeared documents nearly 250 "disappearances." In 149 of these cases, evidence suggests that these were enforced disappearances, carried out with the participation of state agents. In virtually all of the cases documented by Human Rights Watch, authorities failed to promptly and thoroughly search for the disappeared person, instead blaming the victim and passing the responsibility to investigate onto families. The limited investigative steps prosecutors took were undermined by delays, errors, and omissions. These lapses only exacerbate the suffering of victims' families, for whom not knowing what happened to their loved ones is a source of perpetual anguish. Another path is possible. In the state of Nuevo Leon, responding to pressure from victims' families and human rights defenders, prosecutors have broken with a pattern of inaction and begun to seriously investigate a select group of disappearances. While progress thus far has been limited, it is an encouraging first step. Ultimately, enforced disappearances are a national problem, and the success of state-level efforts will depend in large measure on whether the federal government is willing and able to do its part. If, like its predecessor, the Pena Nieto administration fails to implement a comprehensive strategy to find the missing and bring perpetrators to justice, it will only worsen the most severe crisis of enforced disappearance in Latin America in decades. Details: New York: HRW, 2013. 176p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 26, 2015 at: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/mexico0213_ForUpload_0_0_0.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Mexico URL: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/mexico0213_ForUpload_0_0_0.pdf Shelf Number: 127733 Keywords: DisappearancesDrug TraffickingDrug-Related ViolenceHomicidesMissing PersonsMurdersWar on Drugs |
Author: Gutierrez, Michel Estefan Title: Violence, In Mexico? Homicide in a Democratizing Society Summary: Scholars who study Mexico have recently argued that the process of democratization the country went through in the past three decades contributed to the upsurge in violence we are currently witnessing. As one regime collapsed and the other emerged, change begot violence. Amid the flood of unequivocal assertions, however, a simple question remains: exactly how violent is Mexico? So far, the academic literature has failed to paint a systematic picture of patterns of violence in Mexico. In this thesis, I set the record straight regarding violence in Mexico and its connection to the country's transition to democracy. I make two empirical contributions that are theoretically consequential. First, I show that regardless of the data source used, violence in Mexico as measured by homicide rates decreased steadily since the early 1990s until 2007. Second, using a series of multiple regression models to determine the effect of political competition and voting participation on homicide rates, I show that democracy has not made Mexico more violent, but less. These findings force us to revisit our understanding of late twentieth century Mexico as a violent, unruly society, as well as debates on the causes of violence in the last few years. They also open new paths for theoretical reflection, raising the puzzle of change without disruption. Details: Berkeley, CA: University of California, Berkeley, 2011. 95p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: accessed June 3, 3015 at: http://www.cdeunodc.inegi.org.mx/articulos/doc/tesis2estefan.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Mexico URL: http://www.cdeunodc.inegi.org.mx/articulos/doc/tesis2estefan.pdf Shelf Number: 129729 Keywords: Crime StatisticsHomicidesMurdersViolent Crime |
Author: Ingram, Matthew C. Title: Homicide in El Salvador's Municipalities: Spatial Clusters and the Causal Role of Neighborhood Effects, Population Pressures, Poverty, and Education Summary: Violence directly affects individual and community well-being, and is also increasingly understood to undercut democracy and development. For public health scholars, violence presents a direct harm to health and well-being. In the worst cases, violence is lethal. Violence also generates serious costs to democracy. Fear and insecurity erode public trust and interpersonal confidence, hindering civic engagement and participation in public life. Further, low public trust undermines the legitimacy of democratic institutions, and persistent insecurity can generate support for heavy-handed or authoritarian policies. Indeed, in some new democracies in the region, including El Salvador, frustration with criminal violence has led majorities to support a return to authoritarian government. Across the region, polls identify crime and citizen security as top policy priorities. Thus, the prevention and reduction of violence is crucial to democratic stability. Lastly, violence generates heavy economic costs, dampening development. In the U.S., Miller and Cohen (1997) estimated the annual financial costs of gun shots alone at $126 billion. Similarly, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) found that the health care costs of violence constituted 1.9 percent of Gross Domestic Product in Brazil, 5.0 percent in Colombia, 4.3 percent in El Salvador, 1.3 percent in Mexico, 1. percent in Peru and 0.3 percent in Venezuela5. Along with law enforcement costs, costs to the court system, economic losses due to violence, and the cost of private security, violent crime has been estimated to cost Brazil 10.5 percent of GDP, Venezuela 11.3 percent, Mexico 12.3 percent, and El Salvador and Colombia more than 24 percent of GDP. Restating, violence costs several countries, including El Salvador, 10-20 percent of GDP. Given that GDP growth rates of three to four percent would be considered healthy, a substantial reduction of violence in these countries would have dramatic benefits for development. In sum, concerns about public health, democracy, and development motivate the need for a better understanding of the patterns and causes of violence, and of the need to translate this understanding into improved violence-reduction policies. Details: Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Latin American Program, 2014. 29p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper: Accessed August 4, 2015 at: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Homicides_El_Salvador.pdf Year: 2014 Country: El Salvador URL: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Homicides_El_Salvador.pdf Shelf Number: 136308 Keywords: HomicidesMurdersSocioeconomic Conditions and CrimeViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Violence Policy Center Title: When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2013 Homicide Data Summary: Intimate partner violence against women is all too common and takes many forms. The most serious is homicide by an intimate partner. Guns can easily turn domestic violence into domestic homicide. One federal study on homicide among intimate partners found that female intimate partners are more likely to be murdered with a firearm than all other means combined, concluding that "the figures demonstrate the importance of reducing access to firearms in households affected by IPV [intimate partner violence]." Guns are also often used in non-fatal domestic violence. A study by Harvard School of Public Health researchers analyzed gun use at home and concluded that "hostile gun displays against family members may be more common than gun use in self-defense, and that hostile gun displays are often acts of domestic violence directed against women." The U.S. Department of Justice has found that women are far more likely to be the victims of violent crimes committed by intimate partners than men, especially when a weapon is involved. Moreover, women are much more likely to be victimized at home than in any other place. A woman must consider the risks of having a gun in her home, whether she is in a domestic violence situation or not. While two thirds of women who own guns acquired them "primarily for protection against crime," the results of a California analysis show that "purchasing a handgun provides no protection against homicide among women and is associated with an increase in their risk for intimate partner homicide." A 2003 study about the risks of firearms in the home found that females living with a gun in the home were nearly three times more likely to be murdered than females with no gun in the home. Finally, another study reports, women who were murdered were more likely, not less likely, to have purchased a handgun in the three years prior to their deaths, again invalidating the idea that a handgun has a protective effect against homicide. While this study does not focus solely on domestic violence homicide or guns, it provides a stark reminder that domestic violence and guns make a deadly combination. Firearms are rarely used to kill criminals or stop crimes. Instead, they are all too often used to inflict harm on the very people they were intended to protect According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports, in 2013 there were only 270 justifiable homicides committed by private citizens. Of these, only 23 involved women killing men. Of those, only 13 involved firearms, with 11 of the 13 involving handguns. While firearms are at times used by private citizens to kill criminals, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the most common scenarios of lethal gun use in America in 2013, the most recent final data available, are suicide (21,175), homicide (11,208), or fatal unintentional injury (505). When Men Murder Women is an annual report prepared by the Violence Policy Center detailing the reality of homicides committed against females by single male offenders. The study analyzes the most recent Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) data submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The information used for this report is for the year 2013. Once again, this is the most recent data available. This is the first analysis of the 2013 data on female homicide victims to offer breakdowns of cases in the 10 states with the highest female victim/male offender homicide rates, and the first to rank the states by these rates. This study examines only those instances involving one female homicide victim and one male offender. This is the exact scenario-the lone male attacker and the vulnerable woman-that is often used to promote gun ownership among women. This is the 18th edition of When Men Murder Women. From 1996 to 2013, the rate of women murdered by men in single victim/single offender incidents dropped from 1.57 per 100,000 women in 1996 to 1.09 per 100,000 women in 2013, a decrease of 31 percent. Details: Washington, DC: Violence Policy Institute, 2015. 26p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 24, 2015 at: http://www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2015.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2015.pdf Shelf Number: 137331 Keywords: Crime Statistics Family Violence Gun-Related Violence Homicide Intimate Partner Violence Murders Violence Against Women |
Author: Langley, Marty Title: Lost Youth: A County-by-County Analysis of 2013 California Homicide Victims Ages 10 to 24 Summary: Homicide is the second leading cause of death for California youth and young adults ages 10 to 24 years old. In 2013, the most recent year for which complete data is available from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), homicides in California were outpaced only by unintentional injuries-the majority of which were motor vehicle fatalities-as the leading cause of death for this age group. Of the 613 homicides reported, 86 percent were committed with firearms. Nationally in 2013, California had the 17th highest homicide rate for youth and young adults ages 10 to 24. Broken out by gender, homicide retains its number-two ranking for males and drops to number four for females for this age group in California. For males, of the 553 homicides reported, firearms were the weapon used in 87 percent of the killings. For females, of the 60 homicides reported, firearms were the weapon used in 72 percent of the killings. When analyzed by race and ethnicity, however, the rankings become less uniform and the severe effects of homicide on specific segments of this age group increasingly stark. For blacks ages 10 to 24 in California in 2013, homicide was the leading cause of death. For Hispanics it was the second leading cause of death. For American Indian and Alaskan Natives it was the third leading cause of death. For whites and Asian/Pacific Islanders it was the fourth leading cause of death. Details: Washington, DC: Violence Policy Center, 2015. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 24, 2015 at: http://www.vpc.org/studies/cayouth2015.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.vpc.org/studies/cayouth2015.pdf Shelf Number: 137332 Keywords: Crime Statistics Gang Violence Homicides Murders Violent Crime Youth Violence |
Author: de Hoyos, Rafael Title: Idle youth in Mexico : trapped between the war on drugs and economic crisis Summary: The present study combines data from Mexico's employment surveys (Encuesta Nacional de Empleo and Encuesta Nacional de Ocupacion y Empleo) with the country's official statistics on murder rates to create a state-level panel data set covering the period 1995 to 2013. Including most of the common controls identified by the literature, the results show that the rate of male youth ages 19 to 24 not studying and out of work (the so-called ninis), is not correlated with homicide rates during the period 1995 to 2006. However, there is evidence that a positive correlation between male ninis and murder rates arises between 2007 and 2013, a period during which murder rates in Mexico increased threefold. The association between ninis and homicide rates is stronger in states located along the border with the United States, a region particularly affected by organized crime and the international financial crisis of 2008-09. Details: Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2016. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: Policy Research working paper; no. WPS 7558: Accessed February 17, 2016 at: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2016/02/04/090224b084147697/1_0/Rendered/PDF/Idle0youth0in000and0economic0crisis.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Mexico URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2016/02/04/090224b084147697/1_0/Rendered/PDF/Idle0youth0in000and0economic0crisis.pdf Shelf Number: 137868 Keywords: At-Risk YouthCrime RatesHomicidesMurdersOrganized CrimeUnemployment and Crime |
