Do Murders Truly Increase in December?

A common mystery trope is that murders increase in December due to forced family togetherness. It is similar to the Halloween myth that insists that more accidents and murders occur around Halloween, when in fact, Halloween is not any more or less dangerous--in outcomes--than any other time of the year. (I'm reminded of the irritated evil vampires in Buffy who consider Halloween so tacky, they stay indoors.) 

The Halloween myth came about in part due to newsworthy poisonings that occurred on Halloween. In both cases, the death was due to family members adding poison to the candy AFTER the child returned home. So the connection between forced family togetherness and crime could have merit. 

One Thanksgiving, another time of forced family togetherness, my father had to go the emergency room for a cut on his hand. The place was practically deserted. Remarkable, how suddenly everybody was slightly too well not to need emergency care (I did wonder what the day AFTER Thanksgiving was like). As for family togetherness, my dad and Mom and I all went together!

Since personal observations are useful but not enough, I decided to check out the numbers.

Would crime statistics reveal that Christmas is a homicidal time of year? O a relatively safe one? 

According to the Council on Criminal Justice, homicides in 29 U.S. cities in 2023 in December were by no-means low, but July and August were FAR higher. 

I guess it's a lot easier to kill people when one doesn't have to perform the escape plan of putting on the long-johns and snow pants and boots and mittens and ear muffs and a winter jacket...

November is also quite low. So forced family togetherness is not the culprit but isolation or lack of options may be. 

The circled area is homicides in Nov. 2019-Jan. 2020.

Homicides did increase in several cities during lock downs.