This research involved the exploration of how the geographies of different crimes intersect with the geographies of social, economic, and demographic characteristics in Nashville, Tennessee, Portland, Oregon, and Tucson, Arizona. Violent crime data were collected from all three cities for the years 1998 through 2002. The data were geo-coded and then aggregated to block groups and census tracts. The data include variables on 28 different crimes, numerous demographic variables taken from the 2000 Census, and several land use variables.

In 2023, the rate of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter in the United States was at 5.7 cases per 100,000 of the population. This is a decrease from the previous year, when the murder and nonnegligent manslaughter rate stood at 6.5 per 100,000 of the population. However, due to the FBI's transition to a new crime reporting system, only not all law enforcement agencies submitted crime data to the FBI for 2023. As a result, figures may not accurately reflect the rate of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter in the U.S. in this year.