Analysis paints picture of killers, victims

Jo Craven McGinty of The New York Times analyzed homicide records over the past three years to provide a detailed description of New York killers and their victims. From 2003 through 2005, 1,662 murders were committed in New York. With crimes that were solved, men and boys were responsible for 93 percent of the murders. "They killed with guns about two-thirds of the time; their victims tended to be other men and boys; and in more than half the cases, the killer and the victim knew each other." The offender and victim were of the same race in more than three-quarters of the killings. "At least a quarter of the city's murders in these three years, were committed by strangers, and in those instances, most were the result of a dispute. " More than 90 percent of the killers had criminal records; and of those who wound up killed, more than half had them.