With four months left in 2017, Chicago is on pace to have one of its worst homicide rates on record, according to the HeyJackass! website.
As of Aug. 3, Chicago has seen 418 homicides, 385 of whom were shot to death. The remaining homicides included 18 stabbings, seven trauma-induced deaths (bludgeoning and other violence), four auto-related killings and one homicide each by arson, child abuse, poisoning and strangling.
The victims were primarily male and African-American, at 377 and 336, respectively. Many lived in low-income, predominantly African-American neighborhoods.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel
Anti-violence activist Andrew Holmes pointed to the "self-hatred" of young people who live in a few violence-plagued neighborhoods on Chicago's South and West sides as part of the homicide problem.
“It’s more personal and about more than the easy access to guns,” Holmes told USA Today. “This is driven so much by self-hatred … and because there is an easy access to guns, the first thing they do is go to the gun to settle a feud.”
The HeyJackass website clarified that while all murders are homicides, not all homicides are murders. Homicides can include justifiable homicides, such as those caused by someone acting in self-defense.
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