Multiple datasets related to Houston Police Department Crime Stats

As a contribution to nationwide efforts to more thoroughly understand urban violence, this study was conducted to assess the impact of cultural dynamics on homicide rates in Houston, Texas, and to profile homicides in the city from 1985 to 1994. This data collection provides the results of quantitative analysis of data collected from all Houston homicide cases recorded in the police murder logs for 1985-1994. Variables describe the homicide circumstances, the victim-offender relationship, the type of weapon used, and any drug- or gang-related activity involved. Other variables include the year and month in which the homicide occurred, whether the homicide occurred on a weekday or over the weekend, the motive of the homicide, whether the homicide was drug-related, whether the case was cleared by police at time of data entry, weapon type and means of killing, the relationship between the victim and the offender, whether a firearm was the homicide method, whether it was a multiple victim incident or multiple offender incident, whether the victim or the offender was younger than age 15, and the inter-racial relationship between the victim and the offender. Demographic variables include age, sex, and race of the victim as well as the offender.

In 2023, an estimated 1,21,467 violent crimes occurred in the United States. This is a decrease from the year before, when 1,256,671 violent crimes were reported. Violent crime in the United States The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that violent crime fell nationwide in the period from 1990 to 2023. Violent crime was at a height of 1.93 million crimes in 1992, but has since reached a low of 1.15 million violent crimes in 2014. When conducting crime reporting, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program considered murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault to be violent crimes, because they are offenses which involve force or threat of violence. In 2023, there were 19,252 reported murder and nonnegligent manslaughter cases in the United States. California ranked first on a list of U.S. states by number of murders, followed by Texas, and Florida.The greatest number of murders were committed by murderers of unknown relationship to their victim. “Girlfriend” was the fourth most common relationship of victim to offender in 2023, with a reported 568 partners murdering their girlfriends that year, while the sixth most common was “wife.” In addition, seven people were murdered by their employees and 12 people were murdered by their employers. The most used murder weapon in 2023 was the handgun, which was used in 7,1 murders that year. According to the FBI, firearms (of all types) were used in more than half of the nation’s murders. The total number of firearms manufactured in the U.S. annually has reached over 13 million units.

In 2020, Memphis, TN-MS-AR reported 1,358.8 violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants, the most out of any metro area in the United States. Monroe, LA followed closely behind, with a violent crime rate of 1,308.5 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants.

Households and establishments in seven neighborhoods in Houston, Texas, and Newark, New Jersey, were surveyed to determine the extent of victimization experiences and crime prevention measures in these areas. Citizens' attitudes toward the police were also examined. Baseline data were collected to determine residents' perceptions of crime, victimization experiences, crime-avoidance behavior, and level of satisfaction with the quality of life in their neighborhoods (Parts 1 and 3). Follow-up surveys were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of experimental police programs designed to reduce the fear of crime within the communities. These results are presented in Parts 2 and 4. In Part 5, questions similar to those in the baseline survey were posed to two groups of victims who reported crimes to the police. One group had received a follow-up call to provide the victim with information, assistance, and reassurance that someone cared, and the other was a control group of victims that had not received a follow-up call. Part 6 contains data from a newsletter experiment conducted by the police departments after the baseline data were gathered, in one area each of Houston and Newark. Two versions of an anti-crime newsletter were mailed to respondents to the baseline survey and also to nonrespondents living in the area. These groups were then interviewed, along with control groups of baseline respondents and nonrespondents who might have seen the newsletter but were not selected for the mailing. Demographic data collected include age, sex, race, education and employment.

This study surveyed immigrant and non-immigrant populations residing in high Latino population communities in order to: Assess the nature and pattern of bias motivated victimization. Explore the co-occurrence of bias motivated victimization with other forms of victimization. Measure reporting and help-seeking behaviors of individuals who experience bias motivated victimization. Identify cultural factors which may contribute to the risk of bias victimization. Evaluate the effect of bias victimization on negative psychosocial outcomes relative to other forms of victimization. The study's sample was a community sample of 910 respondents which included male and female Latino adults across three metropolitan areas within the conterminous United States. These respondents completed the survey in one of two ways. One set of respondents completed the survey on a tablet with the help of the research team, while the other group self-administered the survey on their own mobile device. The method used to complete the survey was randomly selected. A third option (paper and pencil with an administrator) was initially included but was removed early in the survey's deployment. The survey was administered from May 2018 to March 2019 in the respondent's preferred language (English or Spanish). This collection contains 1,620 variables, and includes derived variables for several scales used in the questionnaire. Bias victimization measures considered both hate crimes (e.g. physical assault) and non-criminal bias events (e.g. racial slurs) and allowed the respondent to report multiple incidents, perpetrators, and types of bias victimization. The respondents were asked about their help-seeking and reporting behaviors for the experience of bias victimization they considered to be the most severe and the measures considered both formal (e.g. contacting the police) and informal (e.g. communicating with family) help-seeking behaviors. The victimization scale measured exposure to traumatic events (e.g. witnessing a murder) as well as experiences of victimization (e.g. physical assault). Acculturation and enculturation scales measured topics such as the respondent's use of Spanish and English and their consumption of media in both languages. The variables pertaining to acculturative stress considered factors such as feelings of social isolation, experiences of racism, and conflict with family members. The variables for mental health outcomes measured symptoms of anger, anxiety, depression, and disassociation.