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FusionCharts.
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FusionCharts.
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| Update (1/10/10): Updated through the end of 2009. I have say that I was pretty accurate back on 7/19 when I estimated that we'd be pretty much on target to match 2008. By my method of counting (see below) we actually ended up better than 2008. |
| Update (7/19/09): I haven't been playing as close of attention over the last couple months, too much summer fun for me. Anyway, having caught up the graphs it looks not that different from a couple months ago. Murders are still slightly above last year's rate, but the trailing 12 months number hasn't moved. Right now I'm showing 122 murders for 2009. That's 3 less than Murder Ink and the BPD because they count people whose deaths this year are ruled to have been caused by an injury in a previous year. One of those three was shot in 2008, so I add that murder to the 2008 numbers on my chart. Considering that by my method of counting we had 229 murders in 2008 and we're running at 233 murders trailing 12 months, I think it's very likely we end up within 5% of last year's tally. Not bad at all, considering last year was the best year in decades. |
| Update (5/17/09): After a pretty rough April, we've been having a pretty quiet May. From 21 murders in 30 days April to 6 murders in 16 days (including a complete week without a homicide!) in May. It's really weird how murders can spike and then ebb back in this city. Who knows, perhaps we'll actually get back below the 2008 murder rate later on this year? |
| Notes on my methods: Unlike the FBI (whose standards drive the counting methods employed by the Baltimore City Police, The Baltimore Sun, The City Paper, the Baltimore Crime Blog, etc.), I am counting murders based on the date that the murderous act occurred. This tries to control for prior year acts of violence that are the cause of death in a later year. For practical reasons, the FBI doesn't go back and add a murder to that previous year, they count the homicide when the death occurs. For the sake of trying to track current violence, I'm counting those deaths on as murders on the date that the victim was injured. Therefore, my cumulative murder totals will likely be slightly lower than what you see published elsewhere. |
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