Despite broad interest in the relationship between weather and crime, few studies have been crime-specific and evaluated the relationship between weather and homicide. The present study draws from existing literature and examines the relationship between weather and homicide. A unique and rich data set of homicides known to the police in Newark, New Jersey is employed in answering the following research questions: (1) Is weather an important situational covariate in the occurrence of homicide, (2) given that a homicide occurs, is weather an important situational covariate of homicide once it is disaggregated by location (i.e. outdoor and indoor), and (3) is there a relationship between the number of homicide incidents and temperature? Results suggest that overall weather is not an important situational covariate as to whether or not a homicide occurs, where it occurs, or the number of incidents that occur. The theoretical, methodological, and policy implications are discussed.
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