NCJ Number
91990
Date Published
1983
Length
33 pages
Annotation
This report examines the creation of the Illinois Victim-Level Murder (VLM) file which covers murders known to the police from 1973 to 1981, as well as the validity of its data. A codebook explains the VLM's definitions.
Abstract
The VLM file was created from the Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) files collected by the Illinois Department of Law Enforcement and includes data on victim's characteristics; offender's characteristics; time, month, year, and jurisdiction of offense; circumstances; weapon; and victim-offender relationship. The VLM contains only one record per victim, whereas the SHR may have separate records for each known offender and thus more than one record for a murder victim. An investigation into data quality found no errors caused by SHR to VLM recoding, but did uncover possible errors and incomplete data in the SHR file. A subsequent check of the SHR data against the original police and sheriff's files found agreement in 75 percent of the cases. A more detailed 1981 audit revealed the following typical errors: (1) duplicate cases; (2) data discrepancy which can occur if someone dies in March as result of an attack in December; and (3) failure to designate whether homicides are murders or other types of homicides. The report describes the SHR to VLM recoding methods and differences between Chicago and non-Chicago race data in the SHR files caused by different reporting formats. In addition to the codebook, the document provides a supplementary homicide report form, tables, and maps of Illinois' counties and circuit courts.