Title: Homicide in England and Wales 1898 to 2012 | Murder Map
Headings: Homicide in England and Wales 1898 to 2012
Homicide in England and Wales 1898 to 2012
Posted on July 21, 2012
Comments
18 Comments

Content: If you examine the 100 years between 1898 and 1997 you can see how homicide remained pretty steady (apart from spikes in 1942 and 1945) until the 1960s, when it shot upwards. Whereas the population of England and Wales has grown steadily over the last two hundred years (there was no census data for 1941). But what caused that rapid growth in homicides from the 1960s onwards? Was it the state of the economy, the new ‘permissive society’, a breakdown of ‘family values’, or the effect of hard drugs like heroin and cocaine? Or a complicated combination of these factors (and others, such as the way the data is recorded)? And why has that trend reversed? Heavier sentences? Better policing? It has been suggested that the recent decrease is down to a sustained fall in the level of domestic violence, given that around two-thirds of murders are carried out by partners, former partners or family members. There now seems to be less tolerance of violence in society, perhaps driven by media coverage of crime.