Homicide Victims in the United States, 1976-2019

Graph of the Week

This week’s graph illustrates the number of male and female homicide victims in the United States (U.S.) from 1976 to 2019.

Key Points

• Between 1976 to 2019, men were 77% of homicide victims in the U.S.

• Roughly 603,806 men and 181,200 women were victims of homicide in the U.S. between 1976 and 2019.

• Numbers of victims shown in the graph¹ are likely underestimated due to the way that homicide data are gathered and reported.

Sources:

Fox JA, Zawitz MW. Homicide trends in the United States. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Crime in the U.S. FBI. Accessed December 14, 2024.

---

Related Content at The Nuzzo Letter

Australia Homicide Victims and Offenders

Male Suicide in the United States

Male and Female Life Expectancy in the United States

---

SUPPORT THE NUZZO LETTER

If you appreciated this content, please consider supporting The Nuzzo Letter with a one-time or recurring donation. Your support is greatly appreciated. It helps me to continue to work on independent research projects and fight for my evidence-based discourse. To donate, click the DonorBox logo. In two simple steps, you can donate using ApplePay, PayPal, or another service. Thank you!

---

If you prefer to donate to a specific project, please see the Go Fund Me page for my current research on sex differences in muscle strength in children.

Announcing a funding drive for research into childhood sex differences in muscle strength

---

1. The data labelled “Department of Justice report” came from a single report, which presented homicide data from 1976 to 2005. According to the report’s authors, the data came from the FBI. On the FBI’s “Crime in the U.S.” website, data are available in individual reports and spreadsheets for 1995 to 2019. However, numbers of homicides reported by the FBI on this website for the years 1995 to 2005 differ from the numbers of homicides reported by the Department of Justice for those same years in their report. Thus, in the above graph, although the data from 1975-2005 also apparently came from the FBI, I have used the descriptor “Department of Justice report” to indicate that the data between 1975-2005 came from a single publication, whereas the data between 2006-2019 came from individual FBI spreadsheets. In general, between 1995-2005, numbers of homicides reported by the Department of Justice in their report were 1,000 to 3,000 more than reported by the FBI in their spreadsheets for the same years.