Comments on: Why we need Law & Order, SVU, Criminal Intent and CSI: New York

Why we need Law & Order, SVU, Criminal Intent and CSI: New York

crossoverman — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:40:19 -0800

Murder: New York City. A map pinpointing murders in the five boroughs of NYC from 2003-09. Broken down by time of day, weapon used, age, sex and ethnicity of both victim and perpetrator. Not surprisingly, in the heat of summer the body count rises.

Investigating homicides - a Q&A series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

By: Lacking Subtlety

Lacking Subtlety — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:46:27 -0800

"Come to Jersey! The magic land where you won't get murdered!" Sheesh. I get the burough only thing but that map makes it look hilarious. Oh yeah, and this is really interesting.

By: Obscure Reference

Obscure Reference — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:51:25 -0800

Glad to see there were none on my block or even a block or so away. I was surprised.

By: Faze

Faze — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:51:49 -0800

61% of the perpetrators were "black" and 61% of the victims were "black". The "white", "hispanic" and "asian" percentages were also almost (but not quite) one to one. I guess this means that people are more or less only murdering people of their own race. Makes ya think.

By: dersins

dersins — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:53:47 -0800

I guess this means that people are more or less only murdering people of their own race. People are more or less only murdering people who they know pretty well.

By: mhum

mhum — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:53:57 -0800

Related: The Philadelphia Inquirer's homicide map.

By: functionequalsform

functionequalsform — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:54:48 -0800

I had four scary little dots next to my place. I ROLL HARD.

By: mhz

mhz — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:55:09 -0800

Four within a five minute walk. What do I win?

By: Faze

Faze — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:00:20 -0800

So this was only a six year period and you've got almost 3,500 murders. Most buildings in NYC ar pretty old. Now what are the odds of your moving into an apartment where someone or other has been murdered sometime since the building was built? It would seem to me to be very likely, but you'd never know about it.

By: davejay

davejay — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:05:29 -0800

Four within a five minute walk. What do I win? Street cred or fear, depending on how you roll.

By: davejay

davejay — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:06:46 -0800

Huh. My mother-in-law's apartment is in a big zone of no-murder, whereas when my wife was growing up there it wasn't safe to walk around the corner.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:09:05 -0800

Questions for NY'ers: I've never explored Brooklyn, why the concentrated area of homocide in the middle surrounded by safer zones on edges? Are there any safe/good parts of Bronx? Is the area east of central park generally homicide free for a reason?

By: jonmc

jonmc — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:12:23 -0800

I love the ones where the motive is given as 'dispute.' When was the last time anyone was killed out of general agreement? Anyways, three within a 10 minute walk.

By: grumblebee

grumblebee — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:19:02 -0800

One right on my block. I didn't know about it until I looked at the map. It saddens me, because the murder-rate is so low in my neighborhood, it's supposedly big news when a murder happens. Yet I never heard about this one, and it happened a few dozen yards from my apartment. The victim was black, killed by another black guy. Ten years ago, a white woman was murdered in my neighborhood. It was huge news.

By: Obscure Reference

Obscure Reference — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:19:43 -0800

I've never explored Brooklyn, why the concentrated area of homocide in the middle surrounded by safer zones on edges? The more desirable parts of Brooklyn tend to be those nearest Manhattan, e.g. Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Williamsburg.

By: grumblebee

grumblebee — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:19:46 -0800

Man! Staten Island sure is boring.

By: Slithy_Tove

Slithy_Tove — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:22:39 -0800

I love the ones where the motive is given as 'dispute.' When was the last time anyone was killed out of general agreement? Sometimes.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:23:39 -0800

If you look at Queens, you'll see four quality Santana starts murdered by the Mets' muffled bats.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:35:05 -0800

The map will be updated as new information becomes available. Damn, that's a pretty awesome commitment. Maps like this need to be publicly accessible—nice work by the NYT infographics department, once again. Related: I really, really dig the interface for their one-in-8-million feature.

