The Devil and the Detail: Local Analysis of Homicide for Investigators and Policy Makers

Homicide statistics for England and Wales, conducted by the Home Office and published yearly by ONS, focus mainly on the national picture. It can be argued that, although this is of undoubted importance to national policy makers and of great interest to criminologists, it is often too vague, too general, and too time limited (i.e. comparative analysis only spans a limited period of time) to be of much use to those charged with investigating, reducing and preventing homicide at a more local level. The present paper seeks to demonstrate how a more
localised analysis of homicide, spanning longer periods of time, can help identify patterns and trends that may or may not follow the national picture. The paper concludes by suggesting that by producing a more pertinent local analysis of homicide, investigators and policy makers will have a wider frame within which to make decisions. To illustrate this approach, the analysis of recorded homicide in a large metropolitan area over a 30 year period, is presented.