There has been little research on United States
homicide rates from a long-term perspective, primarily because there
has been no consistent data series on a particular place preceding the
Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), which began its first full year in 1931.
To fill this research gap, this project created a data series on
homicides per capita for New York City that spans two centuries. The
goal was to create a site-specific, individual-based data series that
could be used to examine major social shifts related to homicide, such
as mass immigration, urban growth, war, demographic changes, and
changes in laws. The researcher chose to focus on a specific
geographic area because the composite national data did not provide
the details needed for careful analysis. Data were also gathered on
various other sites, particularly in England, to allow for comparisons
on important issues, such as the post-World War II wave of violence.
The basic approach to the data collection was to
obtain the best possible estimate of annual counts and the most
complete information on individual homicides. The annual count data
(Parts 1 and 3) were derived from multiple sources, including the
Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports and
Supplementary Homicide Reports, as well as other official counts from
the New York City Police Department and the City Inspector in the
early 19th century. When there were discrepancies among sources, the
principal investigator used the source giving the higher count, based
on the assumption that missing information tends to bias toward an
undercount. The data include a combined count of murder and
manslaughter because charge bargaining often blurs this legal
distinction. The following incidents were excluded from the counts:
accidental homicides, infanticides, cases involving children under 5
except when evidence in individual cases made it clear that these were
murders, women who died during the course of an abortion, riot
victims, the killing of an offender during the course of an arrest,
and legal executions. The individual-level data (Part 2) were drawn
from coroners' indictments held by the New York City Municipal
Archives, and from daily newspapers. Duplication was avoided by
keeping a record for each victim. The estimation technique known as
"capture-recapture" was used to estimate homicides not listed in
either source.
All homicides in New York City and various comparison
sites between 1797 and 1999.
Parts 1 and 3: Year. Part 3: Homicide incident.
(1) Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime
Reports and Supplementary Homicide Reports, (2) New York City Police
Department, (3) New York City Inspector, (4) coroners' indictments,
and (5) daily newspapers
Part 1 variables include counts of New York City
homicides, arrests, and convictions, as well as the homicide rate,
race or ethnicity and gender of victims, type of weapon used, and
source of data. Part 2 includes the date of the murder, the age, sex,
and race of the offender and victim, and whether the case led to an
arrest, trial, conviction, execution, or pardon. Part 3 contains
annual homicide counts and rates for various comparison sites
including Liverpool, London, Kent, Canada, Baltimore, Los Angeles,
Seattle, and San Francisco.
Not applicable.
None.
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