Author: Lum, Kristian Title: Estimating Undocumented Homicides with Two Lists and List Dependence Summary: Homicides tend to be hidden from public view. Perpetrators are often motivated to conceal the crime, and victims' families may be afraid to denounce the violence; concealment and the families' fear may be most acute when the perpetrators of the crime are state authorities, like the police. Consequently, lists of homicides tend to be partial, and they tend to emphasize victims with high social visibility: victims who are relatively well-known, and whose killing occurs in daylight, in urban areas, and in view of bystanders motivated to report the crime. Other killings without these aspects more frequently remain hidden from public knowledge. When two or more groups provide lists of victims of homicide, it is possible to estimate the total population of victims, including those who were not documented on any of the lists being used. The technique is called capture-recapture or multiple systems estimation (MSE; an introduction to the method is here). Intuitively, the more overlaps among the lists, the more plausible it is that the population they are drawing from is small. A standard assumption in MSE is that the lists are statistically independent (see Q13, here), i.e. that an incident being recorded on one list makes the incident no more or less likely to be recorded on the other lists. Another standard assumption is homogeneity of recording probabilities (see Q11, here), i.e. that the probability of recording patterns does not vary across the population being estimated. Heterogeneity in recording probabilities can induce list dependence (International Working Group for Disease Monitoring and Forecasting, 1995). Thus, the independence assumption is rarely true, but with three or more lists we can estimate the dependence among subsets of the lists, following the method proposed by Bishop et al. (1975). In estimates made by the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), we use three or more lists to take advantage of the additional lists to estimate the list dependence rates. Whether estimates produced under the assumption of independence over-or underestimate the true population size depends on correlations between inclusion in different lists. Lists are positively correlated if the appearance of an incident on one list makes it more likely that the incident appears on the other list. One mechanism through which this can occur is if the both lists are compiled using some of the same underlying data sources. Positive list correlation also occurs between lists collected by projects that share similar social constituencies, for example, lists of victims collected by police and by municipal social workers may tend to draw from communities that trust the government, while communities that do not trust the government may avoid both police and government social service projects. Lists are negatively correlated if the appearance of an incident on one list makes it less likely that the incident was recorded on the other list. This can occur if the groups gathering data tend to focus their efforts on different geographic regions or periods of time, or if one documentation group draws from one political party while another documentation group draws from a competing party. When dependence between two lists is positive, the two-list independence estimator will be biased downward, and when list dependence is negative, this estimate will be biased upward. In practice, we have found that most list dependence is positive. In this document, we propose a method to include a correction for list dependence in the two list case, producing a range of estimates. In essence, we propose performing a sensitivity analysis to the independence assumption. For the values we use in the correction, we derive list dependence measures from contextually similar projects where we believe the underlying data generating processes was similar to the data collection done by the two groups recording from our target population. That is, we select other data sets that we believe exhibit similar list dependence properties to the two lists of records from our target population. Thus, we can estimate a population total using only two lists that accounts for list dependence. This approach assumes that the list dependence in the two lists from our target population is comparable to the list dependence in other projects (and populations) where we have three or more lists. Details: San Francisco?: Human Rights Data Analysis Group, 2015. 15p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 21, 2016 at: https://hrdag.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-hrdag-estimating-undoc-homicides.pdf Year: 2015 Country: International URL: https://hrdag.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-hrdag-estimating-undoc-homicides.pdf Shelf Number: 138348 Keywords: Crime StatisticsHomicidesMurders |
Author: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Title: Situation of Human Rights in Honduras Summary: The report "Situation of Human Rights in Honduras", addresses the situation of human rights violations which result of high rates of violence, citizen insecurity and impunity. The report also provides recommendations in order to assist the State in strengthening its efforts to protect and guarantee human rights. The report indicates that the homicide rate in Honduras remains one of the highest in the region and the world, although the State reported numbers that indicate a decline in 2014. These levels of violence are a result of several factors, including the increased presence of organized crime and drug traffickers, an inadequate judicial response that fuels impunity, corruption, and high levels of poverty and inequality. "Violence and insecurity are serious problems that Honduran society faces with a major impact on the enjoyment and effective exercise of human rights in the country," said Commissioner Francisco Eguiguren, IACHR Rapporteur for Honduras. The report indicates that the high levels of violence faced by Honduran society have a particular impact on human rights defenders, indigenous peoples, women, children, adolescents and youth, LGBT persons, migrants, campesinos from the Bajo Aguan, journalists and media workers, and justice operators. The report also analyzes those still considered to be among the most serious problems that the Honduran prison system is facing. Official figures released in 2013 indicate that 80% of murders committed in Honduras go unpunished due to a lack of capacity of investigative bodies. During the visit, civil society organizations claimed that the prevailing levels of impunity in Honduras are even higher. Details: Washington, DC: IACHR, 2015. 230p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 26, 2016 at: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/Honduras-en-2015.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Honduras URL: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/Honduras-en-2015.pdf Shelf Number: 138417 Keywords: Crime RatesCriminal Justice SystemsHomicideHuman Rights AbusesMurdersViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Rosenfeld, Richard Title: Documenting and Explaining the 2015 Homicide Rise: Research Directions Summary: The debate over the size, scope and causes of the homicide increase in 2015 has been largely free of systematic evidence. This paper documents the scale of the homicide increase for a sample of 56 large U.S. cities. It then examines three plausible explanations of the homicide rise: an expansion of urban drug markets fueled by the heroin epidemic, reductions in incarceration resulting in a growing number of released prisoners in the nation's cities, and a "Ferguson effect" resulting from widely publicized incidents of police use of deadly force against minority citizens. The paper concludes with a call for the more frequent and timely release of crime information to address crime problems as they arise. The homicide increase in the nation's large cities was real and nearly unprecedented. It was also heavily concentrated in a few cities with large African-American populations. Empirical explanations of the homicide increase must await future research based on year-end crime data for 2015. Several empirical indicators for assessing the explanations under consideration here are discussed. For example, if the homicide increase resulted from an expansion in urban drug markets, we should observe larger increases in drug-related homicides than those committed under other circumstances. If returning prisoners fueled the homicide increase, that should be reflected in growing numbers of homicides committed by parolees. It will be more difficult to empirically evaluate the so-called Ferguson effect on crime increases, depending on the version of this phenomenon under consideration. The dominant interpretation of the Ferguson effect is that criticism of the police stemming from widely publicized and controversial incidents of the use of force against minority citizens caused the police to disengage from vigorous enforcement activities. Another version of the Ferguson effect, however, switches the focus from changes in police behavior to the longstanding grievances and discontent with policing in African-American communities. In this interpretation, when activated by controversial incidents of police use of force, chronic discontent erupts into violence. The de-policing interpretation of the Ferguson effect can be evaluated with data on arrests and other forms of self-initiated activity by the police. De-policing should be reflected in declining arrest rates in cities experiencing homicide increases. Tracing the pathways from chronic levels of discontent to an escalation in homicide will ultimately require ethnographic studies in minority communities that reveal, for example, whether offenders believe they can engage in crime without fear that residents will contact the police or cooperate in police investigations. Such studies could also disclose other linkages between discontent, police use of force and criminal violence. In summary, the following research questions for documenting and explaining the 2015 homicide rise, at a minimum, should be pursued when the requisite data become available: - How large and widespread was the homicide increase in 2015? Did other crimes also increase? - What conditions drove the homicide increase? Candidate explanations must account for the timing as well as the magnitude and scope of the increase. - What role, if any, did the expansion of drug markets play in the 2015 homicide increase? Was there a relative increase in drug arrests and drug-related homicides? - Did declining imprisonment rates contribute to the 2015 homicide rise? Was the increase greater in cities with more returning prisoners and among parolees? - What role did the Ferguson effect play in the homicide rise? If de-policing contributed to the increase, arrest rates should have declined in cities experiencing the largest homicide increases. An open question is how to evaluate the role, if any, of community discontent with the police. Ethnographic studies, among other methods, should be high on the list of research approaches to identify the mechanisms linking police legitimacy and escalating levels of violence. Researchers would have been in a better position to begin addressing the 2015 homicide rise, with evidence rather than speculation, if timely crime data had been available as the increase was occurring. We would have known whether the homicide rise was confined to large cities, whether other crimes were also increasing, and whether arrest rates were falling. The debate over the homicide increase would have been better informed. Technical impediments to the monthly release of crime data no longer exist. A large and worrisome increase in homicide should be the catalyst to finally bring the nation's crime monitoring system into the 21st century. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, 2016. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 28, 2016 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/249895.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/249895.pdf Shelf Number: 139525 Keywords: Crime RatesCrime StatisticsHomicidesMurdersViolent Crime |
Author: Mulligan, Leah Title: Homicide in Canada, 2015 Summary: Homicides continue to account for a small proportion of all police-reported violent Criminal Code offences in Canada, representing 0.2% in 2015.Note 1 While homicide continues to be a relatively rare occurrence in Canada, rates of homicide are considered benchmarks for levels of violent activity both in Canada and internationally (Ouimet 2014). Further, perceptions of safety within communities may be influenced by their homicide rates (Romer et al. 2003). Since 1961, police services have been reporting detailed information on homicide occurrences in Canada through Statistics Canada's Homicide Survey. Using data drawn from the Homicide Survey, this Juristat article explores prevalence and characteristics of homicide incidents, victims, and accused persons reported in 2015, and compares these findings to short and long term trends. A special analysis of the circumstances surrounding homicides of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal females committed by ‘casual acquaintances’ from 1980 to 2015 is also presented (see Text box 1). Number and rate of homicides at their highest point since 2011 •Police reported 604 homicide victims in Canada in 2015, 83 more than the previous year and the highest number of homicides reported since 2011.Note 2 The homicide rate (1.68 per 100,000 population) increased 15% from the previous year marking the highest homicide rate since 2011 (Chart 1). This was also the largest percentage increase in the annual homicide rate reported in Canada since 1975. The 2015 homicide rate however was 2% lower than the average for the previous decade (Chart 2). •Attempted murders also grew in 2015 (Allen 2016). Police reported 144 more attempted murders compared to 2014 (from 630 in 2014 to 774 in 2015), and the rate increased 22% from the previous year (2.16 per 100,000 population compared to 1.77). The rate of attempted murder has remained consistently higher than the homicide rate since the 1980s, and these offences have often shown similar trends over time (Chart 1). •In 2015, police reported 572 incidents of homicide, the majority involving a single victim (95%). There were 21 incidents involving two victims (4%), and the remaining 5 incidents involved either three or four victims (less than 1%). This pattern has been consistent since homicide data collection began in 1961. •In 2015, police reported solving 75% (451) of the total 604 reported homicides (see Text box 2). There were a reported total of 525 accused persons identified in these homicides. Among the provinces Saskatchewan reported the highest homicide rate in 2015 •The higher number of homicides for 2015 was primarily due to increases in Alberta (+27 homicides), Saskatchewan (+19), and Ontario (+18) (Table 1a). The increased number of reported homicides in Alberta and Saskatchewan occurred primarily outside of census metropolitan areas (CMAs).Note 3 Within Ontario, however, half of the increase occurred within various CMAs. •Saskatchewan recorded the highest homicide rate among the provinces (3.79 homicides per 100,000 population). The next two highest provincial rates were recorded in Manitoba (3.63) and in Alberta (3.17) (Table 1b). •Nova Scotia recorded a large increase in their homicide rate (+100%) with 12 homicides reported in 2015. It should be noted, however, that the large increase is due to the record low rate that was recorded in 2014 with 6 homicides that year (Table 1b). •The rate of homicides per 100,000 population tends to be more variable from year to year within the Territories, in part due to their smaller population counts. This was true in 2015 with 5 homicides in the Northwest Territories (11.34 per 100,000 population), two homicides in Nunavut (5.42), and one homicide in Yukon (2.67) (Table 1b). Of note, the 2015 homicide rate in Nunavut was the lowest reported rate since becoming a territory in 1999. •The lowest homicide rates in 2015 were reported in Newfoundland and Labrador (0.57 per 100,000 population), Prince Edward Island (0.68), and Quebec (0.93) (Table 1b). Regina records the highest homicide rate among census metropolitan areas •With a total of 8 homicides in 2015, Regina recorded the highest homicide rate among the 33 CMAs (3.30 homicides per 100,000 population).Note 4 Saskatoon (with 10 homicides) and Edmonton (with 39 homicides) recorded the next highest homicide rates (at 3.22 and 2.87 per 100,000 population, respectively). Brantford was the only CMA to report no homicides in 2015 (Table 2). Homicide rates continue to be higher for Aboriginal people than for non-Aboriginal people •Aboriginal people accounted for 25% of homicide victims in 2015, compared to 23% in 2014Note 5 (see CANSIM table 253-0009). In total, police reported 148 Aboriginal victims of homicide in 2015 compared to 120 in 2014 (Table 3). Aboriginal people represented an estimated 5% of the Canadian population in 2015 (Statistics Canada 2015). •In 2015, the rate of homicide for Aboriginal people increased by 20% to 8.77 Aboriginal victims per 100,000 Aboriginal people, from 7.30 in 2014Note 6 (Table 3). In comparison, the rate of homicide among non-Aboriginal people increased 13% from 1.17 non-Aboriginal victims per 100,000 non-Aboriginal people to 1.31. Overall, the rate of homicide for Aboriginal people in 2015 was about seven times higher than for non-Aboriginal people. •Aboriginal males were more frequently victims of homicide compared to non-Aboriginal males. In 2015, the rate of homicide for Aboriginal males was seven times that for non-Aboriginal males (12.85 per 100,000 population compared to 1.87). Further, the rate for Aboriginal males was three times that for Aboriginal females (12.85 compared to 4.80). •Amongst female victims, the rate of homicide of Aboriginal females was six times that of non-Aboriginal females (4.80 per 100,000 compared to 0.77). Of note, the rate for Aboriginal females was higher than the rate for non-Aboriginal males (4.80 compared to 1.87) (Table 3). These findings are consistent with those reported in 2014. •In 2015, police reported solving a higher proportion of homicides of Aboriginal victims within the reporting