Urban homicide: Still the same

We use 1984–1986 data to estimate lifetime risks of being murdered in each of 50 large American cities and then compare these projections to others made earlier from 1971–1972 and 1976–1977 data. We find strong constancy over time in the average urban resident's murder risk (essentially a 1 in 68 chance of eventually being slain). Moreover, we find a high stability in the dispersion of risk by region, race, and city size and in the relative rankings of the 50 cities by murder risk. We comment briefly about such recent phenomena as the proliferation of crack and the resumption of capital punishment.Throughout this paper, we use the words murder, homicide, killing, and slaying interchangeably, meaning in all cases murder and nonnegligent manslaughter as defined by the FBI.     

African-Americans and serial homicide

African-Americans are usually over-represented among offenders arrested in “normal” homicide cases, making up a considerably larger proportion than would be expected from the Black presence in the population at large. Among serial murderers, however, African-Americans are much less in evidence—perhaps one-fifth or less of known American serial killers are Black. It may be that African-Americans are in fact less involved in serial murder activity than are Anglo Whites or Hispanics; but it must also be asked whether this is simply an impression gained from the ways in which serial murder activity is identified and investigated. For a number of reasons, law enforcement agencies might be less likely to seek or find evidence of serial murder activity where the victims are Black. As homicide is primarily an intra-racial crime, this would then mean that Black serial killers would be far more likely to escape detection.     

Space matters: An analysis of poverty,poverty clustering,and violent crime

While numerous criminological theories emphasize the theoretical importance of the spatial distribution of poverty, few studies specifically examine the empirical relationship between the spatial clustering of high poverty areas and violent crime rates. In this analysis we examine the association between poverty clustering and violent crime rates across 236 cities. For each city we compute a poverty cluster score that measures the proportion of contiguous high poverty census tracts. We find little support for a direct relationship between the spatial clustering of high poverty tracts and murder, rape, robbery, and assault. However, variables that measure city disadvantage (e.g., poverty) interact with poverty clustering scores in the case of homicide rates. Specifically, disadvantage has a much stronger relationship to homicide in cities with high levels of poverty clustering. Such an interaction effect is strongly supported by the literature.     

An Empirical Study of Rape in the Context of Multiple Murder

In recent years, multiple homicide offending has received increased research attention from criminologists; however, there is mixed evidence about the role of rape toward the perpetration of multiple murder. Drawing on criminal career data from a nonprobability sample of 618 confined male homicide offenders selected from eight U.S. states, the current study examines the role of rape as a predictor of multiple homicide offending. Bivariate analyses indicated a significant association between rape and murder charges. Multivariate path regression models indicated that rape had a significant and robust association with multiple murder. This relationship withstood the confounding effects of kidnapping, prior prison confinement, and prior murder, rape, and kidnapping. These results provide evidence that rape potentially serves as a gateway to multiple murder for some serious offenders. Suggestions for future research are proffered.     

常州市武进区5年94例已破命案的回顾性研究

目的本课题收集真实案例进行回顾性研究、比对,寻找常州市武进区命案特征,总结命案现场的法医学检案重点、难点和相关实践经验。方法收集江苏省常州市武进区2006～2010年94例已破命案资料,应用Microsoft Excel软件进行一般描述性统计分析。结果 2009年、2010年案件数量略有上升,而每年的第一、三季度为命案高发季度。受害人及嫌疑人多为流动人口,男性显著多于女性,以青壮年为主。嫌疑人均学历较低,多从事打工、务农,或无业,多由纠纷升级为命案。以锐器伤及钝器伤多见,死因基本为机械性损伤和机械性窒息。结论命案发生与人口数量呈正相关。受害人及犯罪嫌疑人基本情况、作案动机、致伤工具、损伤分布、死因等均反映出了命案现场法医工作的基本内容、工作重要性及未来的研究发展方向。     

Fighting back: Lethal responses to predatory attacks

Each year millions of Americans become victims of predatory crimes. The way victims respond to these attacks varies from complicance with offenders' requests to physically challenging offenders. In some cases, the physical defense of self and property has lethal consequences for the initial offender. While much is known about felony murder victims and typical homicide offenders, little is known about individuals who fight back against predatory attack by using lethal violence. In this paper, we use data from the Homicides in Chicago, 1965–1995 study to describe the characteristics of defensive homicide offenders and to determine how they compare with felony murder victims and defensive homicide offenders. Our results indicate that defensive homicide offenders are more similar to typical homicide offenders than felony murder victims, and are even more likely to have violent criminal histories and to use firearms than typical homicide offenders. Our results challenge the common perception that individuals who fight back against predatory attack are simply “law-abiding citizens.” We conclude the paper with a discussion of the implications of our study for additional research and police practice. Authors' Note: The authors thank editor Dennis Stevens and James Black for their helpful comments on earlier draft of the paper.     

