As of Nov. 17, the city of Saint Louis has had a trifling number of 173 homicides. This is astonishing increase from previous years, the rate is up more than 30%, compared to earlier years. In 2014 the city experienced 159 homicides, 120 in 2013, 113 in 2012, and 115 homicides in 2011. According to Law Street, St. Louis took number 4 in the top 10 most dangerous cities for this year. In 2013 St. Louis placed third in out of the top ten most dangerous cities.

“I think it’s because people are thinking about politics, and that reminds them of their xenophobia/racism/misogyny and puts them into a mental state of frustration,” said sophomore Aman Chishti..

Motives for murder differ from murder to murder, but the can be categorized under ten motives, those ten being robbery, drugs, fight, unintended victim, unknown, retaliation, argument, other, burglary, and rough sex. According to St. Louis Metro Police Department the leading motive for 2015 murders tend to be an unknown motive, there have been 102 victims of an unknown motive. There have been 22 homicides over an argument. Retaliation and robbery are tied; there have been 16 victims of retaliation and 16 victims of a robbery. And the third leading motive is drugs, there have been 10 victims of a drug fueled homicide.  The six other motives, fight, unintended victim, other, burglary, and rough sex, have had less than 9 victims.

“The motives for murders can change from person to person. That is why people cannot summarize one motive. For example, jealousy and anger are two different emotions that can cause a person to commit such a crime,” said sophomore Lauren Paul on the motives for murder.

Out of the 173 homicides, there are more open than closed cases. There are 116 open incidents and only 57 closed incidents, over 50% of the homicides are not solved, yet. And most will likely remain open cases or go cold. A lot of good information is not given to police on the open incidents because the people who know something or witnessed a crime often do not come forward to the police with their information, for a multitude of reasons. There have been 33 incidents issued, 4 Federal indictments, 3 incidents abated by death, abated by death is when the suspect does not face charges due to their death, and TUA (generic term for illness caused by a single exposure caused by a toxic substance) has 16.

The victim to suspect relationship is very important. Most people know the person that kills them. There are nine victim/suspect relationship categories; acquaintance, boyfriend/girlfriend, ex boyfriend/girlfriend, lover, parent, spouse, ex spouse, stranger, and unknown. The leading relationship between victim and suspect is an unknown relationship, the second is acquaintance, the third being a stranger, and the other six victim and suspect relationships, boyfriend/girlfriend, ex boyfriend/girlfriend, lover, parent, spouse, and ex spouse, have between 0 and 3 victims. Once more, it can be very hard to determine the victim to suspect relationship if there is not enough information available to the police.

The age of victims and perpetrators is also important. The leading age group for both the victims and perpetrators is the age group of 20-29. 92 victims have been in this age group, as well as 21 suspects. The second leading age group is 30-39, with 33 victims and 6 suspects. The third leading age group is 40-49 with 16 victims and 6 suspects. There have been 3 victims within the 0-16 age group, but there are no suspects in that age group.  

The main gender that commits homicides and that are the victims of homicides are males. 145 males have been the victims of homicide so far, compared to 28 women. 107 males are suspected of committing a murder, while 4 females have been suspected of the crime.

“I think men commit more murders than women because, historically, men have been considered familiar providers and have therefore evolved with primal aggressive instincts. Also, because stereotypically, men are expected to be ‘tough’ to fit the image of masculinity, which contributes to their greater degree of violence,” said sophomore Aman Chishti.

“Well, I think gender roles in society ties in with this topic. Common patriarchal values dictate that males must exert dominance,” said Paul on why more men are killed than women.    

Firearms tend to be the weapon of choice for murderers. 166 murders have been committed with a firearm. 2 with a bladed weapon, 1 through strangulation, 1 through bludgeoned weapon, 1 through the use of a vehicle, and 2 through other means.

“Firearms are easily accessible, so individuals can grasp control of their situation very easily. During unexpected situations, you never know what someone could have in their possession, which makes it difficult to stop them,” said Paul on the use of firearms as the main weapon in homicides.

While there is no clear end to when the homicide rate will stop increasing, we can only hope and do all we can as St. Louisans to help prevent the growing crime in our city.