Lethal Violence in Chicago Over Seventeen Years - Homicides Known to the Police, 1965-1981

• NCJ Number: 99343
• Author(s): C R Block
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 99 pages
• Corporate Author: Ottawa Police Planning and Research Section
• Sale Source: Ottawa Police Planning and Research Section
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the characteristics of the victims, the offenders, and the circumstances involved in the 12,872 homicides that the Chicago police recorded from 1965 through 1981.

Abstract

Homicide resulted from several types of crimes: fights (69 percent), robbery (17 percent), rape (1 percent), burglary (1 percent), from other circumstances like a contract killing (less than 1 percent), and unknown circumstances (12 percent). The unit of analysis was the victim, and offender data was collected where available. Characteristics used in the analysis were age, gender, race/ethnicity, weapon, and the precipitating crime. Unexpected correlations were that domestic homicide was most common among blacks and involved wives killing husbands more often than husbands killing wives, and < weapon use generally depended more on the victim's characteristics than on the offender's characteristics. Other relationships showed that male/male was the most common gender interaction, black and Hispanic Americans were more likely to be killed with a firearm than whites, and males were more likely to use weapons than females. The patterns of homicide changed over the 17-year period. Homicide increased rapidly until 1974 and then leveled off or declined. Data tables, notes, and 154 references are supplied.