Homicide Research Working Group: An Interdisciplinary and International Organization

HRWG Newsletter

Volume 8, Number 1 -- January 2002

Co-Editors: Viviana Weekes-Shackelford and Todd K. Shackelford

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A PUBLICATION OF THE HOMICIDE RESEARCH WORKING GROUP

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/HRWG

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Another Successful Meeting of the American Society of Criminology (2001)

by Greg Weaver

The November session at the 2001 American Society of Criminology meeting in Atlanta included presentations by Leigh Bienen, Gary LaFree, Doug Eckberg, and Richard Block. Thanks to all participants and to Roland Chilton for his lead in organizing the successful session. One highlight of the session was the discussion that ensued when Paul Blackman posed a question concerning classification of victims of the events of September 11 (see Paul's article below).

The business meeting included the following announcements:

John Jarvis indicated that copies of the 2000 Proceedings should be sent to members by the end of the year, and the document should also be available online at NIJ or ICPSR web sites.
Derral Cheatwood discussed briefly issues related to the upcoming 2002 meeting in St. Louis. He also suggested the possibility of including a session on the events of 9/11 and that all topics should be forwarded to the Program Committee.
Vicky Titterington of the Site Selection Committee reported that a five-year meeting plan is being formulated. Although no sites have been chosen for 2004 or 2005, the following locations are tentatively set:

2002 - St. Louis, MO
2003 - Sacramento, CA
2004 - Not determined
2005 - Not determined
2006 - Nashville, TN

The possibility of holding an international meeting (in Europe) is 2003 or 2004 is being explored.
Jana Jasinski, Network Coordinator, indicated that priority will be given to updating the HRWG address directory and that contact will be made with former members to encourage them to re-join the group.
Becky Block indicated that changes in the By-Laws should be distributed to the Steering Committee by the end of the year, and then to the membership.
Paul Blackman reported that submission guidelines for the 2001 Proceedings will be sent to participants in the near future.
Candace Batton submitted the Treasurer's Report.
Plaques of appreciation were given to Dwayne Smith (outgoing editor) and Terry Hendrix (Sage Publications) for their work related to Homicide Studies.

Call for Papers

Homicide Research Working Group 2002 Meeting

Where: Sheraton St. Louis City Ctr., St. Louis, MO

When: May 30th - June 2nd

Program Theme: The Relationship between Lethal and Non-Lethal Violence

Send a 100-word abstract of your paper or poster to:

Richard Rosenfeld
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
University of Missouri-St. Louis
St. Louis, MO 63121
Phone: 314-516-6717
Fax: 314-516-5048
Email: richard_rosenfeld@umsl.edu

Email submission is preferred. Be sure to include your name and affiliation, co-authors, whether your presentation is intended for a paper or poster session, your address, phone number, and email address.

Deadline for abstracts is March 1, 2002

Join us in St. Louis for an exciting and fun meeting!

Important 2002 HRWG Membership Information

by Candice Batton

It's time to re-new your HRWG membership for 2002! HRWG membership is based on the calendar year, thus 2001 memberships expired on December 31st. If you have not done so already, please send in your membership dues soon so that you do not miss a single issues of Homicide Studies.

To renew or join for the first time, you need to complete a Membership Form. You can complete the form online and then print it. Please mail your completed Membership Form and $50(US) to Candice Batton, the HRWG Treasurer, at the address on the form. Dues can be paid by check or credit card.

Coding the Deaths from the Terrorist Attacks of September 11th

by Paul H. Blackman

When terrorists engaged in what the Bush administration has described as unlawful acts of war, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had to decide how to record the over 4,000 deaths--as from operations of war or from criminal assault--a decision neither agency had made as of November 2001. With the administration generally viewing the acts as war crimes by unlawful combatants, coding the deaths just as mass murders would not only trivialize the deaths, but would be inconsistent with the national response to those deaths. NCHS should code those deaths in the ICD-10 category Y-36, "War operations," rather than in one or more of the categories X85 to Y09, "Assault(homicide)." And rather an bury Crime in the United States, 2001, in footnotes, producing data worthless to law enforcement and that criminologists and public-health researchers would simply remove from the datasets before analyzing, the FBI should just report the acts of war separately.

Unlike the "war on drugs," the war on terrorism is meant literally, with the military involvement not inhibited by the Posse Comitatus Act. That the 9-11-01 deaths may be considered crimes for certain purposes (insurance claims, for example, and the FBI's investigating the three areas where plane crashed as "crime scenes") does not determine how the deaths should be coded. The administration has said, "The mass murder of Americans by terrorists...is not just another item on the criminal docket," and the acts of September 11th were "acts of war against civilization." The NCHS and the FBI's coding should conform to the administration's clear interpretation of the incidents, which would also conform to international criminological practice of excluding war deaths (whether from regular forces or, for example, the French underground in World War II), and would certainly violate no national or international practice.

Achievements and Announcements

Jonathan Dudek, a 2000 graduate in Clinical and Health Psychology at MCP Hahnemann University in Philadelphia (Christine Maguth Nezu, Faculty Advisor) has been chosen as an NIJ Graduate Research Fellow for 2001. His research is on "When Silenced Voices Speak: An Exploratory Study of Prostitute Homicide." More information is available about the NIJ program.

The HRWG Listserv

If you are not a member of the HRWG listserv, or if you have changed email addresses and no longer receive messages from the listserv, please refer to the printed newsletter for instructions on how to subscribe.

From the Editors

We would like to thank those who contributed to this issue of the newsletter. We are looking forward to working on the next issues (May 2002) so please send to us suggestions or material to be included by April 1st.

Please send correspondence to Todd Shackelford (tshackel@fau.edu) or Viviana Weekes-Shackelford (vwee9812@fau.edu), or by post:

Florida Atlantic University
Division of Psychology
2912 College Avenue
Davie, FL 33314
954-236-1179

If you have comments or suggestions, email the HRWG at:
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