NCJ Number
80688
Date Published
Unknown
Length
90 pages
Annotation
Tables, charts, and graphs are used to illustrate this analysis of 5 years of data (1976-80) on homicide in California in order to determine trends in willful (nonnegligent) homicide crimes.
Abstract
Variables such as location of the homicide, victim-offender relationship, type of weapon used, and circumstance contributing to the homicide are analyzed in terms of the personal characteristics of persons arrested for murder, response of the criminal justice system to adults arrested for murder, defendants sentenced to death, police officers killed in the line of duty, and justifiable homicides. The number of willful homicides increased 108.5 percent from 1971 to 1980. Percent increases in willful homicide and aggravated assault rates were simmilar. More persons were killed on Saturday and Sunday than on other days of the week, fewer persons were killed from January through June than from July through December, and more persons were killed by firearms than by all other types of weapons combined. Most homicide victims during 1980 were male, white, and 24 years of age or younger; 52.9 percent of the victims were friends or acquaintances of offenders. The average homicide rate per 100,000 population of the 20 most populated counties was 81.1 percent higher than that of the remaining 38 counties for the 1978-80 period.