year, than those of non-Aboriginal victims (85% compared to 71%). The proportion of homicides solved by police were comparable between Aboriginal male and Aboriginal female victims (86% and 83%). Within non-Aboriginal homicides however, police reported solving two thirds (66%) of male homicides, while solving 85% of female homicides. •Where the Aboriginal identity of the accused was reported for the 525 accused identified in solved homicide cases, 33% were identified as Aboriginal persons, and 67% were non-Aboriginal personsNote 7 (see CANSIM table 253-0010). Further, the rate of Aboriginal persons accused of homicide was 10.13 persons for every 100,000 Aboriginal people. This rate was 10 times higher than the rate of accused among non-Aboriginal people (1.01) (Table 3). This is equal to the finding for the rate of accused persons by Aboriginal identity reported in the previous year. •In 2015, there were 61 female persons accused homicide, and 37 were Aboriginal (61%) while 24 were non-Aboriginal (39%). The rate of Aboriginal females accused of homicide was 31 times higher than rate of non-Aboriginal female accused (4.33 per 100,000 population compared to 0.14). For the 464 males accused persons, 134 (29%) were Aboriginal and 321 (69%) were non-Aboriginal. For rate for Aboriginal male accused was about 8 times higher than the rate for non-Aboriginal male accused (16.09 per 100,000 compared to 1.90) (Table 3). Female homicide victims more likely than male victims to have been reported as a missing person •In 2015, police services were asked for the first time to report the missing person status of homicide victims to the Homicide Survey (see Text box 3). Of the 604 homicides reported in 2015, 63 (10%) were on record as a missing person at the time the homicide became known to the police. •Female victims were reported as a missing person prior to the discovery of their death two and half times more often than their male counterparts (18% of female victims, compared to 7% of male victims). Those less than 12 years old were most frequently previously reported as a missing person (30% of victims under 12), while those least frequently reported as missing were those aged 65 and older (2% of victims aged 65 and older). •Proportions of victims previously reported as missing were similar regardless of whether the victim was Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal. Overall, 10% of Aboriginal victims were previously reported as missing compared to 11% of non-Aboriginal victims. This was true for 17% of Aboriginal female victims and 18% of non-Aboriginal female victims. For males, 7% of Aboriginal male victims were on record as a missing person, as were 8% of non-Aboriginal male victims (Chart 3). Number of firearm-related homicides increases for second consecutive year •In 2015, stabbings continued to be the most common method of committing homicide in Canada (37%), followed by shootings (30%) and beatings (23%). These proportions are similar to those reported over the past 10 years (Table 4, Chart 4). •For the second year in a row, police reported an increase in the number and rate of firearm-related homicides. In 2015, there were 178 firearm-related homicides, 23 more than the previous year (Table 5). The rate of firearm-related homicides in 2015 increased by 14% to 0.50 per 100,000 population (compared to 0.44 in 2014), and was the highest reported rate since 2010 (0.51). This finding is consistent with the reported 22% increase in rate for all violent firearms offences from the previous year (Allen 2016).Note 8 •Handguns were used in 57% of firearm-related homicides in 2015, and they continue to be the most frequently used type of firearm. This proportion is down from 2014, where handguns accounted for 67% of firearm-related homicides. The rate of handgun-related homicides remained relatively stable at 0.28 per 100,000 population in 2015 (compared to 0.29 in 2014). Of note, the number of homicides committed with sawed-off rifles or shotguns increased to 23 (+17), accounting for 13% of firearm-related homicides in 2015, up from 4% in 2014 (Table 5). Thus, the rate of sawed-off rifle or shotgun-related homicides increased from 0.02 per 100,000 population to 0.06 in 2015. •The highest rates of firearm-related homicide were reported in Yukon and the Northwest Territories (2.67 and 2.27 per 100,000 population respectively). Alberta reported the next highest rate at 1.17 per 100,000. The rate of firearm homicides grew the most, however, in Saskatchewan, moving up from 0.36 per 100,000 in 2014 to 0.97 in 2015. •Across the provinces in 2015, increases in the number of firearm-related homicides from 2014 were reported in Alberta (+13), Saskatchewan (+7), Manitoba (+3), and Ontario (+3) (Table 4). All other provinces and territories reported relatively stable numbers of firearm-related homicides from the previous year. •Among the CMAs, the majority of firearm-related homicides were reported in Toronto (27), Montréal (20), Calgary (16), Edmonton (15), and Vancouver (15) (Table 6). For these CMAs in particular, the proportion of total homicides which were related to firearms ranged from about 30% to 40% of their total homicides in 2015. Calgary reported the largest increase in firearm-related homicides (+13), and this accounted for more than half (57%) of the total increase in firearm-related homicides in Canada in 2015. In comparison, all firearm-related homicides occurring outside CMAs contributed towards 39% of the total increase in that year. Other notable changes reported in the number of firearm-related homicides from 2014 were reported in Montréal (+5), Toronto (-10), and Edmonton (-5). For the other CMAs, the number remained comparable in 2015 to the previous year. •In 2015, 44% of firearm-related homicides were also related to gang activity,Note 9 which has been the case in general for the past five years.Note 10 Alberta recorded an increase of 14 (+26%) firearm-related homicides that were gang-related in 2015; the majority occurring in Calgary and Edmonton CMAs (+7 and +3 respectively). Saskatchewan reported a large decrease in the proportion of firearm-related homicides that involved gangs, moving from 75% of their reported firearm related homicides in 2014, to 18% in 2015. Gang-related homicides increased in 2015 following a three year decline •In 2015, police reported 98 gang-related homicides, up 16 from the previous year. The rate increased by 18% to 0.27 per 100,000 population (from 0.23 in 2014). This follows a period of decline in the rate of gang-related homicides from 2011 to 2014 (Chart 5). •The total increase in the number of gang-related homicides in Canada was reported mostly in Alberta, where the number went up by 19 gang-related homicides from 2014, for a total of 28 gang-related homicides in 2015. Of the increased number of gang-related homicides in Alberta (19), more than two-thirds (68%) occurred in the CMAs of Calgary and Edmonton, and the remainder (32%) within Alberta’s non-CMA areas. In Alberta, gangs were involved in 22% of homicides in 2015, compared to 9% the previous year. •Despite an increase in the number of homicides in Saskatchewan and Ontario, gang-related homicides did not appear to account for the increase in these provinces. In Saskatchewan, gangs were involved in 12% of homicides in 2015 compared to 25% in 2014. In Ontario, 13% of homicides in 2015 were gang-related compared to 15% the previous year. •In Newfoundland and Labrador, the province’s 2 homicides reported in 2014 were both gang related, yet in 2015 none of their 3 reported homicides were gang related. In addition, none of Nova Scotia’s 12 homicides in 2015 were gang related, compared to 17% in 2014. In all other provinces and territories, the proportion of homicides related to gangs remained relatively stable from the previous year. •Within CMAs, gang-related homicides were reported most frequently in 2015 in Montréal (20), Vancouver (13), Toronto (12), and Calgary (12), which combined account for 73% of the total gang-related homicides reported within CMAs (Table 6). Fewer homicides committed by strangers, more by criminal associates •Despite the increased number of victims reported in 2015, increases were not equal across all types of homicides when considering relationship types. Relationship information is available for solved homicides for which an accused has been identified. Decades of relationship information indicates that homicides are frequently committed by someone known to the victim.Note 11 In 2015, 87% of victims knew the accused involved in their death (Table 7). This proportion increased from 2014 where a reported 82% of victims knew the accused.Note 12 •The number of victims killed by a stranger in 2015 declined to 58, from 73 reported in 2014. As such homicides committed by strangers accounted for 13% of homicides in 2015 compared to 18% the year before (Table 7). In comparison, police reported an increase in the number of homicides committed by a person with whom the victim had a criminal relationship (54 in 2015 compared to 29 in 2014). •Increases were also reported in the number of homicides committed by family members other than current or ex-spouses or common law partners. These homicides increased from 73 to 99 in 2015. This was largely due to an increase in homicides committed by extended family members (Table 7). •There were 83 intimate partner homicides reported in Canada in 2015, 3 less than in 2014 (Table 7). The rate of intimate partner homicides remained relatively stable in 2015 at 0.28 per 100,000 population aged 15 and older, which followed a reported increase in the previous year. The rate of female intimate partner homicide remained unchanged from 2014 (0.46 per 100,000 population for both years); while that for males decrease slightly from 0.11 in the previous year to 0.09 in 2015. Majority of homicide victims and accused persons were male •Overall, males account for the majority of both homicide victims and accused persons. In 2015, 71% of homicide victims and 88% of homicide accused were male, findings that have remained consistent over the past 10 years. •Rates of homicide among male victims were highest for those 25 to 34 years of age (4.38 per 100,000 population), followed by 18 to 24 year olds (4.29). For females, the highest homicide rate was reported for those aged 18 to 24 years (1.46), followed closely by females aged 25 to 34 years (1.41) (see CANSIM table 253-0003). •The rate of accused persons amongst the male population in 2015 was highest for those 18 to 24 years of age (8.80 per 100,000 population). Among females, the rate of being accused of homicide in 2015 was highest for those aged 25 to 34 years (0.89). Increase in number and rate of youth accused of homicide from previous year •In 2015, youth aged 12 to 17 accounted for 7% of the 525 accused persons reported in that year. This is consistent with findings reported over the past 4 years, where the proportion of youth accused has accounted for less than 10% of the total accused persons (see CANSIM table 253-0003). •The rate of youth accused of homicide increased, however, by 22% from the previous year. Police reported in 2015 that there were 1.51 youth accused of homicide for every 100,000 youth aged 12 to 17 in Canada, compared with a rate of 1.24 in 2014. Overall, there were 35 youth accused of homicide in 2015, 6 more than the previous year. •Youth accused of homicide in 2015 were two times more likely to be involved in a gang-related incident compared to adults (20% of youth accused compared to 10% of adults accused).Note 13 Accused persons aged 65 and older most likely to have a suspected mental or developmental disorder •In 2015, police suspected 85 persons accused of homicide as having a mental or developmental disorder,Note 14 representing 17% of total accused persons.Note 15 This is lower than the proportion in 2014 (21%), however it is comparable to the average over the previous ten years from 2005 to 2014 (16%). •Seniors aged 65 and older accounted for the largest proportion (36%) of accused persons with suspected mental health or developmental disorders in 2015 (Chart 6). In comparison, those aged 55 to 64 accounted for the lowest proportion (11%), which is contrary to previous findings where the lowest proportion has typically been present amongst younger age groups. Further, according to the average over the previous ten years, the presence of mental or developmental disorders among accused persons has been shown to increase with age. Details: Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 2016. 23p. Source: Internet Resource: Juristat 36, no. 1: Accessed December 5, 2016 at: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2016001/article/14668-eng.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Canada URL: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2016001/article/14668-eng.pdf Shelf Number: 147745 Keywords: Crime StatisticsHomicidesMurders |
Author: Great Britain. Home Office Title: Domestic Homicide Reviews: Key Findings from Analysis of Domestic Homicide Reviews Summary: 1. A Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) is a multi-agency review of the circumstances in which the death of a person aged 16 or over has, or appears to have, resulted from violence, abuse or neglect by a person to whom they were related or with whom they were, or had been, in an intimate personal relationship, or a member of the same household as themselves. Since 13 April 2011 there has been a statutory requirement for local areas to conduct a DHR following a domestic homicide that meets the criteria. 2. Since April 2011, in excess of 400 DHRs have been completed. DHRs provide a rich source of information on the nature of domestic homicide, the context in which it occurs and, most importantly, in the lessons that can be learned from the tragic event. This analysis sets out what we know about domestic homicide and draws out common themes and trends and identifies learning that emerged across the sample of DHRs. 3. The purpose of this analysis is to promote key learning and trends from the sample of DHRs with the aim of informing and shaping future policy development and operational practice both locally and nationally. 4. We encourage local areas to reflect on the learning identified and to consider how this can be used to deliver improvements to practice within their local context furthering their ability to safeguard victims and prevent domestic homicide. 5. This paper also reports on what is being done nationally to tackle these issues. Details: London: Home Office, 2016. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 13, 2016 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/575232/HO-Domestic-Homicide-Review-Analysis-161206.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/575232/HO-Domestic-Homicide-Review-Analysis-161206.pdf Shelf Number: 146046 Keywords: Domestic ViolenceHomicidesIntimate Partner ViolenceMurders |
Author: Small Arms Survey Title: A Gendered Analysis of Violent Deaths Summary: Does the risk of violent death differ for men and women in conflict and non-conflict settings, and across regions and countries? Does it change over the course of a person’s life? And are women targeted because they are women? In other words, is such violence gender-based? Through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the international community has committed to reducing all forms of violence and related deaths (Target 16.1), and to eliminating violence against women and girls (Target 5.2). It has also undertaken to ensure the safety of public spaces (Target 11.7) (UNGA, 2015). Achieving these targets requires a detailed mapping of patterns and risk factors for lethal violence. The collection and analysis of data related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is still in its infancy, but some broad trends and patterns can be identified nevertheless. This Research Note is the third in a series that presents the latest information from the Small Arms Survey's database on violent deaths (Small Arms Survey, n.d.; see Box 1). The first Note in the series examines broad trends in lethal violence, noting that while the global homicide rate has decreased slowly but steadily since 2004, conflict deaths have almost tripled in recent years, constituting 17 per cent of all the violent deaths in 2010–15 (Widmer and Pavesi, 2016a). The second report analyses the use of firearms as instruments of violence (Widmer and Pavesi, 2016b), while this third instalment in the series analyses available information on violent deaths, disaggregated by sex. It finds that: Globally, men and boys accounted for 84 per cent of the people who died violently in 2010–15; on average during that period, 64,000 women and girls—the remaining 16 per cent—were killed violently every year. The sub-regions with the highest violent death rates for women include Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. In sub-regions with low overall violent death rates, such as Western Europe, Eastern Asia, and Australia/New Zealand, the proportion of women who die violently is often above the global average. In the Afghan and Syrian conflicts, the proportion of women killed has been steadily increasing at least since sex-disaggregated data became available. In industrialized countries, the general decrease in homicide rates entailed a decline in the killing of women, but rates of domestic and intimate partner violence have proven particularly difficult to reduce. In 2015 or the latest year for which data is available, as many or more women than men suffered violent deaths in eight countries characterized by high income and low violence levels: Austria, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Slovenia, and Switzerland. Details: Geneva, SWIT: Small Arms Survey, 2016. 8p. Source: Internet Resource: Research Note: Accessed December 14, 2016 at: http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/H-Research_Notes/SAS-Research-Note-63.pdf Year: 2016 Country: International URL: http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/H-Research_Notes/SAS-Research-Note-63.pdf Shelf Number: 147374 Keywords: Conflict-Related ViolenceHomicidesMurdersViolence |
