alex.mullr.net/blog

At the end of 2008, I posted a map of all the teenage homicides in London by collating BBC News articles. This year, it was significantly easier; my Freedom of Information request was returned by the Metropolitan Police’s Performance Information Bureau yesterday, and here’s the map:

View 2009 Teenage Killings in London in a larger map

The total number is down on last year, from 28 to 15. However, where there was only one girl last year, there are three here. The mean age is between 17 and 18 years old, with the average age for the girls being just under two years less.

This is what both sets of points (1st January 2008 to 31st December 2009) together look like:

And both years in central London:

Thanks to the Met for taking the time to dig out this information for me. The title of the report they provided is “Names, Dates and Location of Homicide Victims aged 13-19 between 1st Jan – 31 Dec 2009”, FOI 2010 01 0002688.

(This appeared on BBC News two hours ago. I suppose I’ll have work to do next year too, then.)

Put this map together this afternoon, and it scares me quite a bit. It shows the 25 teenage boys and one girl who have been killed inside the M25 since the beginning of 2008 (I think I got them all).

The Google Map is embedded, so click through if you can’t see it in an RSS reader. It was updated in 2009 with two, bringing it to a total of 28 (using a BBC News article), so it’s now complete.

View Larger Map

What the hell is going on?