Chapter 10 Notes

Violent crime typologies * Crime typology – A classification of crimes along a particular dimension, such as legal categories, offender motivation, victim behavior, or the characteristics of individual offenders.

Homicide * State and federal statutes on criminal homicide distinguish among several different forms of this offense based on intent, circumstances, age, and the other considerations. * Only about 23% of all homicides involve strangers, and the most frequent circumstance that precedes a homicide is an argument. * Approximately 16 % of homicides occur during the commission of another felony, with robbery being the most common. * While homicide offenders include men and women, young and old, rich and poor, homicide offending is very much patterned in terms of certain sociodemographics, with members of some groups being disportionately involved as offenders.

The Victim-Offender Relationship * Wolfgang’s study of homicides that 25% of all homicides were between family members and that women were far more likely than men to be both offenders and victims. * Males were more likely to be killed by friends and strangers than by their family members. * If a male was killed by a female, the offender was most likely to be his spouse. * Primary homicide involves family members, friends, and acquaintances. * Expressive crimes often result from interpersonal hostility, based on jealousy, revenge, romantic triangles, and minor disagreements. * Nonprimary homicides involve victims and offenders who have no prior relationship usually occur in the course of another crime such as robbery. * Instrumental crimes involve some degree of premeditation and are less likely to be precipitated by the victim. * Dugan, Nagin, Rosenfeld offer exposure-reduction theory of intimate-partner homicide. * These 3 factors (decline in domesticity, improved economic status of women, and growth in domestic violence resources) reduced intimate-partner homicides. * As women gain equality, more opportunities are available to them that may relieve their economic dependence on men. * Greater the availability of domestic violence resources.

Instrumental & Expressive Homicide * Not all homicide offenders intend to kill their victims. * Incident begins as a robbery motivated by instrumental ends. * An argument precedes a homicide but is expressive. * Sibling offense is an incident that begins the homicide * Sibling offenses into account because they help explain why some robberies end in murder, while others do not.
Victim Precipitation * Victim precipitation focuses on characteristics of victims that may have precipitated their victimization. * Victim precipitation unfortunately seems to blame the victim. * Concept of victim precipitation is not to blame the victim. * Gendered patterns of victim precipitation * Intimate-partner homicides - one-half of all homicides committed by women and only 12% of those committed by men as victim precipitated * Wolfgang also identified alcohol use as a factor in homicide cases where the “victim is a direct, positive precipitator in the crime.” He concluded that the positive and significant association between alcohol and victim-precipitated homicides.

Weapon Use * Instrumentality is a type of weapon used in a particular encounter has an effect on whether the encounter ends in death. * Offenders may select a weapon on the basis of their intent; those who take more lethal weapons to a crime may be more prepared to use deadly force. * Availability is the issues surrounding how access to guns may increase their presence in all types of interactions, including criminal ones.

Alcohol and Drug Use * Typology between drugs and crime was developed by Paul J. Goldstein. * Psychopharmacological model is the use of certain drugs produces violent behavior by lowering inhibitions or