Homicides in New York City, 1797-1999 [And Various Historical Comparison Sites]
Description
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. 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. The data include a combined count of murder and
manslaughter because charge bargaining often blurs this legal
distinction. 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. 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.
Resources
| Name |
Format |
Description |
Link |
|
0 |
ICPSR03226.v1 |
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03226.v1 |
Tags
- twentieth-century
- historical-data
- nineteenth-century
- crime-statistics
- murder
- death-records
- social-change
- manslaughter
- homicide