Author: Zimmer, Jacqueline Nicole Title: The New Orleans murder epidemic: Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida on the irresponsibility of violence Summary: I live on Jeannette Street in New Orleans, about fifty yards from where Joseph Massenburg's body was found on the night of April first. On a fence close to where Massenburg lost his life, I recently noticed a sign depicting the Biblical imperative "Thou shall not kill". I have come across these signs around New Orleans since the end of 2012 – they can be found plastered to the façade of churches or displayed as yard signs in front lawns – but this was the first time I considered the irreverent tone of the commandment for the people of New Orleans. What exactly is achieved by posting this message across various public buildings around the city? Does it convey to the city's most dangerous criminals that the community is fed up with the killing? In theory, the placards are intended to evoke a moral response from those individuals who are most likely to engage in activities associated with gun violence. More often than not, these individuals are young, black, and male, and are in some way affiliated with the "narcoeconomy" of New Orleans. Even if the commandment "thou shall not kill" does give some people momentary pause, ultimately its message is devoid of the logical connection between murder and the imperative to not murder. If nothing else, the signs serve as ironic reminders that the slaughter of so many of New Orleans' black citizens is a phenomenon that consistently crowns New Orleans the most deadly city in the United States. On the surface, the murder of eighteen-year old Joseph Massenburg, who was shot in cold blood on the corner of Eagle and Birch Streets, appeared to be anything but unusual considering his victim profile. Massenburg looked like the typical victim of gun violence: black, young, and male. However, information detailing Massenburg's other attributes – a Chicago-born recent New Orleans transplant, an Americorps volunteer, a high school graduate, the son of a highly educated public servant – was not released to the public until a few days after Massenburg had succumbed to his gunshot wounds. Massenburg had gone for a walk in the same area where a bitter feud was underway between two local gangs, the "Hot Glocks" and the "Mid-City Killers". Several months later, the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) charged eighteen-year old Glen Emerson with shooting Joseph Massenburg. Police concluded that Emerson, a member of the Mid-City Killers, had mistakenly identified Massenburg as a member of the Hot Glocks in a drive-by shooting. Massenburg's death symbolizes the endemic gun violence problem that has plagued the city of New Orleans for several decades. The drug and gang-related violence that affects many impoverished black neighborhoods in New Orleans is the modern-day product of a composite of factors, including racial inequity, an untrustworthy police force that is rife with corruption, the prevalence of guns and the ease of gun accessibility, and the successive generations of young men who have grown up in broken, impoverished families with few legitimate economic opportunities. While the problems that characterize New Orleans’s impoverished neighborhoods are comparable to other American urban communities, the murder epidemic of New Orleans is unique to cities of its size. While gang-related gun violence is responsible for a significant number of the city's murders each year, a significant number of the city's homicides result from interpersonal conflicts. In order to combat the conditions that lead to deadly gun violence, the city must be willing to reinstate the legitimacy of the police force, whose corruption and inefficiency has led some New Orleans’ citizens to resort to alternative means of attaining "justice". This essay investigates the conditions that created the "street code" that governs drug-related activity among New Orleans' criminal groups and gangs, and why New Orleans' murder rate is directly linked to the manifestation of the street code. The street code is formulated by a variety of factors and sentiments, including poverty, race, hopelessness, fear, anger, boredom, and a distrust in the police. I argue that people resort to extreme forms of violence when environmental and contextual factors corrupt Emmanuel Lévinas' conception of the face-to-face encounter by priming people automatically to reduce the other to the same as a means of self-protection when the absence of a reliable protective state corrupts the ethical decision to regard the other peacefully. Furthermore, I refer to Jacques Derrida's theoretical approach on hospitality to examine how such collective norms foster a culture of violence. Details: Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, 2014. 115p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed March 6, 2017 at: http://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1965&context=gradschool_theses Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1965&context=gradschool_theses Shelf Number: 141351 Keywords: Drug-Related ViolenceGun ViolenceGun-Related ViolenceHomicidesMurdersSocioeconomic Conditions and CrimeViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Kronick, Dorothy Title: Prosperity and Violence in Illegal Markets Summary: Does prosperity generate violence in markets with ill-defined property rights? I consider the consequences of prosperity in drug trafficking markets in Venezuela. Using an original data set constructed from Ministry of Health records, I compare violent death trends in Venezuelan municipalities near trafficking routes to trends elsewhere, both before 1989 - when trafficking volumes were negligible - and after 1989, when heightened counter-narcotics operations in neighboring Colombia increased the use of Venezuelan transport routes. I find that, for thirty years prior to 1989, violent death trends and levels were nearly identical in treatment and control municipalities. After 1989, outcomes diverged: violence increased more in municipalities along trafficking routes than elsewhere. I estimate the difference-in-differences as approximately 10 violent deaths per 100,000, a magnitude similar to the overall pre-1989 violent death rate. Together with qualitative accounts, I interpret these findings as evidence in favor of the longstanding notion that, without Leviathan, prosperity creates violence. Details: Unpublished paper, 2016. 55p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 7, 2017 at: http://dorothykronick.com/wp-content/uploads/ProsperityViolence_2016July2.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Venezuela URL: http://dorothykronick.com/wp-content/uploads/ProsperityViolence_2016July2.pdf Shelf Number: 144742 Keywords: Drug TraffickingHomicidesIllegal MarketsMurdersViolenceViolent Crimes |
Author: Tarre Briceno, Marcos Title: Como afecta la delincuencia organizada al ciudadano Con la intencion de conocer, investigar e informar sobre el Delito Organizado en Venezuela, nace en el 2012 el Observatorio de Delito Organizado, una accion emprendida por la Asociacion Civil Paz Activa Summary: In this brief manual it is a question of delving into the fact that one of the main problems of Central and South America is precisely Organized Delinquency, whether Transnational or National, which affects the State, society and citizens for being a A multiplier of violence and that, on the other hand, certain types of organized crime directly affect the citizen. Three of these modalities are studied - marked in yellow in the tables - and models are proposed to visualize, to prevent and to disintegrate it. In Venezuela, a nation that in a few years has become the second country in the world with the highest rate of homicide, some experts see a clear parallel between the strengthening of organized crime in the country and the excessive increase in violence. Between 34.4% and 55.1% of the 24,000 homicides recorded per year would be related to organized crime. Details: OBSERVATORIO DE DELITO ORGANIZADO, 2015. 58p. Source: Internet Resource: MONOGRAFIAS VISIBILIZANDO EL DELITO ORGANIZADO No. 1: Accessed April 10, 2017 at: http://observatoriodot.org.ve/cms/images/documentos/odo-manual1-crimorg-web.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Venezuela URL: http://observatoriodot.org.ve/cms/images/documentos/odo-manual1-crimorg-web.pdf Shelf Number: 144767 Keywords: HomicidesMurdersOrganized CrimeViolent Crime |
Author: Balmori de la Miyar, Jose Title: Breaking Sad: Drug-Related Homicides and Mental Well-Being in Mexico Summary: This paper examines the effects of drug-related violence on depression among adults in Mexico, amid a conflict known as the "Mexican Drug War." The empirical strategy consists of first-differences in aggregate health outcomes at the municipality level before and after the beginning of the conflict. To account for potential migration biases, I use variation on net cocaine supply from Colombia and on federal-local enforcement cooperation. Results suggest an increase of 1.0% in depression among women, for every additional one-standard deviation expansion in drug-related homicide rates. In stark contrast, Mexican men are largely unaffected by drug-related violence. Details: Unpublished paper, 2015. 18p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 12, 2017 at: http://lacer.lacea.org/bitstream/handle/123456789/53018/lacea2015_drug_related_homicides.pdf?sequence=1 Year: 2015 Country: Mexico URL: http://lacer.lacea.org/bitstream/handle/123456789/53018/lacea2015_drug_related_homicides.pdf?sequence=1 Shelf Number: 144820 Keywords: Drug Trafficking Drug War Drug-Related Violence Homicides Murders |
Author: Brown, Ryan Title: The Effect of Violent Conflict on the Human Capital Accumulation of Young Adults Summary: This paper estimates the effect of an unprecedented increase of drug-related violence in Mexico on the educational attainment, cognitive ability, time allocation, and employment behavior of young adults between the ages of 14 and 17. The panel nature and the timing of the second (2005) and third wave (2009) of the Mexican Family Life Survey allows for some unique gains in the conflict literature, as we are able to compare pre and post violence outcomes, assess migratory behavioral response, and control for time invariant person-specific characteristics through individual fixed effects models. Preliminary results suggest children exposed to local violence have achieved lower levels of education, have reduced cognitive alertness, and are more likely to work. These effects are strongest for males and children of parents that work in occupations most adversely effected by the Mexican drug war. Details: Unpublished paper, 2015. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 12, 2017 at: http://paa2015.princeton.edu/uploads/153402 Year: 2015 Country: Mexico URL: http://paa2015.princeton.edu/uploads/153402 Shelf Number: 144893 Keywords: Drug Trafficking Drug War Drug-Related Violence Homicides Murders |
Author: Waiselfisz, Julio Jacobo Title: Mapa da Violencia 2016: Homicidio de Mulheres no Brasil (Map of Violence 2016: Homicide for firearms in Brazil) Summary: The study focuses on the evolution of firearms homicides in Brazil from 1980 to 2014. The incidence of factors such as sex, race / color, and age of the victims of this mortality is also studied. The characteristics of the evolution of firearms homicides in the 27 Units of the Federation, in the 27 Capitals and in the municipalities with high levels of mortality caused by firearms are pointed out. Details: Brasilia: Ministerio da Justica, Instituto Sangari, 2016. 71p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 22, 2017 at: http://www.mapadaviolencia.org.br/ Year: 2017 Country: Brazil URL: http://www.mapadaviolencia.org.br/ Shelf Number: 145151 Keywords: Crime StatisticsGun-Related ViolenceHomicidesMurders |
Author: Ingram, Matthew C. Title: Geographies of Violence: A Spatial Analysis of Five Types of Homicide in Brazil's Municipalities Summary: Objectives: Examine the spatial distribution of five types of homicide across Brazil's 5,562 municipalities and test the effects of family disruption, marginalization, poverty-reduction programs, environmental degradation, and the geographic diffusion of violence. Methods: Cluster analysis and spatial error, spatial lag, and geographically-weighted regressions. Results: Maps visualize clusters of high and low rates of different types of homicide. Core results from spatial regressions show that some predictors have uniform or stationary effects across all units, while other predictors have uneven, non-stationary effects. Among stationary effects, family disruption has a harmful effect across all types of homicide except femicide, and environmental degradation has a harmful effect, increasing the rates of femicide, gun-related, youth, and nonwhite homicides. Among non-stationary effects, marginalization has a harmful effect across all measures of homicide but poses the greatest danger to nonwhite populations in the northern part of Brazil; the poverty-reduction program Bolsa Familia has a protective, negative effect for most types of homicides, especially for gun-related, youth, and nonwhite homicides. Lastly, homicide in nearby communities increases the likelihood of homicide in one's home community, and this holds across all types of homicide. The diffusion effect also varies across geographic areas; the danger posed by nearby violence is strongest in the Amazon region and in a large section of the eastern coast. Conclusions: Findings help identify the content of violence-reduction policies, how to prioritize different components of these policies, and how to target these policies by type of homicide and geographic area for maximum effect. Details: Notre Dame, IN: The Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame, 2015. 65p. Source: Internet Resource: Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Working Paper Series: #405: Accessed April 29, 2017 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2604096 Year: 2015 Country: Brazil URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2604096 Shelf Number: 145194 Keywords: Crime AnalysisFemicideGeographical AnalysisHomicidesMurdersPovertySpatial AnalysisViolent Crime |
