Victims
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33
34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67
68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84
85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101
102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115
Males are more likely to be victims of homicide than females, and they
are even more likely to be killed by firearms. In 1999, male victims accounted
for 83 percent of firearm-related homicides and 64 percent of other homicides.
9 The male firearm-related homicide victimization rate was 6.71 deaths
per 100,000, compared with a female rate of 1.35 (Bureau of Justice Statistics,
2002a, 2002b). From 1981 to 1999, trends in firearm-related homicides
of males seem to explain much of the trends in the total homicide rate.
Young adults and adolescents are disproportionately victimized by firearm-
related homicide. The rise and decline of the firearm-related homicide
rate beginning in the mid-1980s was largely confined to the young adult
and adolescent males (Wintemute, 2000). From 1981 to 1999, 20- to 24-
year-olds were most likely to be victims of homicide, especially by firearms,
but victimization rates among 15- to 19-year-olds rose and fell more dra-
1976 1979 1982 1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 2000
Rate per 100,000
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Total
Handguns
Knives
Other Firearms
Other Weapons
Unknown
FIGURE 3-2 Murder rates by weapon type.
SOURCES: Fox (2001); U.S. Department of Justice (2001); U.S. Census Bureau
(2001a, 2001b, 2002).
9SHR data for 1999 are nearly identical for male involvement in firearm- and nonfirearmrelated
murder at 83 and 62 percent, respectively (calculated from Fox, 2001).
matically than other age groups between 1985 and 1999. Adolescent victimization
rates surpassed the rates for those 25 and older by 1990 and did
not fall back below the rate for persons in their late 20s until 1998.
Blacks have been at high risk of victimization by firearm-related homicide.
Figure 3-3 indicates that in 1999, for example, non-Hispanic blacks
accounted for 51 percent of the firearm-related homicide victims, while
representing only 13 percent of the total population (Bureau of Justice
Statistics, 2002a). The firearm-related homicide victimization rate was
16.64 per 100,000 for non-Hispanic blacks, 6.19 for Hispanics, 1.53 for
non-Hispanic whites, and 2.60 for other races. Blacks were also disproportionately
affected by the rise and fall of firearm homicides in the 1980s and
1990s.10
10Race is presented in the figure regardless of Hispanic ethnicity, since Hispanic ethnicity is
not available in the Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS)
prior to 1990.
1981 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999
Rate per 100,000
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Blacks
Whites
Other
FIGURE 3-3 Firearm-related murder victimization rates by race, 1981-1999.
SOURCE: National Vital Statistics System data compiled using Web-based Injury
Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS). National Center for Health
Statistics (2002).