Chicago Victims of Homicides Mapped

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The Chicao’s overall crime rate, particularly the violent crime rate, is higher than the United States average. The city was responsible for about half of 2016’s growth in homicides in the United States, though the nation’s crime rates stayed about historic lows as of 2016. Some trace the city’s strong gang culture to the city’s unusually high crime rate compared to neighboring settlements.

Chicago saw significant growth in violent crime beginning in the late 1960s. Murders in the city culminated in 1974, with 970 murders when the city’s population was over 3 million, culminating in a murder rate of about 29 per 100 thousand, and again in 1992, with 943 murders when the city had fewer than 3 million people, culminating in a murder rate of 34 murders per 100 thousand citizens.

After 1992, the murder total steadily declined to 415 murders by the middle-2000s, dropping over 50%. In 2018, in the city were 561 murders.

Below is the map of Chicago victims of homicides and non-fatal shootings created by user supaplex_ using data from the Chicago Data Portal.

All criminal incidents are marked in different colors depending on race (yellow – Black, red – Hispanic, blue – White). Most shootings are gang-related or in gang-infiltrated areas, which tend to be Black/Hispanic. The White shootings are more random.

In 2022, the Chicago Police Department registered the fewest homicides since before the COVID pandemic, but the city’s total for the year still ranks among its highest since the 1990s.

According to the Police Department, there were 695 homicides in the city in 2022. That total scores a double-digit percentage drop over each of the last two years but would remain the 4th most homicides in the city since 1999.

The only years with more homicides during that period were 2021, 2020, and 2016.