By: Salvor Hardin

Salvor Hardin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:39:27 -0800

Huh - this is cool (in a morbid way). I was just looking for something like this for Boston. I found a few sites that seemed to have stalled during takeoff - nothing with an updated database. Anyone know of something like that for other cities like Boston?

By: Flashman

Flashman — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:45:17 -0800

Why we need Law & Order, SVU, Criminal Intent and CSI: New York Because not enough white people are actually being murdered in Midtown Manhattan

By: kathrineg

kathrineg — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:50:52 -0800

"Clinton"...ugh. Is the area east of central park generally homicide free for a reason? The UES, Yorkville, and the environs are full of wealthy people, middle class families, yuppies, and the elderly. Mostly the elderly. Not many clubs, not too much of a party area. That's not scientific, just my observation. I am happy to see that Chelsea and my old neighborhood in Astoria are relatively quite safe from murderers. I would like to see a map like this with non-fatal assaults, though.

By: plastic_animals

plastic_animals — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:54:11 -0800

Nine within a five minute walk of my place in Harlem. That said, it rarely feels like an unsafe neighborhood. stbalbach: The Upper East Side, Manhattan east of Central Park, is wealthy. Very, very wealthy. The murder pattern correlates well with, if not wealth precisely, some measure of financial security (e.g. the vast low murder swaths of Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx are also where home ownership rate is high). The maps would be more useful if there were an overlay for land use and housing density. There are certain areas where there just aren't all that many people at night. The industrial and warehouse areas such as Newtown Creek and Hunts Point empty out at night so you don't have people hanging out, getting drunk and becoming violent.

By: grumblebee

grumblebee — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:07:38 -0800

Civil_Disobedient, thank you so much for the link to one-in-8-million. I'd never heard of it before, and it's fantastic.

By: saladin

saladin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:14:29 -0800

Apparently I live in the knife-death district. I can't wait to email this map to my Mom.

By: lilkeith07

lilkeith07 — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:18:35 -0800

I showed this to my friend who's girlfriend lives in Washington Heights, I said it wasn't the best area and he said "well there's only been one murder since shes lived there.....that's good I guess." Which is weird to think about because we come from a small town in central MA and the last murder I can find for the town we live in is 1867. Its just weird for me to think that there are so many murders in such a small area.

By: ryaninoakland

ryaninoakland — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:40:01 -0800

There's this one for Oakland.

By: signal

signal — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:50:30 -0800

So apparently, Central Park is the safest place in NY?

By: signal

signal — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:55:13 -0800

Or maybe they just don't have the info to geocode in the Park?

By: rodgerd

rodgerd — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:03:08 -0800

homocide Is that where I cockslap someone to death?

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:27:54 -0800

These maps are invaluable. For example, from AskMe a couple years ago: The neighborhood could be better, but it's not bad at all, what with a nice new shopping center and supermarket nearby. Still, I'm worried that, as a college student, I might risk getting broken-in. ... By my count on last year's murder map there were about 8 homocides within a block or two of 16th and Glenwood, which puts it pretty firmly in bad neighborhood territory. I think your break in concern is pretty justified. Nothing illustrates a point about whether or not a neighborhood is dangerous like a cluster of little red dots on the murder map.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:29:10 -0800

Don't forget Baltimore City Paper's Murder Ink, still diligently documenting murders in Baltimore.

By: supermedusa

supermedusa — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:34:09 -0800

Im happy to see that my little section of northwest oakland is relatively quite compared to all the surrounding areas. so basically I am stuck on a little island, in a sea of bad....helps! srsly, I love my neighborhood, the good definitely outweighs the bad, and there has only been one violent fatality on my block in 2009. yeah!!!

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:39:01 -0800

rodgerd: "homocide Is that where I cockslap someone to death?" You see that -- I ain't stepped inside the joint yet and you called me a cocksucker already.