Author: Arvate, Paulo Title: Lighting and Violent Crime: Evaluating the effect of an electrification policy in rural Brazil on violent crime reduction Summary: This paper estimates the effect of lighting on violent crime reduction. We explore an electrification program (LUZ PARA TODOS or Light for All - LPT) adopted by the federal government to expand electrification to rural areas in all Brazilian municipalities in the 2000s as an exogenous source of variation in electrification expansion. Our instrumental variable results show a reduction in homicide rates (approximately five homicides per 100,000 inhabitants) on rural roads/urban streets when a municipality moved from no access to full coverage of electricity between 2000 and 2010. These findings are even more significant in the northern and northeastern regions of Brazil, where rates of electrification are lower than those of the rest of the country and, thus, where the program is concentrated. In the north (northeast), the number of violent deaths on the streets per 100,000 inhabitants decreased by 48.12 (13.43). This moved a municipality at the 99th percentile (75th) to the median (zero) of the crime distribution of municipalities. Finally, we do not find effects on violent deaths in households and at other locations. Because we use an IV strategy by exploring the LPT program eligibility criteria, we can interpret the results as the estimated impact of the program on those experiencing an increase in electricity coverage due to their program eligibility. Thus, the results represent local average treatment effects of lighting on homicides. Details: Sao Paulo: Sao Paulo School of Economics, 2016. 25p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper no. 408: Accessed April 29, 2017 at: http://bibliotecadigital.fgv.br/dspace/bitstream/handle/10438/15094/TD%20408%20-%20CMICRO33.pdf?sequence=1 Year: 2016 Country: Brazil URL: http://bibliotecadigital.fgv.br/dspace/bitstream/handle/10438/15094/TD%20408%20-%20CMICRO33.pdf?sequence=1 Shelf Number: 145196 Keywords: Crime PreventionHomicidesLightingMurdersViolent Crime |
Author: Global Witness Title: How many more? 2014's deadly environment: the killing and intimidation of environmental and land activists, with a spotlight on Honduras Summary: Each week at least two people are being killed for taking a stand against environmental destruction. Some are shot by police during protests, others gunned down by hired assassins. As companies go in search of new land to exploit, increasingly people are paying the ultimate price for standing in their way. We found that at least 116 environmental activists were murdered in 2014 - that's almost double the number of journalists killed in the same period. A shocking 40 % of victims were indigenous, with most people dying amid disputes over hydropower, mining and agri-business. Nearly three-quarters of the deaths we found information on were in Central and South America. Globally, it's likely that the true death toll is higher. Many of the murders we know about occurred in remote villages or deep within the jungle, where communities lack access to communications and the media. It's likely many more killings are escaping public records. Details: London: Global Witness, 2015. 38p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 10, 2017 at: https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/how-many-more/ Year: 2015 Country: Honduras URL: https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/how-many-more/ Shelf Number: 145397 Keywords: Environmental CrimeHomicidesMurders |
Author: Cerqueira, Daniel R.C. Title: Mapa dos Homicidios Ocultos no Brasil Summary: Based on the Mortality Information System (SIM), the number of hidden homicides (HOs) in each Brazilian Federal Unit (UF) was estimated, considering deaths that were erroneously classified as "indeterminate cause". Analyzed the socioeconomic and situational characteristics associated to each of the almost 1.9 million violent deaths occurred in the country between 1996 and 2010. The results of this study indicated that the number of homicides in the country would be 18.3% higher than the official records , Which represents about 8,600 unrecognized homicides each year. As a result, estimates indicated that Brazil surpassed the annual mark of 60,000 deaths from aggression. The calculations also showed that the substantial increase in the homicide rate in many states of Brazil, and particularly in the Northeast, did not occur, but that the official indexes were driven by the decrease in the under-reporting that occurred with the improvement in the quality of the SIM. Nevertheless, in recent years there has been a worrying phenomenon of increasing violent deaths, the intent of which has not been determined. This fact did not occur in a generalized way in the country, but it was circumscribed, mainly, to seven states: Rio de Janeiro; Bay; Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco; Roraima; Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo Details: Instituto de Pesquisa Economica Aplicada ipea 2013. 64p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 10, 2017 at: http://www.institutoelo.org.br/site/files/publications/95e3d6a71f009059e3585fc38bbab64b.pdf (Article is in Spanish) Year: 2013 Country: Brazil URL: http://www.institutoelo.org.br/site/files/publications/95e3d6a71f009059e3585fc38bbab64b.pdf Shelf Number: 145403 Keywords: Crime StatisticsHomicidesMurdersViolent Crime |
Author: Bryant, Willow Title: Homicide in Australia 2012-13 to 2013-14: National Homicide Monitoring Program report Summary: In the 25th year of the National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP) data collection, this report describes the nature and context of homicides that occurred in financial years 2012-13 and 2013-14, and trends in homicide victimisation and offending since 1989-90. Although much of the data are presented in the aggregate, certain figures for each financial year are provided to aid the monitoring of trends. Ongoing monitoring of homicide locates short-term changes within a longer timeframe, and allows policymakers and law enforcement personnel to identify changes in risk markers associated with incidents, victims and offenders. The overall number of homicide incidents continues to decline. In 2013-14, the homicide incident rate reached a historical low of one per 100,000 people since the NHMP data collection began in 1989-90. This report's key findings include: - from 1 July 2012 to 30 June 2014, there were 487 homicide incidents - 249 in 2012-13 and 238 in 2013-14; - these incidents involved 512 victims and 549 offenders - 264 victims and 276 offenders in 2012-13 and 248 victims and 273 offenders in 2013-14; - since 1989-90, homicide incident rates have decreased from 1.8 per 100,000 to 1.1 in 2012-13, and again to one in 2013-14; - males remain over-represented as both victims (n=328; 64%) and offenders (n=483; 88%); - in 2013-14, males were victimised at the rate of 1.3 per 100,000, the lowest rate recorded since 1989-90 (2.5 per 100,000). The rate of female victimisation was 0.8 per 100,000 in 2013-14; - knives continue to be the most commonly used weapon, with 37 percent (n=89) of all homicide incidents in 2013-14 involving knives or sharp instruments; - during the 2012-14 period, approximately a fifth (n=69; 14%) of homicide incidents involved the use of a firearm. This is a decrease of 11 percent in the use of firearms in homicide incidents since 1989-90 (n=76; 25%), and a decrease of one percent since 2011-12; - in 2012-14, the most common relationship between a homicide offender and a victim was a domestic relationship (41%; n=200), followed by an acquaintance (27%; n=133). Thirteen percent (n=62) of homicide incidents were stranger homicides (which includes homicide incidents involving those known to each other for less than 24 hours); - of the 200 domestic homicide incidents recorded in 2012-14, 63 percent (n=126) were classified as intimate partner homicides, 15 percent as filicides (n=30, 14 of which involved the death of a child under one year of age), 11 percent as parricides (n=21), eight percent as other family (n=16; includes aunts/uncles, in-laws, cousins etc) and four percent as siblicides (n=7); - females continue to be over-represented as victims of intimate partner homicide (n=99; 79%), while males are still over-represented as victims of acquaintance (83%; n=116) and stranger homicide (92%; n=58); - 42 children aged 17 years and younger were killed in 2012-14; - 78 victims (46 males and 32 females) and 91 offenders (75 males and 16 females) in 2012 14 were Indigenous Australians. Indigenous people remain over-represented as both victims of homicide and homicide offenders. At a national level, the rate of Indigenous victimisation in 2013-14 (4.9 per 100,000) was approximately five times higher than non-Indigenous victimisation (0.9 per 100,000); - eight in ten homicide incidents were not committed in the course of another crime (n=408; 84%). A fifth of homicide incidents where a precipitating crime was known and recorded were committed during the course of another crime, such as a break and enter (n=15; 19%), robbery (n=14; 18%), other violent crime (n=11; 14%) or sexual assault (n=10; 13%); and - a fifth of offenders had a prior history of domestic violence (n=106; 19%) or mental illness (n=70; 13%) at the time of the homicide incident. Details: Canberra:: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2017. 88p. Source: Internet Resource: AIC Statistical Report 02: Accessed June 20, 2017 at: http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/sr/sr002.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Australia URL: http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/sr/sr002.pdf Shelf Number: 146296 Keywords: Crime StatisticsHomicidesMurdersVictimization SurveyVictims of Crime |
Author: Sumner, Steven A. Title: Elevated Rates of Urban Firearm Violence and Opportunities for Prevention - Wilmington, Delaware Final Report Summary: In 2013, Wilmington, Delaware, experienced 127 shooting incidents resulting in 154 victims. This represented nearly a 45% increase in the number of shootings over the preceding two years. Furthermore, rates of violent crime in Wilmington are higher than in nearby cities of Dover, Newark, and Philadelphia. Indeed, although Wilmington is a moderately-sized city of approximately 71,525 residents, when compared to all large cities in the United States, its homicide rate in recent years has been reported to be as high as 4th overall. In fact, in recent years, the growth in Delaware's homicide rate (Wilmington is the largest city in Delaware) has outpaced that of every other state. As a result of persistently elevated urban firearm violence rates, the Wilmington City Council passed a resolution to request the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to assist in an investigation and provide recommendations for preventive action. The Delaware Division of Public Health, with concurrence from the City Council and Mayor's office, issued a formal invitation to CDC to provide epidemiologic assistance and make programmatic recommendations for a public health response. Details: Dover, DE: Delaware Department of Health and Social Services , 2015. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 24, 2017 at: http://www.dhss.delaware.gov/dhss/cdcfinalreport.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.dhss.delaware.gov/dhss/cdcfinalreport.pdf Shelf Number: 16356 Keywords: Gun Violence Gun-Related Violence Homicides MurdersUrban Areas and Crime Violent Crime |
Author: Garzon Vergara, Juan Carlos Title: What is the relationship between organized crime and homicide in Latin America? Summary: Criminal and gang violence is believed to generate as much as a third of all homicides in the Western hemisphere. In some countries where collective violence is acute, this may well be true. But it is only part of the story. Organized crime groups can also reduce the extent of lethal violence in a given setting: they often regulate murder and violent crime. The extent to which such entities exert control is often in direct proportion to the relative fragility of state institutions. Where public authorities are unable to exert a monopoly over the use of force, criminal actors step in. This Homicide Dispatch critically examines the relationships between organized crime and lethal violence. In the process, it shines a light on the challenges facing public authorities intent on fighting crime. Owing to the inherent weaknesses of many governments across Latin America, they have only limited ability to reduce homicidal violence. It is only by shoring up the state's ability to guarantee fundamental rights that meaningful improvements will be possible. Details: Rio de Janeiro: Igarape Institute, 2016. 22p. Source: Internet Resource: Homicide Dispatch 3: Accessed August 7, 2017 at: https://igarape.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Homicide-Dispatch_3_EN_23-05.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Latin America URL: https://igarape.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Homicide-Dispatch_3_EN_23-05.pdf Shelf Number: 146754 Keywords: Gang-Related ViolenceGangsHomicidesMurdersOrganized Crime |
Author: University of Chicago Crime Lab Title: Gun Violence in Chicago, 2016 Summary: A total of 764 people were murdered in Chicago in 2016. They were sons, brothers, and fathers; sisters, daughters, and mothers; they were, as the title of The New York Times reporter Fox Butterfield's book on urban violence noted, All God's Children. This report represents a first step towards understanding what happened with the goal of helping the city of Chicago prevent another year like the one that just passed. We draw on data obtained from the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and other sources to provide a more complete picture of the change in our city's crime problem in 2016. Our analysis highlights a number of key facts that are important for understanding what happened, but also raises some new puzzles as well. While this report focuses on establishing basic facts and avoids delving too deeply into solutions, we will continue to partner with policymakers, the civic community, and local nonprofits to identify promising approaches for moving forward. We plan to share our thinking about how to reduce violence in Chicago, informed by the best available data and research, in other venues in the future. Between 2015 and 2016, Chicago experienced 58 percent more homicides and 43 percent more non-fatal shootings. Annual increases of this size are not unprecedented among American cities, particularly in recent years, but are rare for a city of Chicago's size. One striking feature of Chicago's increase in gun violence is how sudden it was: as of December 2015, there was no indication that gun violence was on the verge of rising sharply. But in January 2016, homicides and shootings surged relative to their 2015 levels and remained higher in almost every month that followed, threatening 20 years of progress on violent crime in Chicago. This increase was mostly in gun crimes; other crimes did not change by nearly as much. The characteristics of homicide were generally similar in 2016 and 2015; what changed in Chicago was not so much the nature of our violence problem, but rather its prevalence. Most murders involved guns, occurred in public places, and stemmed from what police believe was some sort of altercation. This violence continues to be very regressive in its impact, disproportionately affecting the city's most disadvantaged residents. Most gun violence victims and suspects were African American men, more often than not having had some prior encounter with the criminal justice system. Compared to other cities, a larger share of homicide suspects in Chicago consists of adolescents, although the majority of all homicide suspects are in their 20s or older. The increase in gun violence occurred disproportionately in several disadvantaged neighborhoods on the city's South and West sides, which now account for an even larger share of the city's homicides. Another change is that from 2015 to 2016, the share of homicides that CPD believes stemmed from an altercation, as well as the share of homicide offenders who were recorded by CPD as having a gang affiliation, seemed to decline. What caused Chicago's sudden surge in gun violence in 2016 remains a puzzle. Weather cannot explain the surge in homicides and shootings, since monthly temperatures in 2016 were close to their historical averages. City spending on social services and public education did not change much in 2016 compared to previous years, and while the state budget impasse disrupted funding for many community organizations, this did not seem to change sharply in December 2015. Most relevant measures of police activity did not change abruptly enough to explain the surge in gun violence. Overall arrests declined in 2016, driven by narcotics arrests, but arrests for violent crimes, including homicides and shootings, barely changed. One policing measure that declined was the chance of arrest for homicides and shootings (the "clearance rate"), which was a result of arrests for these crimes not keeping pace with the increase in gun violence. Another policing measure that declined was the number of investigatory street stops. However, for this to explain why shootings increased in Chicago would also require an explanation for why the previous dramatic decline in street stops in New York City did not lead to more gun violence there. We also cannot know the effect of factors not measurable in the available data, such as any change in street gangs or the use of social media. However, given the timing of the recent increase in gun violence, for any alternative explanation to make sense it would need to involve something that changed abruptly near the end of 2015 and disproportionately affected gun crimes. Not knowing the definitive cause of Chicago's sudden and substantial increase in gun violence does not mean the city should be paralyzed in crafting a response. The solution to a problem need not be the opposite of its cause. One key implication of these data is the importance of a policy response that is focused on the core problem: violence concentrated largely in a moderate number of our most disadvantaged neighborhoods, carried out by teens and young adults in public places with illegally owned, and perhaps increasingly lethal, firearms. Details: Chicago: The Crime Lab, 2017. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 14, 2017 at: https://urbanlabs.uchicago.edu/attachments/store/2435a5d4658e2ca19f4f225b810ce0dbdb9231cbdb8d702e784087469ee3/UChicagoCrimeLab+Gun+Violence+in+Chicago+2016.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://urbanlabs.uchicago.edu/attachments/store/2435a5d4658e2ca19f4f225b810ce0dbdb9231cbdb8d702e784087469ee3/UChicagoCrimeLab+Gun+Violence+in+Chicago+2016.pdf Shelf Number: 147255 Keywords: Crime StatisticsGun ViolenceGun-Related ViolenceHomicidesIllegal WeaponsMurders |
