Nation's Two Measures of Homicide

• NCJ Number: 247060
• Author(s): J. Lee Annest; Duren Banks; Cynthia Barnett-Ryan; Lynn Langton Ph.D.; Michael Planty Ph.D.; Wendy Regoeczi; Margaret Warner
• Date Published: July 2014
• Length: 4 pages
• Corporate Author: Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
• Publication Format: Document; Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview; Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: The U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) is the principal Federal agency responsible for measuring crime, criminal victimization, criminal offenders, victims of crime, correlates of crime, and the operation of criminal and civil justice systems at the federal, state, tribal, and local levels. BJS collects, analyzes, and disseminates reliable and valid statistics on crime and justice systems in the United States, supports improvements to state and local criminal justice information systems, and participates with national and international organizations to develop and recommend national standards for justice statistics.

Annotation

This Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) report summarizes the United States' two national data collection systems related to homicide: the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Supplementary Homicide Reports and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Fatal Injury Reports.

Abstract

Summarizes the United States' two national data collection systems related to homicide: the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Supplementary Homicide Reports and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Fatal Injury Reports. This report describes the strengths, limitations, differences, and complementary aspects of each program. Both measures were developed as part of a federal effort to improve national statistical systems in the early twentieth century, and have gone through a number of changes since then to improve consistency and coverage.