Do Gang Members Commit Abnormal Homicide?

Gang membership is a robust correlate of homicide offending and victimization, but little is known about the association between gang status and various abnormal forms of homicide (e.g., multiple-victim homicide, sexual homicide, and abduction homicide). The current study utilized data from a large sample of 618 male convicted murderers to empirically examine gang status and diverse forms of homicide perpetration. Gang-involved offenders were nearly three times as likely to commit a normal homicide characterized as a single-victim murder. However, gang members were 64 % less likely to perpetrate multiple-victim murder. In other models, gang status reduced the likelihood of sexual homicide by 75 % and reduced the likelihood of abduction homicide by 56 %. These findings present an anomaly in the gang-homicide literature, and suggestions for additional research are offered.     

Defining and classifying serial murder in the context of perpetrator motivation

The last several decades have seen increased research attention to the subject of serial murder. Unfortunately, an empirical understanding of serial homicide continues to be impeded by difficulties in establishing a working definition for serial murder. Current definitions for serial homicide tend to focus on frequency and timing of homicide behaviors, and thus leave some confusion as to which groups of individuals should be included under the heading of serial murders. This article suggests alterations to the definition of serial murder, which focus not only on frequency and timing of homicide behaviors, but also on the motivation and context of those behaviors.     

Urban homicide: Some recent developments

We examine homicide data from fifty of the largest U.S. cities for the years 1976–1977 and, in particular, compare them to similar data for 1971–1972. The results reinforce earlier predictions that one in seventy urban residents born this decade will ultimately be murdered. However, the dispersion of murder risk as a function of race, sex, and city has apparently dropped considerably in the last few years.     

Examining Space–Time Interaction in City-Level Homicide Data: Crack Markets and the Diffusion of Guns Among Youth

This paper examines the linkage between crack market activity and gunhomicide suggested by Blumstein (1995), who argues that the arrival ofcrack stimulated an increased availability of guns among juveniles. Thisgreater availability of guns, the argument continues, is responsible for thesharp upswing in juvenile homicide experienced in the United States in themid-1980s. Using city-level data on crack arrests and gun-related juvenilehomicide, we fit a change-point version of the Bass (1969) model ofinnovation diffusion. We find that, in most large American cities, thediffusion process for crack cocaine experienced an onset of dramatic growththat was followed by a similar, slightly slower growth in gun homicidescommitted by juveniles. We further use cluster analysis to find that thespatial patterning of the two processes is similar, starting on the East andWest Coasts and working their way toward other regions of the nation. Gunuse in homicide among slightly older offenders (ages 18–24) alsoexperienced a change at roughly the same time as the juveniles, but the rateof diffusion was considerably milder than for the younger group; offendersages 25 or older generally show no growth in gun-related homicide whatsoever. In addition, there is no detectable surge in juvenile nongun homicide activity. Based on these findings, we conclude that the crack cocaine markets–gun availability linkage is highly plausible, and we suggest directions for future research in clarifying the dynamics of the late-1980s surge in juvenile homicide.     

精神病杀人的行为特征与刑事责任能力评定的影响因素

目的探讨精神病凶杀行为特征，分析精神病杀人责任能力评定的影响因素。方法对2002年至2006年72例进行司法鉴定的凶杀案件资料分项列表调查，所得数据用SPSS11．0统计软件对神病杀人的行为特征与刑事责任能力评定影响因素进行相关分析。结果作案行为特征以地点、动机、罪错认识、行为隐蔽性、潜逃、自我保护与责任能力评定结果显著相关；暴力作案刑事责任能力评定量表与々家鉴定结论之间有较高的一致性。结论对凶杀案件行为特征的综合分析，町作为责任能力评定的客观参考依据；暴力作案刑事责任能力评定量表的应用为责任能力评定提供了，相对可靠的客观依据。     

Shared legacies,disparate outcomes: why American south border cities turned the tables on crime and their Mexican sisters did not

The article evaluates crime trends in south border American and Mexican sister cities using panel data analysis. The region offers a unique assessment opportunity since cities are characterized by shared cultural and historical legacies, institutional heterogeneity, and disparate crime outcomes. Higher homicide rates on the Mexican side seem to result from deficient law enforcement. Higher population densities in Mexican cities appear to also be a factor. Cultural differences, on the other hand, have been decreasing, and apparently do not play a substantial role. The homicide rate dynamics show opportunistic clustering of criminal activity in Mexican cities, while no clustering is found on the American side. Crime also appears to spill from Mexican cities into American cities. Homicide rates on both sides of the border have been falling faster than countrywide rates, leading, in the case of American cities, and against stereotypes, to rates below the countrywide rate in 2001.

