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24 J. Contemp. Crim. Just. 4 (2008)

handle is hein.journals/jccj24 and id is 1 raw text is: Volume 24t Number 1 Febuary2 008 4-17 CTJ' © 208 Sge Pblicntlions A Comparison of SHR and Vital 117 12585 Statistics Homicide Estimates for U.S. Cities http:,,oiliie.sagepub.com Colin Loftin David McDowall Matthew D. Fetzer State University of New York University at Albany, Differences between homicide estimates for large cities from 1987 through 1991 using the Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) and the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) are reported. Large differences exist between the NVSS and the SHR estimates expressed both as counts and as rates per 100,000 residents. Three major reasons for the differences are identified. First, many cities fail to report the SHR data in some years during the study. Second, in some places the police jurisdiction used in the SHR does not correspond to the boundaries of the city used in the NVSS. Third, the SHR associates victims with the place where the assault occurs, whereas the NVSS associ- ates victims with the place of residence. For many purposes, the NVSS provides more accurate and appropriate measures of homicide victimization than the SHR. However, because the city-level NVSS data are requested by place of residence, they measure a different concept than the SHR, which classifies victims by place of occurrence. Keywords: Supplementary Homicide Report; National Vital Statistics System; homicide; murder; residence rates; occurrence rates B oth the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program and the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) estimate the number of homicide victims for states, counties, and cities in the United States. Reasonable use of these data requires specific infor- mation about the properties of both systems. The purpose of this research is to com- pare estimates of homicide victims from both systems in large U.S. cities to explore the similarities and differences between the systems. We identify three major sources of differences between the systems that present challenges to researchers analyzing the data for cities. Authors' Note: The authors thank James Lynch and Brian Wiersema for thoughtful advice and comments on this research. A version of this article was presented at the 59th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology in Atlanta, Georgia, November 14-17, 2007. Please address correspondence to Colin Loftin, School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY 12222; e-mail: clofin@albany.edu. 4

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