Center for Homicide Research - Researching, Identifying and Understanding Homicide

The Center for Homicide Research is a unique, volunteer-driven, nonprofit organization addressing the issue of homicide in our communities. The mission of the Center for Homicide Research is to promote greater knowledge and understanding of the unique nature of homicide through sound empirical research, critical analysis, and effective community partnerships.

The three-fold goals of the Center are to increase case solvability, to articulate homicide issues and to reduce incidence of homicide. Our ultimate aim is to prevent homicides.

Undergraduate, graduate and law students are encouraged to make application for internships at the Center for Homicide Research for spring 2012. The Center provides an unique, intensive internship opportunity in research methodologies, analysis, and criminology. The placement and application fees have been discontinued. Applications for spring and summer 2012 internships are now being accepted. Start dates are flexible and run internship is finished once you have completed your full 160 hours. Summer placement will fill up fast.

On June 10th, 2011, Dallas Drake, Principal Researcher for the Center for Homicide Research, presented a paper at the Homicide Research Working Group in New Orleans, Louisiana outlining the discovery of cyclic patterns between occurrences of homicide. In an earlier paper by Drake and co-authors, Charles Crain and Jessica Proskin, also Center researchers, a similar pattern was discovered using data from Flint, Michigan.

The methodology used to discover these patterns is unique. It consists of plotting the temporal interval between each homicide and then placing it in a visual medium. Researchers using Contagion Theory then extracted non-contagious homicides (non-firearm homicides) from those thought to be contagious (firearm homicides).

Patterns were immediately evident. Contrary to the theory however, non-contagious cycles were also observable, though at a different scale of measure. This means that the reason these interval cycles had never before been detected is that the two patterns were overlapping, thus obscuring one another.

The significance of this discovery is multi-faceted. To begin with, the cycles can be used to identify undetected murders. When an interval between homicides is longer than expected, given its position in the pattern, it likely means a case is missing from the data. All data is plotted based on when the assaultive incident occurred, not when the death or discovery occurs.

Secondly, this information can be used to predict when the new homicides might occur. Currently, the quality of available data and precision of measurements is a major limitation in the study's predictive clarity. Much work stills needs to be done to better understand how to overcome these hurdles. Earlier work by researchers in Philadelphia discovered that there is a 33% chance of a repeat shooting (not necessarily a homicide) within two weeks and one city block of the previous shooting. We can now apply this logic to homicide and see why it is true.

The most significant importance of this discovery however is what this means for homicide prevention overall. It demonstrates that although individual actors interact and make individual choices, they are still greatly impacted by the larger social structure. As Marcus Felson, a social theorist, and Terance Miethe, a homicide researcher, have predicted, when and where a violent lethal event occurs is predominantly determined by the environment in which it occurs.

In Jacksonville, Florida a report was issued that is one of the most comprehensive, evidence-based reports on homicide prevention published in the United States. It was prepared by the Jacksonville Community Council, Inc. in 2006, but its observations and recommendations still hold true today and are transferable to many American cities. The Council is a nonpartisan, broad-based civic organization that researches and publishes several community minded reports each year. The JCCI has given permission to make this report available on our website. The button below will take you to it.

A recent study by Iowa State University Sociology Professor Matt DeLisi has revealed that besides the obvious loss of human life, murder costs society an estimated $17.25 million per offense. Professor Mark Cohen of Vanderbilt University first adopted the idea of monetizing the effect of crime in the United States. DeLisi used a survey given to 654 convicted murderers and previous monetization estimates to calculate the cost of murder in terms of �victim costs, criminal justice system costs, lost productivity estimates for both victim and criminal, and estimates on the public�s willingness to pay to prevent future violence.�

DeLisi continues that both sides of the political spectrum are right and wrong when it comes to crime. He recommends that the Conservative portions of our government must give some thought to a preventative strategy to crime instead of the favored reactionary, law and order type approach. The Liberal portions of our government must realize that certain offenders cannot be rehabilitated. Hopefully, the monetization of crime will help to open dialogue in government and more funding for preventative research will be allocated as an investment in future homicide prevention.

The Center for Homicide is now a distributor of a bibliography of sources for information on homicide. This 1,462 page reference book is published by VKJ Books International Press, and authored by Jerath, Jerath, and Jerath. This book is currently in its third edition. It is the most comprehensive reference book on homicide available today. Meticulously searched out, this bibliography is a veritable treasure-trove of well-organized citations on homicide. (Book Order Form)

A landmark collaboration is underway involving unsolved homicide of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender victims in Washington DC. This project will give CHR researchers unique access to police records involving unsolved GLBT homicides in our nation�s capital city. A major goal of the study is to develop new strategies for law enforcement to increase their clearance and solvability rate of homicide cases.

The Center is providing several components including the methodology design, training and analysis. The Metropolitan Washington DC Police Department (MPD) Major Case/Cold Case Unit will identify homicides and provide case files, as well as office space and direct supervision of the data processors. Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia is providing graduate students in forensic psychology to analyze and code the cases as volunteers.

Approximately 125 unsolved GLBT cold case homicides have been identified by MPD detectives for inclusion in this project.

Center Researcher Presents on Crime Scene Symbolism
at Qualitative Research Conference

Center for Homicide Research Principal Research Dallas Drake deconstructed the messages and symbolism inherent in homicide crime scenes at a conference hosted by the University of St. Thomas. Drake's presentation investigated the crime scene using a process of semiotic deconstruction, grounded in interpretivism and symbolic interaction. Using crime scene behavior, Drake explored the themes, possible explanations and relationships between the various actors involved in the homicide incident.

Drake says, "Although offenders have the right to remain silent, many have already spoken through their crime scene behaviors. Often without realizing it, offenders impress themselves into the crime scene medium." Using various research methodologies, crime scenes can be understood through the process of semiotic deconstruction, therein possibly facilitating the solving of similar homicide cases.

The Midwest Qualitative Research Conference was held at the University of St. Thomas Minneapolis Conference on April 17-18.

Two CHR research interns have developed first-of-its-kind data on 140 shootings occurring in churches from 1980-2005. This data has the potential to provide insight into the nature of hate crimes in churches and mass killings. Research interns Amy Kielmeyer (University of North Dakota) and Derek Bixby, B.A. (University of Minnesota) conducted the research and developed the data. The dataset is currently ready to be submitted to the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research based at the University of Michigan and is being prepared for presentation at various national conferences.