Improving the Investigation of Homicide and the Apprehension Rate of Murderers in Washington State, 1981-1986 (ICPSR 6134)

Version Date: Jan 12, 2006

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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

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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.

Citation

Keppel, Robert D., and Weis, Joseph G. Improving the Investigation of Homicide and the Apprehension Rate of Murderers in Washington State, 1981-1986. [distributor], 2006-01-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06134.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (87-IJ-CX-0026)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

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Time Period(s)

1981 -- 1986

Date of Collection

1981 -- 1986
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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

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

Solved murder cases occurring between 1981 and 1986 from the state of Washington's HITS database.

Universe

Murders occurring in Washington State from 1981 to 1986.

Unit(s) of Observation

For Part 1: victims of murder, for Part 2: offenders, and for Part 3: incidents of murder.

Data Source

official crime records

Data Type(s)

Description of Variables

Collected data include crime evidence, victimology, offender characteristics, geographic locations, weapons, and vehicles.

Response Rates

Not applicable.

Presence of Common Scales

None

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Original Release Date

1994-03-10

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • 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.
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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.