Edition No. 11

Ray Larson, Commonwealth's Attorney National Homicide Study Reveals Interesting Findings

The National Institute of Justice recently released the results of its research project to study the dynamics of homicide in U.S. cities. The project examined the extent to which a number of factors, including drug use, drug markets, changes in firearms use, and response of law enforcement appear to be associated with changes in homicide rates.

The information was gathered in the summer of 1996 for the period 1985-1994 in eight major cities. The NIJ states that the findings cannot be generalized to other cities or the nation as a whole. However they are helpful in understanding some of the factors which influence homicide rates in communities throughout the country.

KEY FINDINGS:

1. National rates correspond closely with cocaine use levels in a community.

Crack cocaine was, by far, the drug that the study found was most commonly associated with community violence, although marijuana and its markets were found to be emerging as sources of violence.

The cocaine use levels in males arrested correlated closely with the homicide rates in cities studied. As the cocaine use increased, the homicide rate also increased. Likewise, when the cocaine usage decreased, homicide rates also decreased.

2. Guns are increasingly preferred as the means of committing homicides.

Guns were used in more than 80 percent of the homocides in each city studied. Furthermore, the percentage of homocides attributable to guns steadily increased in every study city, even in those with a decreasing homicide trend.

All expressed great concern at the level of gun violence. Many also cited a lack of a comprehensive local strategy to combat gun violence.

3. Young black males, particularly those 18 to 24 years old, were greatly over-represented among homicide victims compared to their representation in the general population.

Black males in the 18-24 age group were homocide victims at a much higher rate, in the study cities, than for any other age-gender-race group. The study lists Tampa, Florida as an example. In Tampa in 1993, black males ages 18-24 comprised 1.2 percent of the population, but 28 percent of the city's homicide victims.