With 2018 nearly three-quarters over and Indianapolis creeping closer toward another year of potentially record-breaking murders, we decided to take another look at some of the statistics behind the Circle City’s criminal homicide rate.
As of Monday, Sunday, September 16, Indianapolis has had 109 murders.* That’s a murder every 2.37 days which puts the city on track for at least 153 deaths by the end of the year. The city hit 156 murders in 2017.
- 83-percent of the victims had criminal histories, while 73-percent of the suspects did.
- Seventy-six percent of the murders involved a black victim, even though blacks are less than 30 percent of the population.
- 62 percent of the murders occur on north/northeast side.
- The combined average age of victims is 30. The combined average age of the suspects was 34.
- Forty-eight of the murders were known to motivated by a fight or domestic dispute.
- Eighty percent of the deaths were caused by gunshots.
- In 66 percent of the murder cases, the relationship between the victim and assailant was unknown.
- Nearly half the homicides occurred in January, May, and August.
- Saturday was the day most murders occurred.
- And murders were most likely to occur around 10 p.m.
*This does not count a murder which occurred after Sunday which would officially bring the count to 110. There were 98 murders last year at this time. Indianapolis is 12 murders ahead of last year, which is actually a decrease from earlier this summer when the city was 15 criminal homicides ahead of last year.