Author: Ander, Roseanna Title: Gun Violence among School-Age Youth in Chicago Summary: A total of 510 people were murdered in Chicago during 2008. Eighty percent of these victims were killed by gunfire. Nearly half were between the ages of 10 and 25, and the vast majority were male. The dramatic over-representation of both young males and firearms in homicide is not unique to Chicago, nor are these patterns new. Yet over the past 50 years, our society has made far less progress in understanding how to protect our citizens from gun violence (and violence more broadly) than we have learned about how to protect citizens from other serious threats to life and health. From 1950 to 2005, the overall age-adjusted death rate in the United States declined by nearly 45 percent, from 1,446 to 799 deaths per 100,000 people. This decline was driven in large part by massive drops in deaths from heart disease and cerebrovascular diseases (stroke), as seen in figure 1, while infant mortality rates also declined dramatically. In contrast, despite some cyclical ups and downs, the murder rate in 2005 remained about 20 percent higher than its 1950 value. Details: Chicago: University of Chicago, Crime Lab, 2009. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 30, 2017 at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/087f/efc6407b608fe54327b1b1a67f223457c743.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/087f/efc6407b608fe54327b1b1a67f223457c743.pdf Shelf Number: 147518 Keywords: Gun Violence Gun-Related Violence Homicides MurdersViolent Crime Youth Violence |
Author: Royal Canadian Mounted Police Title: Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women: A National Operational Overview Summary: In late 2013, the Commissioner of the RCMP initiated an RCMP-led study of reported incidents of missing and murdered Aboriginal women across all police jurisdictions in Canada. This report summarizes that effort and will guide Canadian Police operational decision-making on a solid foundation. It will mean more targeted crime prevention, better community engagement and enhanced accountability for criminal investigations. It will also assist operational planning from the detachment to national level. In sum, it reveals the following: Police-recorded incidents of Aboriginal female homicides and unresolved missing Aboriginal females in this review total 1,181 - 164 missing and 1,017 homicide victims. There are 225 unsolved cases of either missing or murdered Aboriginal females: 105 missing for more than 30 days as of November 4, 2013, whose cause of disappearance was categorized at the time as "unknown" or "foul play suspected" and 120 unsolved homicides between 1980 and 2012. The total indicates that Aboriginal women are over-represented among Canada's murdered and missing women. There are similarities across all female homicides. Most homicides were committed by men and most of the perpetrators knew their victims - whether as an acquaintance or a spouse. The majority of all female homicides are solved (close to 90%) and there is little difference in solve rates between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal victims. This report concludes that the total number of murdered and missing Aboriginal females exceeds previous public estimates. This total significantly contributes to the RCMP's understanding of this challenge, but it represents only a first step. It is the RCMP's intent to work with the originating agencies responsible for the data herein to release as much of it as possible to stakeholders. Already, the data on missing Aboriginal women has been shared with the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains (NCMPUR), which will be liaising with policing partners to publish additional cases on the Canada's Missing website. Ultimately, the goal is to make information more widely available after appropriate vetting. While this matter is without question a policing concern, it is also a much broader societal challenge. The collation of this data was completed by the RCMP and the assessments and conclusions herein are those of the RCMP alone. The report would not have been possible without the support and contribution of the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics at Statistics Canada. As with any effort of such magnitude, this report needs to be caveated with a certain amount of error and imprecision. This is for a number of reasons: the period of time over which data was collected was extensive; collection by investigators means data is susceptible to human error and interpretation; inconsistency of collection of variables over the review period and across multiple data sources; and, finally, definitional challenges. Details: Ottawa: RCMP, 2014. 23p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 4, 2017 at: http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/wam/media/460/original/0cbd8968a049aa0b44d343e76b4a9478.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Canada URL: http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/wam/media/460/original/0cbd8968a049aa0b44d343e76b4a9478.pdf Shelf Number: 147550 Keywords: AboriginalsCrime StatisticsHomicidesMissing PersonsMurdersViolence Against Women |
Author: B.C. Task Force on Illegal Firearms Title: Illegal Firearms Task Force: Final Report Summary: British Columbia continues to experience troubling and highly dangerous incidents of firearms violence that have resulted in numerous deaths and injuries. Highly public and brazen acts, often linked to organized crime and gangs, place innocent members of the public at risk, create fear, hardship and tragedy for the individuals and communities affected, and impose substantial burdens on public resources. The Government of B.C., in an enhanced provincial strategy to combat guns and gangs, convened an Illegal Firearms Task Force to make recommendations for action to the B.C. Minister of Public Safety & Solicitor General. The Task Force, consisting of provincial experts with a wide range of experience in managing illegal firearms and organized crime, reviewed and analyzed the existing published research, interviewed numerous individuals and organizations, and conducted community consultations around B.C. It reviewed the information presented and developed recommendations addressing both specific issues that had been identified and broad strategic approaches. Four themes - The recommendations fall into four themes: Theme #1: Strategic Approaches Coordinating and focussing the efforts of the diverse agencies that work to reduce crime and enhance public safety will ensure the most effective use of resources and the greatest impact in limiting the availability and use of illegal firearms. Action categories include: - An illegal firearms-focussed approach - Alignment of existing and enhanced resources in order to improve outcomes relative to illegal firearms trafficking, their availability to criminals and the manner in which they are used by organized crime - Road safety and illegal firearms - Road safety initiatives to reduce the incidence of illegal firearms possession in motor vehicles and the concurrent use of illegal firearms and motor vehicles to carry out organized crime violence - Provincial Tactical Enforcement Priority - Leveraging the innovative and unique capabilities of the Provincial Tactical Enforcement Priority model to maximize intelligence, disruption and enforcement of illegal firearms traffickers and the targeting of those who use firearms to support violent organized crime activity - Firearms tracing hub and labs - The enhanced and timely analysis of all recovered firearms and the determination of their potential association with crime to provide investigative information and strategic intelligence - Alignment of law enforcement policy - The alignment and modernization of law enforcement policy with the education of law enforcement officers and Crown prosecutors to realize strategic objectives related to illegal firearms trafficking and the use of illegal firearms in violent crimes - "Bar Watch" programs - Expansion of a successful Vancouver program to deter and mitigate gang and firearms violence within licenced liquor establishments throughout the province Theme #2: Legislative Initiatives Firearms possession and the criminal use of firearms are primarily governed by federal legislation. The Task Force has made several recommendations related to the enhancement of federal legislation and the creation of provincial legislation in order to reduce the risks of illegal firearms use. Action categories include: - Quebec's mass shooting and firearms violence mitigation: A model for provincial actions - Legislation that enhances the ability of law enforcement and partner agencies to identify and prevent firearms violence through the timely sharing of information - Imitation firearms - Legislation to control the access and use of readily available imitation firearms; to limit their risk to communities, first responders and those who possess them; and to disrupt early patterns of illegal firearms use by youth - Straw purchasers and point-of-sale record-keeping - Legislation requiring sellers to keep records of firearms sales (not a central registry), enhancing the ability of judicially authorized law enforcement to trace crime guns, collect firearms trafficking intelligence and deter firearms traffickers - Manufacture of untraceable firearms - Legislation to prohibit access to unmarked firearms parts and parts that can be assembled into illegal firearms Theme #3: Education and Prevention Focussed efforts by a wide range of stakeholders and agencies working with the public, industry and communities will create awareness, build resilience and reduce the acquisition, availability and use of illegal firearms in B.C. communities. Action categories include: - Safe schools, student and parent education - Leveraging existing school-based programs to disrupt potentially violent antisocial behaviour, including the use of firearms, and to ensure the understanding of educators and parents on the factors and indicators related to violence prevention - Community-based programs - Rural and First Nations communities - Tailored community-based strategies designed to recognize the specific risks associated with communities in which firearms are readily available and which experience violence and organized crime involving firearms - Canadian Firearms Program compliance strategies - Enhancing compliance efforts pursuant to the firearms regulations designed to prevent and deter illegal firearms trafficking - Registration issues from the former Restricted Weapons Registration System - Initiatives to reduce the large number of restricted and prohibited firearms that are not in compliance with current registration requirements and no longer under the oversight of the Canadian Firearms Program Theme #4: Data Collection and Information Sharing The purposeful collection of intelligence from a variety of sources will inform prevention, enforcement and disruption efforts by all stakeholders against the trafficking, possession and use of illegal firearms. The Task Force has made recommendations in two action categories, including: - Intelligence and data quality - Assigning a lead intelligence agency and data warehouse to coordinate all intelligence collection, assure data quality and facilitate analysis related to the trafficking, possession and use of illegal firearms - PRIME-BC access by all key stakeholders - Providing necessary access to B.C.'s own Police Record Information Management System (PRIME-BC) to key agencies engaged in illegal firearms prevention, enforcement and disruption Details: Victoria, BC: Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General of British Columbia, 2017. 138p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 29, 2017 at: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/law-crime-and-justice/criminal-justice/police/publications/government/iftf_final_report_pdf.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Canada URL: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/law-crime-and-justice/criminal-justice/police/publications/government/iftf_final_report_pdf.pdf Shelf Number: 148534 Keywords: GangsGun Control PolicyGun ViolenceGun-Related ViolenceHomicidesIllegal FirearmsMurdersOrganized CrimeTrafficking in Firearms |
