Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System 1998

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Chapter 5 Homicide Introduction 5.1 The Home Office Research, Development and <strong>Statistics</strong> Directorate has maintained a Homicide Index for some years. This has details of all offences initially recorded as homicide and of any subsequent court action. Ethnic appearance was added to the data collected on both the victim and suspect from 1 April 1996. Results (Tables 5.1-5.2) 5.2 Due to the small number of homicides recorded each year, the tables included in this publication combine data for both 1996/97 and 1997/98. Figures shown in the table cover those cases currently recorded as homicide (e.g. murder, manslaughter and infanticide) and exclude those cases where the offence has been reclassified following subsequent investigation or a court decision. 5.3 1,227 homicides were recorded in 1996/97 and 1997/98. In the majority of cases (see below) the suspects were known to the victim. The ethnic minority population is not evenly distributed across the country. Thus, most white people live in areas where there are very few ethnic minorities. However because the ethnic minority population comprises only 6% of the total population, in most cases ethnic minorities live in areas where the majority population is white. For this reason, ethnic minorities are more likely to have contact with white people than the reverse. Therefore, it can be expected that a greater proportion of homicide suspects in cases where the victim is from an ethnic minority would be from a different ethnic group to the victim than would be the case where the victim is white. Section 95 5.4 In 1996/97 and 1997/98, the police identified suspects in 1,066 cases of homicide. 82% of victims in these cases were white, 7% were black, 6% Asian and 3% 'other'. About twothirds of the ethnic minority homicide victims were killed by someone from the same ethnic group (Table 5.1). For those homicides where a suspect was identified, the suspect was known to the victim in about two-thirds of cases (Table 5.2). There was a much higher proportion (40%) of homicides with black victims where there was no suspect than for white (10%) or Asian (13%) victims. 5.5 The police identified 8 homicides over this two year period where there was a racial motivation. 4 victims were white, 1 black, 2 Asian and 1 'other' ethnic origin. A suspect was identified in all but one homicide; in this incident the victim was white. 27
Section 95 Table 5.1 Ethnicity of currently recorded homicide victims by ethnicity of principal suspect, (1)(2) combined data for 1996/97 & 1997/98 Ethnicity of Ethnicity of principal suspect Total with Total with Total all victims current no current principal suspect (3) White Black Asian Other Not known suspect White 826 31 21 7 11 896 96 992 92% 3% 2% 1% 1% 100% Black 15 44 1 1 2 63 42 105 24% 70% 1% 1% 3% 100% Asian 19 - 44 4 - 67 10 77 28% - 66% 6% - 100% Other 7 - 1 16 - 24 9 33 29% - 4% 67% - 100% Not known 3 2 - - 11 16 4 20 19% 12% - - 69% 100% Total 870 77 67 28 24 1066 161 1227 82% 7% 6% 3% 2% 100% (1) Those recorded as homicide as at 31 July 1998. (2) A principal suspect is included for each victim, therefore a suspect may appear in the table more than once. (3) Includes 28 cases in which a former principal suspect has been acquitted etc. Table 5.2 Relationship of currently recorded homicide victims to principal suspect (1) combined data for 1996/97 & 1997/98 Relationship of principal Ethnicity of victim suspect to victim White Black Asian Other Not known Total Family 143 14% 10 10% 23 30% 6 18% 5 25% 187 15% Spouse/lover 235 24% 7 7% 12 16% 7 21% 3 15% 264 22% Other known 261 26% 22 21% 15 19% 7 21% 6 30% 311 25% Stranger 257 26% 24 23% 17 22% 4 12% 2 10% 304 25% No suspect 96 10% 42 40% 10 13% 9 27% 4 20% 161 13% Total 992 100% 105 100% 77 100% 33 100% 20 100% 1227 100% (1) Those recorded as homicide as at 31 July 1998. 28
Page 1 and 2: Statistics on Race
Page 4 and 5: Contents Foreword by the Home Secre
Page 6 and 7: Foreword by the Chairman of the Cri
Page 8 and 9: Summary of main findings In 1997/98
Page 10 and 11: Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Section
Page 12 and 13: Chapter 2 Developments in ethnic mo
Page 14 and 15: Racial Incidents 2.14 Information o
Page 16 and 17: Chapter 3 Police and Criminal Evide
Page 18 and 19: Section 95 Table 3.1 Stop and searc
Page 20 and 21: Section 95 Table 3.3 Percentage of
Page 22 and 23: Chapter 4 Arrests and cautions Intr
Page 24 and 25: Section 95 Table 4.1 Total arrests
Page 26 and 27: Section 95 Table 4.3 Proportion of
Page 28 and 29: Section 95 Table 4.5 Arrests,cautio
Page 32 and 33: Chapter 6 Persons supervised by the
Page 34 and 35: Chapter 7 Prisons Introduction 7.1
Page 36 and 37: Section 95 Table 7.3 Prison populat
Page 38 and 39: Chapter 8 Racial incidents Introduc
Page 40 and 41: Chapter 9 Practitioners in the Crim
Page 42 and 43: Appendix A1 Estimated (1) populatio
Page 44 and 45: References Section 95 Phillips and
Page 46: Produced by the Research, Developme

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