Improving the Investigation of Homicide and the Apprehension Rate of Murderers in Washington State, 1981-1986 (ICPSR 6134)
Version Date: Jan 12, 2006 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Robert D. Keppel, Washington State Attorney General's Office;
Joseph G. Weis, University of Washington, Center for Law and Justice
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06134.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
This data collection contains information on solved murders occurring in Washington State between 1981 and 1986. The collection is a subset of data from the Homicide Investigation Tracking System (HITS), a computerized database maintained by the state of Washington that contains information on murders and sexual assault cases in that state. The data for HITS are provided voluntarily by police and sheriffs' departments covering 273 jurisdictions, medical examiners' and coroners' offices in 39 counties, prosecuting attorneys' offices in 39 counties, the Washington State Department of Vital Statistics, and the Uniform Crime Report Unit of the Washington State Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. Collected data include crime evidence, victimology, offender characteristics, geographic locations, weapons, and vehicles.
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Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
HideTime Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
This data collection is constructed from the Homicide Investigation Tracking System (HITS), a computerized database maintained by the state of Washington. HITS was designed to (1) provide law enforcement officials with information regarding incidents of murder, (2) provide analysis of these incidents such as links between victims, offenders, and cases, and (3) provide investigators with resources, including names of experts and technical assistance in investigating such cases.
Study Design View help for Study Design
The HITS database consists of murder cases, both solved and unsolved, occurring in Washington State between 1981 and 1986. Incidents tracked include murders, attempted murders, missing persons when foul play is suspected, and unidentified persons believed to be victims of murder. The system relies on law enforcement agencies in Washington State to submit information voluntarily to HITS investigators. This data collection consists of information on solved murder cases only.
Sample View help for Sample
Solved murder cases occurring between 1981 and 1986 from the state of Washington's HITS database.
Universe View help for Universe
Murders occurring in Washington State from 1981 to 1986.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Source View help for Data Source
official crime records
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
Collected data include crime evidence, victimology, offender characteristics, geographic locations, weapons, and vehicles.
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
Not applicable.
Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales
None
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
1994-03-10
Version History View help for Version History
- Keppel, Robert D., and Joseph G. Weis. IMPROVING THE INVESTIGATION OF HOMICIDE AND THE APPREHENSION RATE OF MURDERERS IN WASHINGTON STATE, 1981-1986. Compiled by Robert D. Keppel, Washington State Attorney General's Office, and Joseph G. Weis, University of Washington, Center for Law and Justice. ICPSR ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor], 1993. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06134.v1
2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 8 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.
2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 4 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.
2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to reflect these additions.
1994-03-10 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.