The Chicago Police Department’s Detective Division houses a database with information pertaining to murders that occurred in Chicago. The database includes various types of information pertaining
to each murder, including the following:
- The police area and district in which the murder occurred
- Clearances, or resolutions of murder investigations
- The type of geographic location where the victim was found (e.g., on the street, in a residence)
- The time, day, and month of the murder incident and of the victim’s death
- The type of weapon used to commit the murder and, related to this, the method by which the victim was killed
- The motive that precipitated the murder
- Victim demographic information (race, age, sex, and whether the victim had a prior Chicago Police Department arrest record)
- Offender demographic information (race, age, sex, and whether the offender has a prior Chicago Police Department arrest record)
- For each murder incident, the number of offenders involved
Some of this information is initially entered into the database shortly following each murder incident. Additional information pertaining to the incident is periodically added as the Detective Division receives updated information. Because of these updates, the data for this report is only accurate as of the date on which it was extracted. Data for this report was extracted on January 6,
2012. This data was used to examine the characteristics of 2011 murders, and annual murder trends from 1991 to 2011.