Results tagged “murderrate”

This morning, citing police statistics, the Tribune's RedEye reports that the most dangerous time for violent crime - classified as "homicide, criminal sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault and aggravated battery" - in Chicago is between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. The lowest point for those crimes is 7 a.m. The midnight to 4 a.m. time period sees the highest rate of murders. The statistics come with the caveat that there are a host of different factors that contribute to them and - of course - violent crime can happen at any time of the day or night, anywhere.

Between now and Wednesday, we're counting down the top 8 local stories that captivated us in 2008.

A menu of my dinner tonight, by reillyandrew
• Thinking of ordering a "Choose Life" license plate? A federal appeals court ruled the state doesn't have to issue them.
• Two Englewood teens were shot dead thus putting the city past its 2007 murder total.
• The Sun-Times reported a net loss of $168.8 million during the third quarter of 2008 and it looks like more staff cuts are on the way.

In today's "No Shit" story, Chicago's 2008 murder rate is up 18 percent compared to the first seven months of 2007, including a particularly bloody July that saw 62 people killed. From January to July this year, 291 people were murdered while the same time period in 2007 saw 246 murders. While the July tally seems high, it's still below the 66 murders from July 2006, though 2008's year-to-date tally is still higher than 2006's 266 murders.