NCJ Number
142058
Editor(s)
C R Block,
R L Block
Date Published
1992
Length
150 pages
Annotation
The first intensive workshop of the Homicide Research Working Group, sponsored by the National Institute of Justice and the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research and held in June 1992 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, included tutorials on national homicide, homicide research projects, drug-related crime, homicide intervention projects, and issues associated with lethal and nonlethal violence.
Abstract
Attended by 29 homicide researchers and policy experts, the workshop was designed to encourage more efficient sharing of techniques for measuring and analyzing homicide; forge links among research, epidemiology, and practical programs to reduce violence-related mortality; improve data quality and linkages among diverse homicide data sources; foster collaborative, interdisciplinary research on lethal and nonlethal violence; create a communications network among those collecting, maintaining, and analyzing homicide data; and generate a stronger working relationship among homicide researchers. Workshop presentations were organized according to similarity of topic. Five papers dealt with substantive current issues in homicide research and intervention strategies: pitfalls of comparing homicide rates across geographic areas; practical and measurement issues in drug-related violence; use of the Danger Assessment Instrument for assessing homicide risk in intimate violence; and two violence prevention programs, one targeting individuals and the other targeting neighborhood hot spot areas. Discussions of six homicide data sets included two papers on national data sets, the Canadian Homicide Data Base and the U.S. National Incident-Based Reporting System, and four papers on local homicide data sets (Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore, and Philadelphia). Workshop participants also addressed causes of homicide, the use of surveillance in homicide and violence prevention, and computer mapping as a tool in violence reduction. Additional information on workshop participants and issues is appended. References, tables, and figures