In article ,
msnyder{at}redhat.com says...
>
> Mark Borgerson wrote:
> > In article ,
>
> > > They picked them because they COULD obtain a very large
> > > and very representative sample from them.  It wasn't a few
> > > dozen -- it was a significant fraction of *all* of the large urban
> > > counties in the US, and "large" doesn't mean
"bigger than a
> million".
> > >
> >
> > A large sample---yes.  Representative of the whole US?   I doubt it,
> > or they would have said so.
>
> They did say so, Mark:
>
>     The sample was drawn from State prosecutor files in 33 of the
>     75 [most populous counties in the U.S.].  The counties were
>     widely scattered, from Los Angeles and San Diego, Denver and
>     Dallas, to Philadelphia and Dade County (Miami).  [...] The 75
>     counties are where a little over half of all murders in the
>     nation occur.
>
> The sample, therefore is representative of a little over half
> of all murders in the U.S.
>

Yes,  but they represent the half that occurs in a specific
demographic data set---large counties with populations
greater than about 500,000.   The DOJ acknowledges that
the patterns of homicide are different between large cities
and smaller cities, suburban and rural areas:


This report from the DOJ says :
" Intimate homicides (spouses, ex-spouses, boyfriends, and girlfriends)
made up a larger percentage of murders in rural areas than in suburban
or urban areas"


http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/city.htm

Since murders in rural and suburban areas are more likely to involve
intimates and family members,  I think that my hypothesis that
the spousal murder statistics for the 75 largest counties may not
be representative of the statistics for rural and suburban areas
is supported.


You might also find it interesting that murder by poison (more common
among women offenders) represents a disproportionately large percentage
of murders in suburban and rural areas.  (See the DOJ report cited
above).   That would indicate to me that murder of men by women
might actually be more common in suburban and rural areas  than is
the case in the large cities.


Mark Borgerson







>


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