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The Death Penalty: A Multi-level Analysis of Public Opinion

Considerable research has examined public opinion of the death penalty using simplistic questions such as, “Do you favor or oppose the death penalty.” Simply categorizing people into favoring or opposing capital punishment does little to address the array of factors and circumstances that are part of every murder. We examine variables concerning the nature of homicides from a set of 40 murder vignettes used to gauge respondents’ level of support for capital punishment in murder cases. The data are structured such that vignette responses are nested within individuals, meaning a multi-level analysis is appropriate. We used HLM to explore how vignette-level or homicide related characteristics influence support for the death penalty, as well as how individual-level characteristics condition these factors. Analyses revealed that individual-level variables were non-significant when analyzed independently; however, cross-level interactions indicated significant individual-level influences on homicide-level characteristics as they relate to respondents’ support for the death penalty.     

Female murderers in a southern city, 1975–1992

A study of a population of 36 females arrested for homicide in a southern, nonurban city from 1975 to 1992 was conducted using both qualitative and quantitative data. The study explored the demographic, social, legal, and offense characteristics of female homicide offenders as well as events leading to the murder. The profile of female homicide offenders in a southern, non-urban setting that emerged from this study is supportive of earlier studies focusing on female homicide offenders in large urban areas.     

Stab wounds and personal identity determined from skeletal remains: a case from Kansas

Evidence for cause of death in skeletonized remains is uncommonly found and cases that involve stabbings are particularly rare. In the following report, evidence is presented for a fatal stabbing, determined from analysis of a recent homicide. Because multiple stab wounds were present and several different bones were involved, estimates of the dimensions of the murder weapon were also possible. We also review some distinct vertebral anomalies used for personal identification.     

The Murder Mystery: Police Effectiveness and Homicide

Objective

Previous aggregate analyses of the effect of police on crime show that increases in police staffing are especially effective at preventing homicide. This conflicts with evidence that suggests standard police methods should be more effective at preventing robbery, auto theft, and other property crimes. My objective is to reconcile the two.

Methods

Regression of crime rates on uniformed police staffing and other economic and demographic covariates, for a panel of 59 US cities for the period 1970–2013.

Results

Lagged crime rates are strong and statistically significant predictors of both policing staffing and crime rates, particularly homicide. When lags are included in the specification, the apparent effect of police on homicide drops by more than 70 %; there is little change in the effect of police on other crimes. Findings are robust with respect to specification and method.

Conclusions

Previous studies omitted lags and overstated the effectiveness of police on homicide. Because murder accounts for almost 40 % of all costs of crime in US cities, it is no longer clear whether increasing police force size is a cost-effective way to cut crime. Improving police tactics is more likely to work and less expensive.

     

Immigration and the Changing Nature of Homicide in US Cities, 1980–2010

Objectives

Previous research has neglected to consider whether trends in immigration are related to changes in the nature of homicide. This is important because there is considerable variability in the temporal trends of homicide subtypes disaggregated by circumstance. In the current study, we address this issue by investigating whether within-city changes in immigration are related to temporal variations in rates of overall and circumstance-specific homicide for a sample of large US cities during the period between 1980 and 2010.

Methods

Fixed-effects negative binomial and two-stage least squares (2SLS) instrumental variable regression models are used to analyze data from 156 large US cities observed during the 1980–2010 period.

Results

Findings from the analyses suggest that temporal change in overall homicide and drug homicide rates are significantly related to changes in immigration. Specifically, increases in immigration are associated with declining rates for each of the preceding outcome measures. Moreover, for several of the homicide types, findings suggest that the effects of changes in immigration vary across places, with the largest negative associations appearing in cities that had relatively high initial (i.e., 1970) immigration levels.

Conclusions

There is support for the thesis that changes in immigration in recent decades are related to changes in rates of lethal violence. However, it appears that the relationship is contingent and varied, not general.     

Defining serial murder: A call for a return to the originalLustmörd

This paper revisits the important task of defining serial murder. A review of the history of the term reveals the use of arbitrary and inconsistent criteria by various researchers, raising serious questions as to their validity and reliability. The need to identify specific elements that distinguish serial homicide from other forms of multiple is underscored. Problems associated with the failure to apply consistent criteria are discussed. It is a contention of this work that there exists an aspect of serial murder—as most researchers intend the term—that is inherently distinctive. A definition of serial murder based upon the primary—and intrinsic—motivation of this kind of offender is offered for consideration.     

CIRCUMSTANCES IN SUPPLEMENTARY HOMICIDE REPORTS: VARIETY AND VALIDITY*

This paper presents a critical examination of homicide circumstances as reported in supplementary homicide reports (SHR). Different types of homicides can be distinguished by the circumstance codes and victim/offender relationship recorded on the SHR. Delineating murder by type invites analysis of this offense from a victimization perspective–homicides have much in common with nonlethal offenses. Different types of homicide present different policy problems to police. The paper also discusses various sources of error in SHR data, which must be recognized by researchers interested in theoretical or policy questions.