I was doing some research on murder in the United States, focusing primarily on the sex of the killer. Below was the data I was able to uncover.
I'm not sure why the murder data on Florida was excluded from the Wall Street Journal Murder Database. Perhaps they wouldn't share the information. I suspect that it would add significantly to the total number of murders, but probably wouldn't substantially change the mix of murders by men versus by women.
So here are some thoughts on the subject:
- The states, via capital punishment, kill very few people. 98% of those on death row are men, undoubtedly owing to the fact that the most heinous and violent crimes are committed primarily by men.
- Women commit about 10% of the murders, men commit 90%. For writing purposes, although it is sometimes interesting to create female killers, they are relatively uncommon in the real world.
- Men are four times more likely to take their own lives than women. This was something I didn't realize.
I then checked one final statistic -- the number of abortions in 2010 according to the CDC. The total was a staggering 765,651!
If you consider abortion murder, which I do, it turns all the above data upside down. Not only is abortion, by an order of magnitude, the largest source of killing in the United States (owing, undoubtedly, to the fact that it is legal and readily available), but it is committed exclusively by the supposedly "less violent" sex -- women. Note: I didn't find any statistics on abortions by the sex of the medical practitioner carrying out the "procedure," although that would also be interesting.
All sobering information, and good data for both contemplation as well as source material for writing.
