Drugs, economy: roots of homicide?

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Increased drug use and a poor economy likely have contributed to a significant increase in homicides in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County this year, police and criminologists said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Pittsburgh police have investigated 66 homicides so far this year, well above the 47 slayings in the city in all of 2002. Meanwhile, there have been 36 homicides in the county in 2003, said county police Assistant Superintendent James Morton.
At that rate, the city and county are on pace to pass a record set in 1993 of 118 homicides, many of them attributed to fighting between gangs, Morton said. Eighty-three homicides occurred in the city that year.
Many of the latest homicides have connections to the abuse of heroin, crack and cocaine, said William Mullen, Pittsburgh police assistant chief. Some slayings occur when addicts turn to robbery or prostitution for money to buy more drugs, and others occur during conflicts between drug dealers and buyers, he said.
"There are more drugs, more guns," Mullen said. "Unemployment is up. The economy is in the toilet. And all these things are coming to bear at one time."
In perspective
One of the most recent homicides occurred this week when Noreen Apjok, 37, of Munhall, was sexually assaulted and beaten to death. A man walking his dog discovered her body in a Pittsburgh park Tuesday morning.
Police and the Allegheny County Coroner Coroner's office have not determined whether drug use was a factor in Apjok's murder, but officials learned Apjok was a prostitute, said Coroner Cyril Wecht.
"There's no question. Drugs and all the trappings that go along with drug abuse have led to more homicides," Wecht said. "However, keep this in mind, so people don't lose perception of this problem: Per capita, Pittsburgh's homicide rate is still significantly lower than most of the medium- and large-size metropolitan areas in America."
Homicide rates see cyclical increases and decreases. Factors such as a poor economy, accessible firearms, family instability and drug and alcohol abuse often contribute to spikes in the number of slayings, said David Myers, associate professor of criminology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Community leaders often wait until homicide numbers increase before they find ways to stop the violence, when they should be establishing programs well before problems occur, Myers said.
"We know about all these risk factors, and in an ideal world, we would address them before a problem is created, but we tend to wait until there is a problem and then react by building more prisons, creating more laws and other solutions," Myers said.