How the Study Was Performed

Over the last 20 months, The Times has conducted a computer-assisted study of homicides in Los Angeles County from 1990 through 1994.

The study, covering 9,442 slayings, traced the handling of cases through each step of the criminal justice system. Excluded from the study were accidental, vehicular and justifiable homicides.

The study examined whether race, media attention and the class of victims and defendants had any bearing on outcomes. It also studied the role of police agencies and courthouses.

The analysis was conducted on databases created from a variety of sources. Data about victims, including race, largely was obtained from the county coroner’s office and the state health department. Many crime details, such as the type of slaying, were secured through the state Department of Justice.

No agency keeps a comprehensive database that tracks the details of all homicide prosecutions. So the newspaper created its own master list of defendants, reconciling computerized lists from the Superior Court, the Municipal Courts and the district attorney. Then a team of researchers, supervised by staff writers Ted Rohrlich and Fredric N. Tulsky, collected and coded information from more than 5,000 court files.

The study also examined which homicides received Times coverage during the five-year period. For comparison, it looked at homicide coverage by eight suburban newspapers during a two-month period.

Databases were constructed and merged by Richard O’Reilly, director of computer analysis, and Sandra Poindexter, a data analyst. Professor Richard A. Berk, director of the UCLA Statistical Consulting Center and an expert on criminal justice, analyzed the data. Graduate student Cathie Lee trained court researchers and assisted Berk. Dwight Morris of the Campaign Study Group in Virginia served as a consultant on the project.

Editorial researcher Nona Yates and former librarian Mary Edwards, who supervised the media study, contributed to the project. Court data was collected by freelance researchers Christina Verdin, Gary Tharp, Colleen Lacey, John Weems, Jon Garcia, Roger Teft, Christina Chang, John Gonzales, Louisa Toot, Chris Bates, Nicole Doll and Ty Brown.

Interns Erin Texeira, Antonio Olivo, Margaret Ramirez, Ealena Callender, Paul Johnson, Lorenza Munoz, Jose Cardenas, Emi Endo and Kenneth Chang helped obtain data from police divisions concerning case outcomes.