Putting homicide followed by suicide in context: Do macro‐environmental characteristics impact the odds of committing suicide after homicide?*

Homicide followed by suicide remains an understudied phenomenon in the criminological literature. This is due, in part, to methodological and statistical limitations—much of the extant research includes small samples and has not kept pace with quantitative advances. Moreover, scholarship on homicide–suicide has been focused almost exclusively on individual risk factors, discounting contextual influences. In this study, we examine whether macro‐environmental characteristics affect the odds of suicide after a homicide. We use data on 24,373 homicide and homicide–suicide cases distributed across 3,019 cities and 48 U.S. states from the National Violent Death Reporting System to examine the direct effects of structural factors on the odds of suicide after a homicide; and whether structural characteristics condition the impact of the victim–offender relationship on the odds of homicide–suicide. Hierarchical logistic regression models indicate that macro‐level concentrated disadvantage decreases the odds of homicide–suicide. Furthermore, concentrated disadvantage attenuates the odds of suicide after the homicide of an intimate partner, child, family member, or friend, relative to the killing of a stranger. The findings reveal that researchers should account for the context in which homicide–suicide occurs; failure to do so may unintentionally discount a key correlate of homicide–suicide and artificially inflate the effects of the micro‐environment.     

Disaggregating Mass Public Shootings: A Comparative Analysis of Disgruntled Employee,School, Ideologically motivated,and Rampage Shooters

This study compares the demographic, background, motivation, and pre‐event and event‐level behaviors across four types of mass public shooters: disgruntled employee, school, ideologically motivated, and rampage offenders. Using a database containing detailed information on 318 mass public shootings that occurred in the United States between 1966 and 2017, we find systematic differences in the characteristics, motivations, target selection, planning, and incident‐level behaviors among these offenders. The results show that ideologically motivated shooters to be the most patient, and methodical, and as a result the most lethal. Conversely, disgruntled employees, who are driven by revenge, tend to have little time to plan and consequently are the least lethal shooters. These, among other differences, underscore the need for prevention strategies and policies to be tailored to specific types of offenders. Furthermore, the results also highlight commonalities across offender type, suggesting that the social and psychological pathways to violence are universal across offenders.     

Cold Case Homicides: DNA Testing of Retained Autopsy Sexual Assault Smears

Archival medical examiner specimens may contain perpetrator DNA evidence useful in unsolved (“cold case”) homicides. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) histology slide archives were searched for sexual assault smears for all 376 female homicides from 1990 to 1999. Of these, the OCME had sexual assault smears on 84 of which 13 slides had sperm. Of these 13, six were still unsolved. DNA profiles were obtained on all six (5 from smears and one from swabs). Combined DNA Index System ( submission resulted in two matches (“hits”) for new suspects. In addition, three suspects were eliminated in two cases. Our review of archival sexual assault smears resulted in DNA profiles that were able to assist in the investigation of four cold case homicide investigations. It may be worthwhile for medical examiner offices to search their archival histology slides for sexual assault smears on previously unsolved cases particularly those prior to the mid‐1990s when DNA testing was less widely available.     

Sanctuary Policies and City-Level Incidents of Violence, 1990 to 2010

Despite media coverage of isolated incidents of violent crime perpetuated by undocumented immigrants in cities with sanctuary policies, there is scant systematic research on the relationships between the adoption of sanctuary policies, unauthorized immigration, and crime. We compile city-level data from official sources and use fixed-effects negative binomial regression to examine whether the adoption of city-level sanctuary policies and the concentration of unauthorized Mexican immigrants are associated with homicide and robbery incidents in 107 U.S. cities, across three decades. We find evidence that the adoption of sanctuary policies is associated with a reduction in robberies but not homicide. In contrast, an increase in the relative size of a city’s unauthorized Mexican immigrant population corresponds with a reduction in homicide; however, only in sanctuary cities. Lastly, shifts in violence during our study period are consistently related to social structural characteristics of cities, which are findings consistent with social disorganization theory.     

Personality traits in suicidal and homicidal subjects with schizophrenia

Paranoid schizophrenia is characterised by an increased risk of suicide and homicide. Little is known about the influence of personality dimensions as determinants for suicidal and homicidal behaviour within this condition. We assessed the differences among suicidal, homicidal and non-aggressive adult male in-patients with ICD-10 paranoid schizophrenia. The clinical assessments included structured psychiatric interviews and reports on harmful alcohol use and suicide attempts. The personality dimensions were assessed with the Big Five Inventory-10. The study recruited 264 patients divided into three groups: suicide attempters (N = 62), homicide group (N = 70), and a comparative control group (N = 132). To examine how the clinical subgroups differed from the comparative sample in the studied variables, a multinomial regression was performed. Each subgroup was considered a nominal outcome variable and the log odds of the outcomes were modelled as a linear combination of the predictor variables. Neuroticism or emotional instability was the only personality dimension that was different among the study subgroups: a lower level of neuroticism was found in the homicide group. Other risk factors such as age, education, relationship status and history of self-aggressive behaviour could potentially distinguish these subgroups of paranoid schizophrenia patients.     

Biastophilia,raptophilia, and somnophilia: the blurred distinction and comorbidity of sexual paraphilias in a homicidal offender

Somnophilia has previously been recognised by some as a sleep disorder rather than, correctly, as a sexual paraphilic disorder. Correct recognition, however, then necessitates cognisance of the overlap between somnophilia and arousal to rape and sexually violent acts (biastophilia and raptophilia). Such overlap needs to be recognised by clinicians when the ramifications of the comorbidity and intersection of these paraphilias, left unchecked, can stretch as far as homicide.     

故意传播艾滋病行为的刑法适用

故意传播艾滋病的行为,不构成我国刑法中的传播性病罪,在当代的医疗水平下,可以认为该行为构成故意杀人罪。在审判时,被害人没有死亡的,只能追究行为人故意杀人未遂的刑事责任。经被害人承诺的故意传播艾滋病行为,也构成故意杀人罪。危及公共安全的故意传播艾滋病行为则会构成以危险方法危害公共安全罪。     

质疑“命案必破“

以"命案必破"为目标固然在一定程度上有助于提高破案率,但却在根本上违背了马克思主义认识论的基本原理,违背了客观实际,曲解了实事求是原则的本来含义.如果用以指导侦查实践,极有可能导致有罪推定,侵犯犯罪嫌疑人的程序性权利和人身权利,甚至造成冤假错案.     

关于命案概念的思考——兼评“命案必破”之承诺

命案是一个历史范畴,从不同角度可以进行多种分类。人们对当前公安机关使用的命案概念分歧较大。从公安机关关注命案的目的着手,针对命案具有严重的社会危害性的特点,命案即经刑事诉讼定性的、行为人故意实施犯罪致死人命的案件。当前社会治安形势下,公安机关积极关注命案意义重大,但命案的侦破必然有其现实的底线,“命案必破”在理论上固然有其必然性,但在实践中只具有偶然性和可能性。     

怀化市命案调查与思考

提高命案侦破能力,实现"命案必破"的奋斗目标,是摆在公安机关当前的一个重大任务。目前,在故意杀人等严重刑事案件中,犯罪分子作案手段和方法出现了新特点、新趋势。公安机关应根据新变化,把握新特点,有针对性地采取相应措施,不断提高侦破命案能力,努力实现"命案必破"。