_____________________
New
Partnership Expands GLBT Homicide Research into Washington DC
A landmark collaboration is underway
involving unsolved homicide of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
victims in Washington DC. This project will give CHR researchers unique
access to police records involving unsolved GLBT homicides in our nation’s
capital city. A major goal of the study is to develop new strategies for law
enforcement to increase their clearance and solvability rate of homicide
cases.
The Center is providing several components including the methodology design,
training and analysis. The Metropolitan Washington DC Police Department (MPD)
Major Case/Cold Case Unit will identify homicides and provide case files, as
well as office space and direct supervision of the data processors.
Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia is providing graduate students
in forensic psychology to analyze and code the cases as volunteers.
Approximately 125 unsolved GLBT cold case homicides have been identified by
MPD detectives for inclusion in this project.
(more)
[Top]
Church
Shootings Are Subject of Original Research
Two CHR research interns have developed
first-of-its-kind data on 140 shootings occurring in churches from
1980-2005. This data has the potential to provide insight into the nature of
hate crimes in churches and mass killings. Research interns Amy Kielmeyer
(University of North Dakota) and Derek Bixby, B.A. (University of Minnesota)
conducted the research and developed the data. The dataset is currently
ready to be submitted to the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and
Social Research based at the University of Michigan and is being prepared
for presentation at various national conferences.
[Top]
Preventing
Homicide to be Topic at Minnesota Social Service Expo
At the annual conference of the Minnesota
Society Service Association, Center for Homicide Research staff will outline
the scope and nature of the homicide problem in urban and rural settings,
how it relates to social service issues, along with possible solutions.
Using ArcGIS crime-mapping, presenters will contrast gay, lesbian, bisexual
and transgender homicide; intimate partner homicide; and drug and gang
homicide. Information will also be presented on the development and growth
of the Center which once focused exclusively on gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender homicide, but is now the only homicide research center in the
United States. Presenters include Wallace Swan, DPA, CHR Board Member
and Dallas S. Drake, CHR Principal Researcher.
The conference will be held at the Sheraton
Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota from March 25 to 28. The Center's
presentation was Thursday, March 27.
For more info about the conference, visit the
MSSA website.
[Top]
Center to
Participate in Children's Theatre Production of
The Laramie Project
The
homicide of Matthew Shepard, a
21-year-old gay college student from Laramie, Wyoming, was the inspiration
for the award-winning play by Moises Kaufman, The Laramie Project.
A staging of this play by the Children's Theatre's Senior Company Class will
offer students, young people and community members the opportunity to
explore issues of homophobia, hate crime and social justice.
The Center for Homicide Research will
participate in a post-performance "talk back" session on Thursday, March 13.
CHR Principal Researcher Dallas Drake will participate in this forum as well
as provide resources and materials for patrons.
More information about this performance and
the "talk back" sessions are available through the
Children's
Theatre's Education Department.
[Top]
Minneapolis-St. Paul Minnesota Historical Homicides
Become Focus of Special Project
A new research initiative being
undertaken at the Center for Homicide is showing that these perceptions are
not correct. The number and locations of homicide incidents in the
metropolitan area have changed over time, moved, and affected different
populations and ethnic/racial communities over time. These findings are in
stark contrast to widely held beliefs about homicide in the area. This
special project aims to catalogue and analyze nearly four decades of
homicide information using Minnesota Department of Health data, law
enforcement resources, media archives and historical documents. Student
interns and service learners from several area colleges and universities are
involved in this effort.
Detailed homicide case
files from the mid-1980s to the present have been developed. Archival
information from the 1960’s and 1970s are being evaluated and interpreted.
One aspect of this project is the use of Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) tools to map these data over time to show the movement over time of
these homicide incidents, as well as the characteristics of these crimes.
[Top]
Principal
Researcher Honored
as 2007 Pride Grand Marshal
Principal Researcher Dallas Drake has been
chosen as the 2007 Grand Marshal for the Twin Cities Pride Festival.
Grand Marshall is the highest award given as part of the celebration and
honors leaders in the community for their efforts and accomplishments.
According to the selection committee, Drake's
current leadership in his efforts to understand and prevent GLBT homicide
make him especially qualified to be this year’s Grand Marshal. Drake
co-founded in 1999 the Center for Homicide Research and serves as the
Center’s principal researcher. He is considered to be one of the
nation’s leading expert on GLBT homicide and lethal violence. He has worked
with state and local law enforcement, the FBI, joint homicide task forces,
several homicide investigators and concerned citizens to assist with active
investigations or “cold cases.”
