ST. LOUIS — Suspects in ºüÀêÊÓƵ-area homicide cases studied by a criminology team were 31 years old on average, an age that “shocked†Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, given that many anti-violence efforts are aimed at teens and young adults.
That was part of a flurry of statistics released Monday on the opening day of a weeklong conference aimed at crafting a regional strategy to reduce the number of murders and other violent crime here.
“That was eye-opening for me,†Jones told reporters after the initial session, held on the Washington University School of Medicine campus.
“A lot of our interventions were focused toward youth,†she said. “And so knowing that this is sort of the profile, so to speak, that we can change our interactions and change our intentions.â€
ºüÀêÊÓƵ does have some programs without a specific youth focus, Jones said.
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Thomas Abt, who heads the Violence Reduction Center at the University of Maryland, said that surprise isn’t unusual. The age of suspects in Boston and Knoxville, Tennessee — two other metro areas the center has worked with over the past year — averaged 29 and 27, respectively.
The study, which found the average age of ºüÀêÊÓƵ-area homicide victims also was 31, was conducted by researchers from the National Network of Safe Communities affiliated with the John Jay School of Criminal Justice in New York.
The study here was of 135 homicide incidents in ºüÀêÊÓƵ from September 2022 to June of this year, 63 in ºüÀêÊÓƵ County from January 2022 to June of this year and 14 in East ºüÀêÊÓƵ from January 2022 to June of this year.
They interviewed officers with the ºüÀêÊÓƵ, ºüÀêÊÓƵ County and East ºüÀêÊÓƵ police departments to review the cases one by one, asking who was involved, what happened, why it happened and what might happen next.
Alexis Acevedo, one of the researchers, said in metro areas with sustained high levels of violence, such as the ºüÀêÊÓƵ area, suspects are often older on average than one might think.
The study also showed that 90% of the homicide cases involved a firearm and that most suspects and victims in ºüÀêÊÓƵ and ºüÀêÊÓƵ County had previously been arrested — 84% of suspects and 71% of victims.
Nearly a third of each group had been convicted of a felony. East ºüÀêÊÓƵ wasn’t included in that part of the study.
“A lot of this violence is retaliatory,†said Talib Hudson, another researcher. “Today’s victim can be tomorrow’s perpetrator and vice versa.â€
Many of the suspects and victims know each other, the study found.
“We’re really talking about a manageable, smaller number of people who are networked, who are linked, who are known and can be known, and who are often engaged in violence with each other,†Hudson said.
Because of that, he said, it’s possible to focus law enforcement and other strategies on such groups.
Abt said a strategy should be aimed at “meeting them where they’re at†and “helping them address a lifetime of trauma†but also punish those who persistently engage in violent behavior “with swift and certain sanctions.â€
The study also showed that 86% of suspects and 80% of victims in ºüÀêÊÓƵ and ºüÀêÊÓƵ County were men and that 92% of suspects and 86% of victims were Black.
Lee Slocum, a criminology professor at the University of Missouri-ºüÀêÊÓƵ, said while homicide rates in the city and the metro area have fallen since the height of the pandemic in 2020, they are still significantly above the national rate.
Among others who spoke at the opening session were ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Executive Sam Page, St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann and St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern.
Others among the 150 or so people on hand were police, prosecutors, academics and officials with business groups and social service organizations. The meetings were organized by the East-West Gateway Council of Governments, a regional planning organization.