Cold floor effects on homicide

Abstract

The cold floor pattern (a lack of homicides on days with extremely cold temperatures that was found by Cheatwood in Baltimore) is to be expected by chance. Under a model in which the number of homicides and the maximum temperature are independent, the probability that a day will fall below the cold floor is small. The Baltimore data do not support a model in which extremely cold weather suppresses human aggression.

Interpersonal violent crime in Ghana: The case of assault in Accra

“…Studies that examined cold floor effects on crime suggested a significant influence of warm weather on interpersonal violent crimes (Cheatwood, 1995;Cohn, 1990aCohn, , 1996Loftin & Cheatwood, 1996). Rotton and Cohn (2000a) examined the effects of the weather on assault and disorderly conduct and found a significant impact of the weather on assault.…”