Drake has been an active leader in the GLBT
community for over 20 years and has just recently been cited by “Who’s Who
in America 2007.” In the late 1980’s Mr. Drake was pivotal in the early AIDS
and GLBT-awareness and activism movements in Minnesota and helped organize and fund public visibility campaigns,
demonstrations and media. Drake also volunteered extensively in the
community as an AIDS Community Educator with the Red Cross, serving meals to
homeless men and women at St. Stephen’s Catholic Church, training as a
witness for Non-Violence in Northern Wisconsin, serving on an anti-violence
task force with the Gay & Lesbian Community Action Council, now known as
OutFront Minnesota and acting as a search volunteer for Katie Poirer in
Moose Lake.
Dallas Drake said, “I am pleased to be
selected as the 2007 Pride Grand Marshal. This is an acknowledgement, not
only of my personal accomplishments and commitment to human rights, but
symbolic of the work we all do to further the cause of justice and fairness.
Many LGBT people, many who may never be recognized for their role and
contribution, are working tirelessly to make our community better for
everyone. We should reach out and thank and support each and every one of
them for their work. I would like to thank Twin Cities Pride for the honor
of being selected as Grand Marshal.”
The Twin Cities Pride Festival has grown
dramatically over the recent years to become the third largest GLBT festival
in the nation in 2006. An estimated 310,000 people attended the Festival in
2006, and 125,000 people attended the parade, for a weekend total of
435,000.
[Top]
Center to
Host 2007 Conference of
Homicide Researchers
The Center for Homicide Research hosted the 2007 annual meeting of the Homicide
Research Working Group (HRWG). The June 2007 meeting brought ogether some of
the most well-respected and innovative professionals in the fields of
research, law enforcement, and prevention. This will be the first time that
the conference will be held in the Twin Cities.
HRWG is an interdisciplinary group of
researchers, educators, law enforcement professionals, and criminologists
that address the issues related to lethal and non-lethal violence through
homicide research, dataset development, and intervention programs. HRWG
members represent some the most well respected law enforcement agencies,
organizations and academic institutions in the United States, Canada, Europe
and elsewhere.
One of the presentations of the conference
was on the Center for Homicide Research’s database containing
information and data on over 3,000 GLBT homicides in the United States since
1969. Original research, methodologies and findings from CHR efforts were
a key component of the meeting.
The 2007 HRWG Annual Meeting was held on
Thursday, June 7 through Sunday, June 10, 2007 in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
For more information, visit the HRWG website:
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/HRWG/
[Top]
The 2007 National Summit on Homicide Prevention and Investigation
Are the streets in your
community safe at night? Chances are, they aren't as safe as they have been
in past years. Homicide rates have significantly increased in the past five
years. In fact, the latest reports from the FBI show an overall jump in
murder and non-negligent manslaughter of 4.1%. Small and medium cities in
the United States have been especially vulnerable to the upsurge, as
homicide and its precursors continue to spread out from major urban areas.
In order to address the recent jump in the
commission of homicides, The Performance Institute is hosting the 2007
National Summit on Homicide Prevention and Investigation. This summit will
arm you with expert tips, proven best practices and sound implementation
strategies for reducing the number of homicides in your jurisdiction. This
summit promises to be a valuable forum for exchanging strategies and best
practices from the nation's leading experts in law enforcement.
Space is limited, so please register today at
www.PerformanceWeb.org/Homicide or
at 703-894-0481.
[Top]
Center
Researcher Trains Homicide and Death Investigators
Center for Homicide Research’s Principal
Researcher Dallas Drake recently presented on homicide in the GLBT community at the 13th Annual Homicide
Conference. More than 80 law enforcement professionals and homicide
investigators attended Drake's four-hour lecture and discussion to identify,
understand and investigate homicides involving gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender offenders and victims.
This presentation is part of the Center's
efforts to assist and education law enforcement and criminal justice
professionals on issues related to homicides involving GLBT people. In
addition to conference presentation such as this, Drake is also available to
provide individualized training and workshops for
specific agencies and to provide confidential consultations on active
and cold cases.
Drake's seminar was part of a three-day conference
entitled “Confronting the Specter of Murder: Tips. Tools. Techniques.” More
than 120 professionals attended the conference. This regional training
was presented by the Northeast Wisconsin Technical College and drew
attendees from across the United States and Canada.
[Top]
Center Wins
Award
The Center recently received a prestigious
award for its work in preventing and understanding GLBT homicide. In
June, the Center was awarded a 2006 PRIDE Award given annually by
Lavender, Minnesota’s GLBT Magazine. The PRIDE Awards are named for the
acronym “People Rallying Individuality, Diversity, and Equality.
The editors of Lavender noted that
“…perhaps CHR’s most important focus isn’t on the grisly details of past
crimes, but on a hopeful future—specifically the prevention of gay
homicide.”
Lavender is an award-winning, free biweekly
magazine with features on local and national news, politics, travel, arts
and entertainment, nightlife and cuisine. Lavender is distributed across the
Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, as well as across the Midwest.
Read the article
here.
[Top]
