A few cities, such as Lexington, Kentucky, and Toledo, Ohio, saw their homiciderates rise, but most cities, from Boston, New York, Charlotte, and Atlanta in the east to Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in the west, reported dramatically lower homiciderates.
This package of data and analysis examines long-term homicidetrends in the U.S. It also explores possible explanations for the rise in murder seen in mid-2020 and, in most cities, its subsequent decline.
consequence of the growing loss of faith in America’s social hierarchy has been stark. In the period 1999-2015, among families with parents in the bottom half of the US income distribution, homiciderates increase threefold if we compare counties with the highest rates of intergenerational mobility to those with the lowest rates of in
At the time of his death in 2005, Eric was working on a history of homicide in Los Angeles and on a comparative study of urbanhomiciderates in the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Figures 2–7 through 2–10 show the eight cities’ observed homiciderates and expected homiciderates as predicted by the best-fit regression lines. The regression equations appear to adequately capture the trend information contained in the city-level homiciderate data.
Homicide trend research has relied heavily on the same two data systems for decades. The current article highlights the research utility of a newer database—the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS)—for examining the contours of homicide change.
Statistical data reveal significant trends in homiciderates, with a notable spike occurring in 2020, potentially linked to social upheavals and the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of victims and perpetrators tend to be male, and many homicides occur within specific racial and ethnic communities.
