Development of
Homosexual Homicide Data-sets
An Emergent Crime Issue
Over the course of many years a new subcultural component of the U.S.
population has aggregated into a what many view as a sexual minority
community. It is composed mainly of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual
people, though a few others might also qualify. Although its historical
roots can be traced to points much earlier, most sociologist today agree
that the modern gay community officially emerged in 1969, sparked by the
riots outside the Stonewall Inn bar in Greenwich Village, New York. As a
result, many kinds of crime, including homicide, have become its unwelcome
companion.
One of the earliest and continuing
research projects targets the topic of homosexual homicide. The academic
and policing literature was rife with accounts of how difficult this
type of homicide was to solve. This came at a time when the gay
community, whose population was only beginning to be detectible, was
first emerging. Today the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual
communities contain a population that numbers into the millions.
Emerging communities, whether immigrant, religious, or now of sexual
minority, have typically fallen victim to crime and homicide. Our
earliest research also shows GLBT people as participating in offending.
Center for Research staff believe there is much to learn about gay
homicide that will help understand, solve and prevent all types of
lethal violence.
GLBT homicide shines the spotlight on the
role of gender in homicide. Strictly defined gender roles, in
combination with the devaluation of femininity, are key factors in many
kinds of homicide where the offender feels his masculinity is
threatened. Since many homicides involve simple disputes or character or
honor contests, much will be learned by examining same-sex homicide
incidents. Our data shows that approximately three to four percent of
all homicides involve sexual minorities.
Many GLBT people have said that they feel
disproportionately impacted by violence. A better understanding of gay
homicide and the design of more effective responses to lethal violence could lead to a
reduction in the severity of violence against GLBT people, and the assurance
that perpetrators will receive certain, severe, and swift punishment for their
crimes. This should lead to a more safe and secure community for everyone.
Researchers at the
Center for Homicide Research set out to investigate this emerging homicide
problem and soon found not only were there few research reports on this
topic, datasets to investigate this question were non-existent. The
following account details components o this research project, with special
emphasis on data collections and usage.
Existing Homicide Datasets and their Shortcomings
There are several widely used datasets publicly available to researchers,
including the Federal Bureau of Investigation's
Uniform Crime
Reports - Supplemental Homicide Reports
and
National
Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Both of these datasets
contain a depth and breadth of information on homicides in the United States
over many decades. These data-sets and others are used to determine trends
in homicide, and develop public policy to address
lethal violence.
Unfortunately, with the exception of a
limited number of variables, it is not possible to identify gay, lesbian,
bisexual or transgender homicides using these existing datasets. Thus,
analysis and public policy development cannot be undertaken.
Need to Develop Comprehensive Information on Homosexual
Homicide
A comprehensive data-set of homicide cases that
involve homosexual, bisexual and transgender victims and offenders, and
cases that involve an element of homosexuality, needs to be developed so that an
accurate census of homosexual homicide incidents can be determined and the
characteristics of these crimes can be catalogued and analyzed.
Several small-scale attempts have been
made over the years to document homosexual homicide cases, but none have
undertaken a systematic, comprehensive, scientific approach to the development
of a database.
What questions are expected to be
answered by this dataset?
While
it is difficult to predict the exact questions individual researchers will ask,
basic questions might include:
In addition, information is being
gathered on offenders involved in multiple homicides and homosexual homicide
cases that occur outside of the United States.
These databases are in the
midterm stages
of development
____________________
About the
FBI's UCR SHR
The Uniform Crime Reports, comprised of six databases, includes crime
information reported to the FBI by law enforcement agencies around the country.
Most of the data consist of the "index" crimes: murder, nonnegligent
manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary,
larceny-theft, motor-vehicle theft and arson.
The Supplemental Homicide Report provides
more detailed information on homicides, including demographic information about
the victim, the offender, and the weapon used. Information in the database
includes age, sex and race information for the offenders and victims, broken
down by each homicide. It also provides the relationship between offenders and
victims, and the circumstances of the crime.
More information available at
www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm
About the
National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
The National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) is an incident-based
reporting system for crimes known to the police. For each crime incident coming
to the attention of law enforcement, a variety of data are collected about the
incident. These data include the nature and types of specific offenses in the
incident, characteristics of the victim(s) and offender(s), types and value of
property stolen and recovered, and characteristics of persons arrested in
connection with a crime incident.
Incident-based data provide an extremely large amount of
information about crime. The information is also organized in complex ways,
reflecting the many different aspects of a crime incident.
More information available at
www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/NIBRS/