Author: Martinez, Cesar Title: Security Policy in Mexico: Recommendations for the 2018 Presidential Election Summary: For over ten years, Mexico's security situation has been a consistent public concern and policy priority. Since the 2000 democratic transition, the country's criminal landscape has changed dramatically. The dissolution of implicit organized-crime political agreements, a move toward more confrontational security strategies, and intra- and inter-group fighting have shattered criminal groups, pushed criminal activity into new industries and exploitative practices, and forced the Mexican government to rethink and continuously adjust its security strategy. The result of these changes is that today's organized criminal groups look different from their historic predecessors, which dedicated their time and energy primarily to transporting and cultivating drugs and keeping a low profile. Today's groups experiment with a range of illicit revenue-generating activities and have adopted shockingly brutal and violent tactics. These profits are then funneled into corrupting political institutions at every level, weakening the government's ability to fulfill its mandate and decimating public trust. The overall insecurity also hurts the country's economy, with estimates that it slashes 1.25 percent off the country's GDP every year. In July 2018, Mexico will elect its next president for the following six years. In the backdrop, the country's homicide level is once again on the rise after a two-year drop. Further, almost 60 percent of the population reported in 2016 that insecurity or delinquency was Mexico's principal problem. These ongoing challenges and concerns will ensure that public security features prominently in the upcoming presidential campaigns and will be a central issue for the incoming administration. To address some of these issues, this Policy Research Project on Mexico's security policy- sponsored by the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law-will address Mexico's major security challenges and offer a series of policy recommendations. The report is divided into four chapters, focusing on the overall security strategy, important domestic and international security issues, illicit economic markets, and civil society efforts. Within each chapter, the authors identify the current policies, evaluate their effectiveness, and provide steps for a path forward to a safer and more secure Mexico. Details: Austin, TX: Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, 2017. 166p. Source: Internet Resource: Policy Research Project Report Number 193 ; Accessed December 6, 2017 at: https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/61475/prp_193-security_policy_in_mexico-2017.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y Year: 2017 Country: Mexico URL: https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/61475/prp_193-security_policy_in_mexico-2017.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y Shelf Number: 148728 Keywords: Drug TraffickingHomicidesIllegal MarketsIllicit MarketsMurdersOrganized CrimePublic SecurityViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: McEvoy, Claire Title: Global Violent Deaths 2017: Time to Decide Summary: Global Violent Deaths 2017: Time to Decide, a new report from the Small Arms Survey, shows that while the global conflict death rate dropped, the global homicide rate increased for the first time since 2004. Although this does not necessarily indicate a new trend, it does signal growing insecurity in non-conflict areas. Of the five countries with the highest death rates in 2016-Syria, El Salvador, Venezuela, Honduras, and Afghanistan-only two had active armed conflicts. The study also elaborates scenarios for the future based on current trends, to assess the number of people that could be saved if states implement effective violence reduction initiatives in support of Agenda 2030, as opposed to more negative outcomes if trends worsen. If prevailing trends remain unchanged, the annual number of violent deaths is likely to increase to 630,000 by 2030. On the contrary, if states commit themselves to effectively address conflict and armed violence, the number of annual deaths could be lowered to 408,000 by 2030-even considering the population increase. In total, over the next twelve years, approximately 1.35 million lives could be saved. Within the Agenda 2030 framework and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, states have an unprecedented opportunity to save lives. It's time to decide. Details: Geneva: Small Arms Survey, 2017. 104p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 7, 2017 at: http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/U-Reports/SAS-Report-GVD2017.pdf Year: 2017 Country: International URL: http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/U-Reports/SAS-Report-GVD2017.pdf Shelf Number: 148756 Keywords: Conflict Related ViolenceHomicidesMurdersViolence |
Author: Boyle, Rachel Title: She Shot Him Dead: The Criminalization of Women and the Struggle over Social Order in Chicago, 1871-1919 Summary: From 1871 to 1919, Chicago emerged as an epicenter of a struggle over social order as municipal officials and self-proclaimed reformers fought for the power to decide which people and what behavior should be designated as criminal. Studying the criminalization of women in Chicago reveals how contested categories of crime and gender changed over time and provides insight into broader battles over moral, political, and economic power in the United States. In the late nineteenth century, an intimate economy of public women fighting, drinking, and having sex for money profoundly shaped daily life in the streets, saloons, and brothels of Chicago. Municipal and moral reformers subsequently worked to control and convict public women in order to dismantle the power of the intimate economy. Into the twentieth century, police increasingly arrested women for killing their children, spouses, and lovers. Progressive Era reformers fought to control the cultural narratives that assigned criminal culpability to some women but not others. Ultimately, the Progressive Era alliance between white middle-class reformers and an emerging bureaucratic state advanced its own political and economic interests by undermining women's already limited claims to culturally acceptable feminine violence. Details: Chicago: Loyola University Chicago, 2017. 228p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed January 20, 2018 at: http://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/2582/ Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: http://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/2582/ Shelf Number: 148899 Keywords: Female OffendersHomicidesMurders |
Author: Kleinfeld, Rachel Title: Reducing All Violent Deaths, Everywhere: Why the Data Must Improve Summary: The new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include a target to "Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related deaths everywhere." Given the vast decline in violence since the Middle Ages, particularly since the end of the Cold War, this ambitious target is achievable. But policymakers know the least about the countries receiving the most aid. To ensure that aid and policy are effective, current data gaps and deficiencies must be fully understood and improved. Equally important, the target must include indicators that capture all the main types of violence, not just homicide. The Data Problem - Current statistics are marred by problems that make them incomparable across countries. Policymaking that ignores flawed data may focus on less effective goals or assume programs are working when, in fact, violence is being hidden through statistical manipulation. - Policymakers know the least about the countries receiving the most aid. Among the top ten British aid recipients, four have reported no homicide statistics or have had only one data point in twenty-seven years. Eight of the top ten U.S. aid recipients have no reported homicide statistics for the past four years. Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan have no reported homicide statistics since the Arab Awakening. - Failure to accurately count different types of violence obscures possible relationships among them. For instance, these include connections between the end of civil war and rising homicide, between state brutality and increased insurgency, and possible connections between state repression and homicide. The Way Forward - A global violence dataset that accounts for "all violent deaths everywhere" should include four disaggregated types of data: homicides, deaths among armed groups in conflict, deaths of unarmed civilians perpetrated by state or nonstate actors, and deaths caused by on-duty government security forces. - The international community needs accurate data across these categories to know which programs and policies actually reduce violence, rather than simply alter the form violence takes. - If the international community does not explicitly include state repression and terrorist killings in the SDG 16.1 target, it opens a loophole to politicizing numbers through reclassification and the use of state violence to try to reduce homicide and rebellion. - International actors should press for a comprehensive set of indicators for SDG 16.1, which currently only include homicides. - Data reporting and collection could be improved by investing in independent observatories, standardization of definitions and methodologies, and other crucial steps. - These decisions are not technical, but political. Statistical manipulation is inevitable and occurs in countries from the United States to Russia. Impartial, trained, and internationally funded violence observatories can assist in gaining accurate statistics so resources can target the most effective place and programs. Details: Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2017. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 22, 2018 at: http://carnegieendowment.org/files/CP_297_Kleinfeld_Crime_Final_Web.pdf Year: 2017 Country: International URL: http://carnegieendowment.org/files/CP_297_Kleinfeld_Crime_Final_Web.pdf Shelf Number: 148900 Keywords: Crime StatisticsHomicidesMurdersViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Cook County Gun Violence Task Force (GVTF) Title: Final Report: Findings and Recommendations Summary: The City of Chicago and Cook County are both engulfed in a crisis of gun violence and the availability of illegal guns in Chicago and Cook County has continued to fuel this crisis. In recent years, Chicago's homicide rate has hovered around 500 homicides per year. However, the city has already seen more than 700 homicides by late November - a reversal of the progress the city has made toward reducing gun violence during the past two decades. As the crisis and growing rate of gun violence in the City of Chicago and across Cook County has intensified, however, the issue has become better-documented every year. As a result, the GVTF was convened to examine the current gun violence crisis, its underlying causes, and assess various evidence-based programs, policies, and practices as potential solutions for combatting the continued growth of gun crimes and violence across Chicago and Cook County. In the past decade, over 50,000 African-American men were victims of firearm homicides in the United States. Despite the City of Chicago having a population that is as much as three times smaller, the Chicago Police Department recovers more guns than New York and Los Angeles combined, as well as also recording a greater number of shooting victims each year. In 2015, according to the Chicago Tribune, there were 2,900 shooting victims in the City of Chicago alone. During the same period, the city of New York and its police department reported having only 1,300 shooting victims-less than half of what Chicago recorded. Thus far, in 2016, there have been more than 3,900 people shot in the City of Chicago, and more than 700 people have been killed as a result of gun violence. Three quarters of the victims of shootings in Chicago are African-Americans. They are heavily concentrated in 10-20 high-crime areas on the city's South and West sides. A disturbing number of these victims are innocent children who get in the way when criminals target rivals. Homicides that result from gun violence account for only one half of an otherwise incomplete picture, however. Too often forgotten during discussions about firearm violence are the many non-fatal shootings that comprise the other half of the picture. Each year, approximately 900 individual victims of gun violence are treated at Stroger Hospital by the physicians of the Cook County Health and Hospital System. The cost to taxpayers for treatment can typically range between $35,000 and $50,000 per victim, or in cases of serious debilitating nonfatal injuries, the costs can total up to $250,000 for the first year and $200,000 each year thereafter. These local statistics paint a stark picture for the City of Chicago and Cook County. Nationally, we have seen instances of firearm violence draw increased attention in the wake of tragic recent events. Despite this increased attention, however, there has been limited action by the federal government, to take concrete steps toward addressing the increase in firearm violence and its surrounding issues. Frustration with congressional gridlock over efforts to combat gun violence, however, should not stop local government and law enforcement from doing what it can to reduce this growing problem. It is imperative that local stakeholders begin to recognize and acknowledge that there are ways to combat community violence and save lives that have little or nothing to do with either regulating firearms and enacting expensive, grand solutions-both of which have proven to be equally unrealistic and unsuccessful endeavors in spite of an escalating number of incidents of violence across the country. An important part of this recognition process is coming to understand that discussions surrounding violence, criminal justice reforms, and community economic development are not separate and unrelated issues. Instead, these issues are each a critical component of intrinsically interconnected problems that all stakeholders must begin to address through comprehensive and coordinated programs, policies, and practices that focus on proven evidence-based solutions. Successful implementation of comprehensive and coordinated proven evidence-based solutions will not be easy, nor will it take place over night. Doing so will require greater public attention, as well as some funding. More importantly, focusing the energies of everyone involved on the evidence-based programs, policies, and practices that have been proven to succeed in addressing all aspects of community violence and its underlying causes will take strong commitment, discipline, compromise, and an unrelenting dedication from all stakeholders. Ultimately, however, through the adoption and implementation of successful evidence-based policy programs and practices the number of firearm crimes and associated incidents of violence could be significantly reduced and prevented across the City of Chicago and Cook County Details: Chicago: GVTF, 2016. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 2, 2018 at: http://richardrboykin.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/The-Cook-County-Gun-Violence-Task-Force-Final-Report-2016-3.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://richardrboykin.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/The-Cook-County-Gun-Violence-Task-Force-Final-Report-2016-3.pdf Shelf Number: 148965 Keywords: Gun ViolenceGun-Related ViolenceHomicidesIllegal GunsMurders |
Author: Fowler, Katherine A. Title: Surveillance for Violent Deaths -- National Violent Death Reporting System, 18 States, 2014 Summary: Problem/Condition: In 2014, approximately 59,000 persons died in the United States as a result of violence-related injuries. This report summarizes data from CDC's National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) regarding violent deaths from 18 U.S. states for 2014. Results are reported by sex, age group, race/ethnicity, marital status, location of injury, method of injury, circumstances of injury, and other selected characteristics. Reporting Period Covered: 2014. Description of System: NVDRS collects data from participating states regarding violent deaths. Data are obtained from death certificates, coroner/medical examiner reports, law enforcement reports, and secondary sources (e.g., child fatality review team data, supplemental homicide reports, hospital data, and crime laboratory data). This report includes data from 18 states that collected statewide data for 2014 (Alaska, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin). NVDRS collates documents for each death and links deaths that are related (e.g., multiple homicides, a homicide followed by a suicide, or multiple suicides) into a single incident. Results: For 2014, a total of 22,098 fatal incidents involving 22,618 deaths were captured by NVDRS in the 18 states included in this report. The majority of deaths were suicides (65.6%), followed by homicides (22.5%), deaths of undetermined intent (10.0%), deaths involving legal intervention (1.3%) (i.e., deaths caused by law enforcement and other persons with legal authority to use deadly force, excluding legal executions), and unintentional firearm deaths (<1%). The term "legal intervention" is a classification incorporated into the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) and does not denote the lawfulness or legality of the circumstances surrounding a death caused by law enforcement. Suicides occurred at higher rates among males, non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Natives (AI/AN), non-Hispanic whites, persons aged 45-54 years, and males aged ≥75 years. Suicides were preceded primarily by a mental health, intimate partner, substance abuse, or physical health problem or a crisis during the previous or upcoming 2 weeks. Homicide rates were higher among males and persons aged <1 year and 15-44 years; rates were highest among non-Hispanic black and AI/AN males. Homicides primarily were precipitated by arguments and interpersonal conflicts, occurrence in conjunction with another crime, or related to intimate partner violence (particularly for females). When the relationship between a homicide victim and a suspected perpetrator was known, it was most often either an acquaintance/ friend or an intimate partner. Legal intervention death rates were highest among males and persons aged 20-44 years; rates were highest among non-Hispanic black males and Hispanic males. Precipitating factors for the majority of legal intervention deaths were alleged criminal activity in progress, the victim reportedly using a weapon in the incident, a mental health or substance abuse problem, an argument or conflict, or a recent crisis. Deaths of undetermined intent occurred more frequently among males, particularly non-Hispanic black and AI/AN males, and persons aged 30-54 years. Substance abuse, mental health problems, physical health problems, and a recent crisis were the most common circumstances preceding deaths of undetermined intent. Unintentional firearm deaths were more frequent among males, non-Hispanic whites, and persons aged 10-24 years; these deaths most often occurred while the shooter was playing with a firearm and were most often precipitated by a person unintentionally pulling the trigger or mistakenly thinking the firearm was unloaded. Details: Atlanta: e Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Surveillance Summaries / Vol. 67 / No. 2: Accessed February 6, 2018 at: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/ss/pdfs/ss6702-H.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/ss/pdfs/ss6702-H.pdf Shelf Number: 149005 Keywords: Domestic ViolenceFamily ViolenceGun-Related ViolenceHomicideMurdersSuicidesViolence-Related InjuriesViolent Crime |
