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.
  • Concerning single victim/single offender incidents in which the age of the offender was known, 93.6 percent of the victims were killed by adults (persons 18 years of age or older).  (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 4.)
  • Of single victim/single offender incidents, 91.9 percent of black victims were murdered by black offenders, and 82.5 percent of white victims were murdered by white offenders. (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 5.)
  • Among the single victim/single offender incidents, 91.1 percent of female victims were killed by male offenders. (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 5.)
• 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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September 2008