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Violence in U.S. Cities: Homicide Trends in Eight U.S. Cities (From Nature of Homicide: Trends and Changes - Proceedings of the 1996 Meeting of the Homicide Research Working Group, Santa Monica, California, P 80-82, 1996, Pamela K Lattimore and Cynthia A Nahabedian, eds. - See NCJ-166149)

NCJ Number
168576
Author(s)
P K Lattimore
Date Published
1996
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This paper discusses the Homicide Trends Project sponsored by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to identify and examine factors associated with recent changes in homicide rates.
Abstract

Policymakers and the media have recently focused on dramatic declines in homicides in some major U.S. cities, for example a 31- percent decline in New York City's homicide rate between 1990 and 1994. Actions by government agencies to clean up the streets are viewed as possible sources for these declines, while other hypotheses focus on changes in population characteristics. The NIJ's Homicide Trends Project is intended to refine the understanding of the dynamics of homicide and violence in U.S. cities in relation to social, demographic, and policy changes. The focus of investigations in U.S. cities is to look at changes in local factors and how these changes are associated with changes in homicide trends. Eight cities have been selected for in-depth study based on size and strength of homicide rate trends between 1985 and 1994. The eight cities have populations over 200,000, homicides above the median annual homicide number (58.8), and the strongest trends of specific types in homicide rates over the 1985-1994 period. Homicide trend reports will be developed to provide data on trends related to victim age, gender, and race and on trends related to the victim-offender relationship, weapon involvement in homicides, and offender characteristics. 2 tables