Measuring Violence and Responses to Violence: Paths to Better Data

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

The first papers seek to improve the quality of homicide data in the United States by integrating data from the Supplementary Homicide Reports with health department mortality data, police records, coroner’s records, and other sources. Both discover dramatic nonrandom undercounts in many jurisdictions, particularly for urban African Americans, rural whites, and children. Improved data on motive and circumstance will increase the proportion of homicides attributable to intimate partner violence. The third paper seeks to measure more accurately the degree to which Americans fear crime. The paper re-examines pioneering studies of the response to the 1999 Columbine school shootings and the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and considers the measurement issues in disentangling their potential effects. It considers whether these studies can link changes in fear and avoidance behaviors directly to these events.

Sub Unit

• Area VII. Methodology / 54. Advances in Quantitative Methodology

Individual Presentations

• The Accuracy of Supplementary Homicide Report Rates for Large U.S. Cities - David McDowall, University at Albany, SUNY; Colin Loftin, University at Albany, SUNY; Karise M. Curtis, University at Albany, SUNY

• National Homicide Data Improvement Project, 1959-Present: The Difficulties of Counting Homicides Accurately - Randolph Roth, Ohio State University; Wendy Regoeczi, Cleveland State University; Rania Issa, University of Akron

• Measurement Issues and Violent Episodic Crime: Some Thoughts and Considerations - H. Jaymi Elsass, Texas State University; Jaclyn Schildkraut, State University of New York at Oswego; Mark C. Stafford, Texas State University

Chair

• Lynn Addington, American University