NCJ Number
225248
Journal
Criminal Justice Review Volume: 33 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2008 Pages: 453-479
Date Published
December 2008
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This study focused on the influence of changing characteristics of homicide events on the decline in homicide clearances.
Abstract
Findings suggest that characteristics of homicide events such as percentages of concomitant felony homicide, stranger relationship, Latino victim, and vehicle body location were significantly and consistently associated with the decline in the homicide clearance rate in the city of Chicago during the 30-year period; these are the only homicide event variables that have been identified as being significantly related to homicide clearances both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. These homicide event factors are part of the reasons for the historical decline in the homicide clearance rate in Chicago. Other characteristics, such as victim’s mean age and percentages of male victims, victims with prior arrest record, home body location, domestic homicide circumstance, and firearm usage basically showed no connection to the decline. The findings for remaining variables were inconclusive. Data were collected from Chicago Homicide Data (CHD) which contains 23,817 homicide records reported in Chicago from 1965 to 1995. Figure, table, appendixes, notes, and references