Examining long-term relationships between lethal and non-lethal violence, and socio-political processes in the UK 1977-2022

• In Event: Exploring the Long-term Relationships Between Homicide, Politics, and the Environment.

Abstract

This paper presents findings from a new study seeking to understand the drivers of homicide trends in England and Wales over the last forty-five years (1977-2022). Drawing on over-time exploratory analysis it will disaggregate the data by homicide subtypes (drawing on the Homicide Index) and compare these cleavages with over-time patterns of non-lethal violence (utilizing the Crime Survey for England and Wales). This study presents a unique opportunity to develop ‘real world’ knowledge to assess if the homicide rate in England and Wales has fallen consistently across socio-demographic sub-groups; whether patterns in circumstantial characteristics of homicides have changed over time and which factors have driven recent homicide trends up, and how these patterns interact with other long-term social, economic and cultural processes.

The study is part of a larger Economic and Social Research Council Secondary Data Analysis Initiative (ESRC SDAI) funded project examining “Contemporary Long-Term Homicide Trends in England and Wales in the Period 1977-2019 and a Comparison with Non-Lethal Violence Trends”.

Authors

• Stephen Daniel Farrall, University of Nottingham

• Andromachi Tseloni, Nottingham Trent University, UK

• Emily Gray, University of Warwick