CDC's Violent Deaths — National Violent Death Reporting System, 16 States, 2009

[paramedic70002]

Just published. Right off the bat I note:

Legal intervention. A death from legal intervention is a death in which a decedent is killed by a police officer or other peace officer (a person with specified legal authority to use deadly force), including military police, acting in the line of duty.

I call flag on the play, there is statistical evidence that private citizens account for nearly as many lawful homicides as do the police. Instead, we can only assume that lawful homicides are lumped in with:

Homicide. Homicide is defined as a death resulting from the use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against another person, group, or community when a preponderance of evidence indicates that the use of force was intentional.

A subtle way to "cook the books" if you ask me. The assumption being that all homicides not classified as "Legal intervention" are by default criminal in nature.

There are a few other nuggets of info in the report that we might find useful. Like only half of suicides use firearms, and:

TABLE 10. Number and percentage* of homicides/legal intervention deaths, by victim's marital status and relationship to suspect — National Violent Death Reporting System, 16 states,† 2009

Characteristic No. (%)

Marital status§

Married 834 (22.8)

Never married 1,985 (54.3)

Widowed 125 (3.4)

Divorced 528 (14.4)

Married, but separated 14 (0.4)

Single, not specified 34 (0.9)

Unknown 136 (3.7)

Total 3,656 (100.0)

Relationship

Spouse/Partner (current or former) 417 (10.3)

Parent 86 (2.1)

Child 116 (2.9)

Other intimate partner involvement 37 (0.9)

Other relative 117 (2.9)

Acquaintance/Friend 412 (10.2)

Rival gang member 32 (0.8)

Stranger 185 (4.6)

Victim injured by a LEO 137 (3.4)

Other specified relationship 321 (7.9)

Relationship unknown/Missing 2197 (54.2)

Total 4,057 (100.0)

Surveillance for Violent Deaths — National Violent Death Reporting System, 16 States, 2009

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[DoctorBob]

Another recent report showed that justifiable homicides were up and total violent crime was down. Some would say that was the exected relationship. The interesting thing is that justifiable homicides committed by LEOs was up by the same amount that justifiable homicide increased my non-LEOs.

Clearly, one has to be careful NOT to attribute causation to correlational data. A lot of people don't understand this and it needs to be engraved on any tablet discussing survey data. E.g. there is a correlation between Vitamin D levels and skin cancer; but one does not cause the other. They are both caused by another factor all together: sun exposure.

[gasmitty]

Another category which requires interpretation is the "acquaintance/friend" one. A drug deal gone bad and someone gets killed may fall into this 'bucket' if the combatants 'knew' each other... one can't assume it's just one golf buddy killing another. There's a practical limit to how many 'relationship' categories can be defined, and I'd say 11 is already enough. The problem arises when some AP newswriter comes up with "10.2% of gun murders occur between friends" or similar misinterpretation to sell gun control.

[mlr1m]

The following is the standard definition of homicide.

The killing of one human being by another human being.

It is total deception on the part of this agency to make up new meaning for the word.

Michael

[ccw9mm]

The following is the standard definition of homicide.

The killing of one human being by another human being.

It is total deception on the part of this agency to make up new meaning for the word.

And it should be divided, IMO, into two basic subcategories: Criminal killing of another; and, Non-Criminal killing of another (by whomever had lawful justification to do so, irrespective of who's paying the bills). As Para points out, the slanted definition doesn't include a good number of justifiable homicides, leaving any meaningful analysis of lawful homicides at the hands of citizens incapable of being done.

Wonderful tools, statistics.

[mlr1m]

And it should be divided, IMO, into two basic subcategories: Criminal killing of another; and, Non-Criminal killing of another (by whomever had lawful justification to do so, irrespective of who's paying the bills). As Para points out, the slanted definition doesn't include a good number of justifiable homicides, leaving any meaningful analysis of lawful homicides at the hands of citizens incapable of being done.

Wonderful tools, statistics.

This was my point. There was no reason to make up a new meaning for homicide the way they did. All they needed to do was use current language regarding justifiable homicide. The reason they did not do this was that it would prevent them from padding their stats. Normally when some agency tries to change the common language there is a reason for it.

Michael

[pgrass101]

Homicide from Latin: homicidium, Latin: homo human being + Latin: to kill. Generally refering to one human killing another

[SmokinFool]

"Homicide is defined as a death resulting from the use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against another person, group, or community when a preponderance of evidence indicates that the use of force was intentional."

So if someone threatens someone else and the second person ends up dead, that means the one who threatened is responsible, regardless of who actually did the killing??? Really???

[Caertaker]

I'll go out on a limb here and say that I do not share this group's goal: "of preventing violent deaths". Violence does not need to be prevented, it needs to be directed back at those who employ it illegally. I do not think that justifiable homicide is a bad thing, quite the contrary I celebrate everytime a law-abiding citizen is able to continue their lives by exercising their right of self-protection. I'm not rushing to shoot anyone and hope it never comes to that but as others have said: hope is not a strategy. You can study and classify homocides until you're blue in the face and at the end of it all there will still be an element in society willing to unlawfully exert lethal force to get what they want. The best, most cost efficient, way of dealing with these miscreants is at the point of attack.