Prevalence of missing and murdered indigenous men and boys in Arizona revealed with longitudinal homicide data

November is American Indian Heritage month. However, due to the recent release of the film, Killers of the Flower Moon, much attention is focused on the destruction of that heritage, since the movie (and the book it’s based on) depicts the serial murder of members of the Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma. In their article, Fox et al. cite statistics showing that even to the present day, indigenous people go missing and are murdered at much higher rates than other groups, and indigenous women are murdered at ten times the national average in some US counties. Due to social media and recent legislation addressing missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, more people are aware of this crisis. But less is known about missing or murdered indigenous men and boys. Fox et al. attempted to advance scholarly knowledge by documenting the prevalence and contextual factors surrounding missing and murdered indigenous males in the state of Arizona, which has 22 federally-recognized Tribes and one of the largest populations of indigenous peoples. Using data from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUS), Fox et al. found that between April 15 and July 29, 2022, 48 indigenous males had open and active cases in the NamUS database. Missing men and boys from Arizona ranged in age from 14 to 76, with an average age of 37. More disturbing, the average amount of time they had been missing was 11 years.

To look at indigenous male murders in Arizona, Fox et al. used 40 years (1976–2018) of homicide data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Supplemental Homicide Reports (SHR), which are distributed as part of the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Data Series. One of four types of UCR summary data reported monthly, each yearly SHR provides incident-based information on criminal homicides reported to the police. The SHR data from Arizona agencies, despite missing information, allowed Fox et al. to look at trends over time. For instance, they found that there were 160 indigenous female homicide victims in Arizona over the past 40 years, but there were 494 indigenous male victims. Fox et al. also determined that the murder rate of males stayed stable until the rate increased sharply from 2015 to 2018. The SHR data also provided victim characteristics, including the range in ages (infant to 79 years old) and the most common victim age range (18-35 years old). Additionally, the data included the age, sex, and race of the offenders, when known. Further, incident characteristics like the weapon used, the victim-offender relationship, and the circumstances surrounding the homicide helped give context. That said, according to the authors, the circumstances in these cases were often unknown, pointing to issues with data collection and investigation. When details were included, homicides frequently involved arguments, drugs, or alcohol. Fox et al. called for improved data collection by law enforcement, more research on indigenous male victimization, and culturally relevant solutions like victim support services and violence prevention education for indigenous communities. Many more publications using UCR data can be found here.