Author: Asongu, Simplice Title: The Murder Epidemic: A Global Comparative Study Summary: We build on literature from policy and academic circles to assess if Latin America is leading when it comes to persistence in homicides. The focus is on a global sample of 163 countries for the period 2010 to 2015. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments. The following main finding is established. The region with the highest evidence of persistence in homicides is sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), followed by Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and then by Europe & Central Asia (ECA). In order to increase room for policy implications, the dataset is decomposed into income levels, religious domination, land-lockedness and legal origins. From the conditioning information set, the following factors account for persistence in global homicides: crime, political instability and weapons import positively affect homicides whereas the number of "security and police officers" has the opposite effect. Details: Forthcoming paper, 2017. 23p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 22, 2018 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3109974 Year: 2017 Country: International URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3109974 Shelf Number: 149215 Keywords: Crime Statistics Homicides Murders |
Author: Cassell, Paul G. Title: What Caused the 2016 Homicide Spike? An Empirical Examination of the 'ACLU Effect' and the Role of Stop and Frisks in Preventing Gun Violence Summary: Homicides increased dramatically in Chicago in 2016. In 2015, 480 Chicago residents were killed. The next year, 754 were killed-274 more homicide victims, tragically producing an extraordinary 58% increase in a single year. This article attempts to unravel what happened. This article provides empirical evidence that the reduction in stop and frisks by the Chicago Police Department beginning around December 2015 was responsible for the homicide spike that started immediately thereafter. The sharp decline in the number of stop and frisks is a strong candidate for the causal factor, particularly since the timing of the homicide spike so perfectly coincides with the spike. Regression analysis of the homicide spike and related shooting crimes identifies the stop and frisk variable as the likely cause. The results are highly statistically significant and robust over a large number of alternative specifications. And a qualitative review for possible "omitted variables" in the regression equations fails to identify any other plausible candidates that fit the data as well as the decline in stop and frisks. Our regression equations permit quantification of the costs of the decline in stop and frisks. Because of fewer stop and frisks in 2016, it appears that (conservatively calculating) approximately 239 additional victims were killed and 1129 additional shootings occurred in that year alone. And these tremendous costs are not evenly distributed, but rather are concentrated among Chicago's African-American and Hispanic communities. The most likely explanation for the fall in stop and frisks that appears to have triggered the homicide spike is a consent decree entered into by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) with the Chicago Police Department (CPD). Accordingly, modifications to that consent decree may be appropriate. More broadly, these findings shed important light on the on-going national debate about stop and frisk policies. The fact that America's "Second City" suffered so badly from a decline in stop and frisks suggests that the arguably contrary experience in New York City may be an anomaly. The costs of crime - and particularly gun crimes - are too significant to avoid considering every possible measure for reducing the toll. The evidence gathered here suggests that stop and frisk policies may be truly lifesaving measures that have to be considered as part of any effective law enforcement response to gun violence. Details: Salt Lake City: University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law, 2018. 96p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 29, 2018 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3145287 Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3145287 Shelf Number: 149607 Keywords: Gun ViolenceGun-Related ViolenceHomicidesMurdersStop and FriskViolent Crimes |
Author: Webster, Daniel W. Title: Effects of Missouri's Repeal of Its Handgun Purchaser Licensing Law on Homicides Summary: In the United States, homicide is a leading cause of death for young males and a major cause of racial disparities in life expectancy for men. There is intense debate and little rigorous research on the effects of firearm sales regulation on homicides. This study estimates the impact of Missouri's 2007 repeal of its permit-to-purchase (PTP) handgun law on states' homicide rates and controls for changes in poverty, unemployment, crime, incarceration, policing levels, and other policies that could potentially affect homicides. Using death certificate data available through 2010, the repeal of Missouri's PTP law was associated with an increase in annual increase in firearm homicides rates of 1.09 per 100,000 (+23%), but was unrelated to changes in non-firearm homicide rates. Using Uniform Crime Reporting data from police through 2012, the law's repeal was associated with increased annual murders rates of 0.93 per 100,000 (+16%). These estimated effects translate to increases of between 55 and 63 homicides per year in Missouri. Details: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2013. 26p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 14, 2018 at: https://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/johns-hopkins-center-for-gun-policy-and-research/_pdfs/effects-of-missouris-repeal-of-its-handgun-purchaser-licensing-law-on-homicides.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/johns-hopkins-center-for-gun-policy-and-research/_pdfs/effects-of-missouris-repeal-of-its-handgun-purchaser-licensing-law-on-homicides.pdf Shelf Number: 150179 Keywords: Gun Control PolicyGun ViolenceGun-Related ViolenceHomicidesMurders |
Author: Bento, Fabiana Title: Murders in the city of Sao Paulo: analysis of reported incidents from January 2012 to June 2013 Summary: his study presents an analysis of incidents of murder reported in the city of Sao Paulo from January 2012 to June 2013. Our objective in completing this report is to organize and share the information available concerning murder when it is first reported to the Civil Police (i.e. the Incident Reports), with the hope of amplifying understanding about the phenomenon at large. Under what circumstances do these deaths occur? What are the profiles of the victims and the perpetrators? In which locations are these incidents most common? These are some of the questions that we sought to answer and that can contribute to the creation of policies better poised to confront homicide in the city. If today the city of Sao Paulo demonstrates murder rates that are indisputably better than they were fifteen or twenty years ago (which does not diminish in anyway the relevance of the problem currently), this is a consequence of investment in intelligence that mapped areas with higher concentrations of crime, created profiles of victims and perpetrators, and identified motives and weapons. The information that was discovered allowed for the implementation of preventative measures and investigations that directly impacted awareness about and reduction of crime. This intelligent and strategic perspective of seeking to comprehend the dynamics behind killings should be well-publicized and incorporated as a common practice; however, the last official study released to the general public - the Anuario do Departamento de Homicidios e Protecao a Pessoa - was published in 2008. It is still a common problem in Brazil that when homicides take center stage, generally due to an increase in statistics, the debate is overrun by explanations based on stereotypes- oftentimes attempting to link fatalities to the drug trade without pursuing a deeper understanding of the situation and entering into dialogue with the reality of the facts. Thus the importance of this research, which proposes to update the analysis of murders in the city with an eye towards verifying which of the characteristics previously discovered - such as the high rate of victimization of young male adults, the involvement of firearms, and the relationship between homicides and interpersonal conflicts - have remained constant. Despite its limitations, considering that we are working with the first information received by the police, the analysis creates a panorama of murders in the city using constructive data that can suggest a certain path forward. We understand that this is a first step, and our hope is that it does not become merely a rote exercise, but that it can stimulate further research that continues to build greater knowledge of the dynamics associated with homicide in Sao Paulo. Details: Sao Paulo: Instituto Sou da Paz, 2013. 40p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 13, 2018 at: http://www.soudapaz.org/upload/file/conhecimento_homicidios_sp_ingl_s.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Brazil URL: http://www.soudapaz.org/upload/file/conhecimento_homicidios_sp_ingl_s.pdf Shelf Number: 153412 Keywords: Crime RatesCrime StatisticsHomicidesMurdersViolent Crime |
Author: Jack, Shane P.D. Title: Surveillance for Violent Deaths-- National Violent Death Reporting System, 27 States, 2015 Summary: Problem/Condition: In 2015, approximately 62,000 persons died in the United States as a result of violence-related injuries. This report summarizes data from CDC's National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) regarding violent deaths from 27 U.S. states for 2015. Results are reported by sex, age group, race/ethnicity, location of injury, method of injury, circumstances of injury, and other selected characteristics. Reporting Period: 2015. Description of System: NVDRS collects data regarding violent deaths obtained from death certificates, coroner/medical examiner reports, law enforcement reports, and secondary sources (e.g., child fatality review team data, supplemental homicide reports, hospital data, and crime laboratory data). This report includes data from 27 states that collected statewide data for 2015 (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin). NVDRS collates documents for each death and links deaths that are related (e.g., multiple homicides, a homicide followed by a suicide, or multiple suicides) into a single incident. Results: For 2015, NVDRS captured 30,628 fatal incidents involving 31,415 deaths in the 27 states included in this report. The majority (65.1%) of deaths were suicides, followed by homicides (23.5%), deaths of undetermined intent (9.5%), legal intervention deaths (1.3%) (i.e., deaths caused by law enforcement and other persons with legal authority to use deadly force, excluding legal executions), and unintentional firearm deaths (<1.0%). (The term "legal intervention" is a classification incorporated into the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision [ICD-10] and does not denote the lawfulness or legality of the circumstances surrounding a death caused by law enforcement.) Demographic patterns varied by manner of death. Suicide rates were highest among males, non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Natives, non-Hispanic whites, adults aged 45-54 years, and men aged ≥75 years. The most common method of injury was a firearm. Suicides often were preceded by a mental health, intimate partner, substance abuse, or physical health problem, or a crisis during the previous or upcoming 2 weeks. Homicide rates were higher among males and persons aged <1 year and 20-34 years. Among males, non-Hispanic blacks accounted for the majority of homicides and had the highest rate of any racial/ethnic group. Homicides primarily involved a firearm, were precipitated by arguments and interpersonal conflicts, were related to intimate partner violence (particularly for females), or occurred in conjunction with another crime. When the relationship between a homicide victim and a suspected perpetrator was known, an acquaintance/friend or an intimate partner frequently was involved. Legal intervention death rates were highest among males and persons aged 20-54 years; rates among non-Hispanic black males were approximately double the rates of those among non-Hispanic white males. Precipitating circumstances for legal intervention deaths most frequently were an alleged criminal activity in progress, the victim reportedly using a weapon in the incident, a mental health or substance abuse problem (other than alcohol abuse), an argument or conflict, or a recent crisis (during the previous or upcoming 2 weeks). Unintentional firearm deaths were more frequent among males, non-Hispanic whites, and persons aged 1024 years; these deaths most often occurred while the shooter was playing with a firearm and most often were precipitated by a person unintentionally pulling the trigger or mistakenly thinking the firearm was unloaded. Deaths of undetermined intent were more frequent among males, particularly non-Hispanic black and American Indian/Alaska Native males, and persons aged 3054 years. Substance abuse, mental health problems, physical health problems, and a recent crisis were the most common circumstances preceding deaths of undetermined intent. In 2015, approximately 3,000 current or former military personnel died by suicide. The majority of these decedents were male, non-Hispanic white, and aged 45-74 years. Most suicides among military personnel involved a firearm and were precipitated by mental health, physical health, and intimate partner problems, as well as a recent crisis. Interpretation: This report provides a detailed summary of data from NVDRS for 2015. The results indicate that deaths resulting from self-inflicted or interpersonal violence most frequently affect males and certain age groups and minority populations. Mental health problems, intimate partner problems, interpersonal conflicts, and general life stressors were primary precipitating events for multiple types of violent deaths, including suicides among current or former military personnel. Public Health Action: NVDRS data are used to monitor the occurrence of violence-related fatal injuries and assist public health authorities in the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs and policies to reduce and prevent violent deaths. For example, Virginia VDRS data are used to help identify suicide risk factors among active duty service members, Oregon VDRS suicide data are used to coordinate information and activities across community agencies that support veterans and active duty service members, and Arizona VDRS data are used to develop recommendations for primary care providers who deliver care to veterans. The continued development and expansion of NVDRS to include all 50 states, U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia are essential to public health efforts to reduce deaths due to violence. Details: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Surveillance Summaries / Vol. 67 / No. 11: Accessed December 6, 2018 at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6181254/pdf/ss6711a1.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6181254/pdf/ss6711a1.pdf Shelf Number: 153921 Keywords: Child DeathsGun ViolenceGun-Related ViolenceHomicidesMurdersPolice Deadly ForcePublic Health IssuesSuicides Violence |