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:39:14 -0800

Civil_Disobedient, thank you so much for the link to one-in-8-million. I'd never heard of it before, and it's fantastic. Wow. Seconding, that is great. Makes you wonder about the impending demise of the Times. If only they could find some way to make excellent stuff like that pay. Maybe they have.

By: ocherdraco

ocherdraco — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:56:54 -0800

Please no one show this to my mother.

By: dammitjim

dammitjim — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:40:28 -0800

Not surprisingly, in the heat of summer the body count rises. "Did you know, Putnam, more people are murdered at ninety-two degrees Fahrenheit than any other temperature? I read an article once – lower temperatures people are easy-going, over ninety-two it's too hot to move but just ninety-two, people get irritable!"

By: any major dude

any major dude — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:56:52 -0800

3 murders within 3 blocks of where I lived in Brooklyn and I never heard of one of them

By: hattifattener

hattifattener — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:58:37 -0800

Faze: I guess this means that people are more or less only murdering people of their own race. Not really. For example, if murder were completely and utterly uncorrelated with race, you'd get the same effect (both the attacker and victim percentages would match the population averages weighted by the distribution of murder locations). Now, AIUI, people do tend to murder people of the same race. But you can't deduce that from the numbers you quoted.

By: WalterMitty

WalterMitty — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:40:06 -0800

I'm having a lot of fun Googling the names of the victims and reading the stories. Well... maybe not fun. But it's interesting, and sometimes a little heartbreaking.

By: bettafish

bettafish — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:18:09 -0800

From the article: Those who were killed — at least 73 women were in 2008 — were almost always murdered by someone they knew — boyfriends, husbands or relatives. Is it just me, or did the Times just coyly sidestep the issue of prostitution, there?

By: tothemoon

tothemoon — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:37:18 -0800

I am also curious about non fatal attacks. I live in Brooklyn in an area where there are thankfully very few of the death dots (I will be renewing my lease!). I read the daily police blotter and there are muggings & assaults with guns in my neighbor which this map does not reflect. Is there any mention if the attacker catalogued by this map intended to kill the victim or if these were attacks were botched robberies etc. gone bad?

By: Dormant Gorilla

Dormant Gorilla — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:10:26 -0800

Nice, big blue cluster right smack on the intersection I'm about to move to. Remind me to buy drugs on a different corner.

By: bukvich

bukvich — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:48:50 -0800

The first time I visited New York city, on the first day I was on a crowded sidewalk in the middle of Manhattan at lunchtime (approximately 5th ave and 50th st) and I walked right by two guys on the sidewalk wrestling, punching, and screaming at one another and all the pedestrians walking by like it was the most normal thing in the world.

By: ymgve

ymgve — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:03:43 -0800

I'm moving to JFK. No murders there.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:46:34 -0800

color me surprised that staten island was lowest per-capita. I had always heard it was a dangerous borough.

By: Ruthless Bunny

Ruthless Bunny — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:23:31 -0800

There's this one for Oakland. Okay, that's really interesting. About 20 years ago I lived in Oakland and the crime has changed completely. Nearly NO drugs, nothing really of note in my old neighborhood. When I lived there I'd have to ask the tranny prostitutes and drug dealers to please take their trade down the street, or at least out of our vestibule. I have to say though, the neighborhoods north of Lake Merritt were lovely, and still are.

By: intelligentless

intelligentless — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:58:46 -0800

Why we need Law & Order, SVU, Criminal Intent and CSI: New York Should be "Why Law & Order, SVU, Criminal Intent and CSI: New York needs New York City" since a lot of their scripts draw inspiration from actual criminal incidents. Kill someone creatively; be famous.

By: Unicorn on the cob

Unicorn on the cob — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:55:56 -0800

Not surprising that more murders happen when it's hot; more violent crimes occur as ambient temperature rises. Nonviolent crimes are apparently unaffected, though.