Expanded Homicide Data
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(From the Supplementary Homicide Report)
Data collection
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s Supplementary Homicide
Report (SHR) provides information regarding the age, sex, and race of
the murder victim and the offender; the type of weapon used in the murder;
the relationship of the victim to the offender; and the circumstance
surrounding the incident. Data gleaned from these supplemental reports
are provided in this section.
Justifiable homicide — Certain willful killings must
be reported as justifiable, or excusable. In the UCR Program, justifiable
homicide is defined as and limited to:
- The killing of a felon by a peace officer in the line of duty.
- The killing of a felon, during the commission of a felony, by a private
citizen.
Because these killings are determined through law enforcement investigation
to be justifiable, they are tabulated separately from murder and nonnegligent
manslaughter. Justifiable homicide information, which is collected by
the FBI via the UCR Program’s SHRs, are included in this section and
in Expanded
Homicide Data Table 13, “Justifiable Homicide, by Weapon, Law Enforcement,
2003–2007” and Expanded
Homicide Data Table 14, “Justifiable Homicide, by Weapon, Private
Citizen, 2003–2007.”
Overview
- Law enforcement agencies submitted SHRs to the FBI for 14,831 murder
victims who were slain in 2007.
- Regarding murder victims of 2007 for whom gender was known, 78.5
percent were male. (Based on Expanded
Homicide Data Table 1.)
- Of murder victims for whom race was known, 50.1 percent were black,
47.6 percent were white, and the remaining victims were of other races.
The race was unknown for 222 victims. (Based on Expanded
Homicide Data Table 2.)
- The situation of single victim/single offender accounted for 47.7
percent of all murders for which the UCR Program received supplementary
data.
- For murders in which the offender’s gender was known, 90.1 percent
were males. (Based on Expanded
Homicide Data Table 3.)
- Among murder offenders for whom race was known, 53.9 percent were
black, 44.0 percent were white, and 2.0 percent were other races. (Based
on Expanded
Homicide Data Table 3.)
- Of the homicides in 2007 for which the type of weapon was specified,
72.9 percent of the offenses involved the use of firearms. Handguns
comprised 87.8 percent of the firearms specified. (Based on Expanded
Homicide Data Table 7.)
- SHR data for incidents of murder in which the relationship of the
victim to the offender was known showed that 22.2 percent of victims
were killed by family members, 24.1 percent were murdered by strangers,
and 53.7 percent were slain by acquaintances (neighbor, friend, boyfriend,
etc.). (Based on Expanded
Homicide Data Table 9.)
- Among female victims for whom their relationships with their offenders
were known, 32.9 percent were murdered by their husbands or boyfriends. (Based
on Expanded
Homicide Data Tables 2 and 9.)
- Of the known circumstances surrounding homicides in 2007, 42.1 percent
of the victims were murdered during arguments (including romantic triangles)
and 23.3 percent were killed in conjunction with a felony (the victim
was slain while being raped, robbed, etc.). Circumstances were unknown
for 36.9 percent of reported homicides. (Based on Expanded
Homicide Data Table 11.)
- Law enforcement reported 645 justifiable homicides in 2007. Of those,
law enforcement officers justifiably killed 391 individuals, and private
citizens justifiably killed 254 individuals.
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