A study of drug abuse and other causes of homicide in New York

Abstract

This study adapted a classification system for homicide and used it to examine the role of illicit drugs and alcohol in homicides. Records in the Office of the Brooklyn District Attorney were reviewed for 722 homicides that occurred in 1991–1993. Records included police reports, eyewitness reports, court documents, and medical examiner reports. The reliability of four independent raters using the classification was very high. There were 221 homicides (29 percent) that were drug-related. Victims in drug-related homicides were more likely than other types of homicides to be male and twenty-five to thirty-four years of age, but there was no difference by race. Of the drug-related homicides, 38 percent was due to the pharmacological effect of a drug, usually cocaine, or alcohol and the rest was due to the business of drug dealing. The role of drug pharmacology was less in this study than in past studies that interviewed prisoners and more than in past studies that used police classification of homicides. This classification system using multiple sources of data in a District Attorney's office provided a clear, unbiased picture of the role of illicit drugs and alcohol in homicide.