Several studies have shown that homicide rates are linked to economic conditions. Poverty levels or the percent of unemployed people are sometimes used to predict changes in homicide rates. Also, drug use patterns (which also may be related to the economic factors) and the prevalence of handguns have been directly linked to the murder rate. Others have claimed that longer prison sentences, changes in the youth population, and the amount of money available to police departments are responsible for nationwide changes in violent crimes.
Obviously, homicide is a complex problem and these studies and articles may all be partially correct. However, there seems to be no single factor that can fully explain or predict the fluctuations in the homicide rate. In this project, you will examine data containing several of the variables that have been linked to changes in the homicide rate. Because no single factor can explain the complexity in the data, you will use multiple regression to attempt to find an answer.