The FBI Uniform Crime Report

The FBI recently released it's Uniform Crime Report for 2003. This report is very dense and is broken down into great detail. It has a break down of crime in the US by metropolitan area, by city size, as well as murder circumstances by age, weapon, sex and race. The report also includes a special analysis on violence among family members and intimate partners.

The Death Penalty Information Center site provides a link to several tables on Deterrence and the death penalty.

According to the report - states without the death penalty had lower homicide rates over the past decade.

Some studies have shown that the death penalty actually increases the number of murders. A recent study in California has shown that the average, annual increase in homicides was twice as high in years in which the death penalty was carried out than in years where no one was executed.

Studies compared blocks of time with bimonthly executions (1958-1967) to periods of no executions (1968-1991). The study found that on average, homicides increased in the month following an execution. The study doesn’t point out what other circumstances were surrounding the different periods profiled; nonetheless it’s a pretty interesting result.

Posted by sally at 10:25 PM