Chicago Homicide and Non-Fatal Shooting Victims, 1991-Present

Individual-level victimization data from 1991 to the present for homicides and from 2010 for non-fatal shootings, published by the City of Chicago. Each row represents a single victimization event, with records refreshed daily by the Chicago Police Department with an approximately 48-hour lag. The dataset includes demographic, geographic, and incident details for analysis of violent crime patterns.

Use Cases

• Analyzing temporal crime patterns using DATE, HOUR, and MONTH columns.
• Mapping incident locations for spatial analysis using LATITUDE and LONGITUDE columns.
• Profiling victim demographics using AGE, RACE, and ZIP_CODE columns.
• Classifying incident types and severity using INCIDENT_FBI_DESCR, VICTIMIZATION_PRIMARY, and GUNSHOT_INJURY_I columns.
• Correlating incidents with administrative boundaries using WARD, COMMUNITY_AREA, and Police Districts columns.

Strengths

• Long temporal coverage for homicides, spanning from 1991 to the present.
• Includes a specific GUNSHOT_INJURY_I column to identify shooting-related victimizations.
• Refreshed daily with updates as investigations progress, though with a 48-hour lag.
• Contains multiple geographic reference columns (e.g., LATITUDE, LONGITUDE, ZIP_CODE, COMMUNITY_AREA).

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Non-fatal shooting data is only available from 2010, creating a temporal gap compared to homicide data.
• Data may reflect reporting and classification biases inherent to police administrative records.

Provenance

Source

Chicago Police Department, published via data.cityofchicago.org.

Collection Method

Administrative records gathered and updated by the Chicago Police Department as investigations proceed.

Time Range

Homicides: 1991 to present. Non-fatal shootings: 2010 to present.

Freshness

Refreshed daily with an approximately 48-hour lag; last metadata update was 2026-04-03.

Geography

City of Chicago, Illinois, USA.