NCJ Number
179871
Journal
Homicide Studies Volume: 3 Issue: 4 Dated: November 1999 Pages: 277-299
Date Published
1999
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This article compares Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) data on youth gun and knife victims submitted by the Boston Police Department to youth gun and knife homicide victim data collected as part of a problem-solving project designed to reduce youth violence in Boston.
Abstract
SHRs are the only nationally collected homicide data that include information on the victim, offender, and circumstances of each incident. Although SHR data are known to have important shortcomings, these data have been used extensively to describe the recent epidemic of youth homicide. The article discusses the methods used to collect and compare SHR data and data from the problem-solving project, presents the pictures of youth gun and knife homicide in Boston from the two data sources, analyzes the agreements and disagreements between the two pictures of youth homicide and concludes with a discussion of steps that might be taken to improve the usefulness of SHR data in diagnosing local homicide problems. Tables, notes, references