Association between homicide injury severity and benzodiazepine influence

There are case reports of offenders inflicting excessive injuries on their victims when under the influence of benzodiazepines. However, the potential association between benzodiazepine influence on the offender and victim injury severity in a general homicide population has not been studied. We investigated associations between offender positive testing for benzodiazepines or z-drugs (zolpidem, zopiclone and zaleplon) and victim injury severity. Data were drawn from 95 Swedish homicide cases from 2007–2009 in which offenders had known toxicology. There were no significant differences in injury severity between cases in which the offender tested positive vs. negative for benzodiazepines/z-drugs. Thus, the findings do not support the hypothesis that there is an association between benzodiazepine influence on the offender and victim injury severity in a general homicide population.

Key points

• Some previous studies have linked benzodiazepines to aggression, violence and excessive homicide injuries.
• The present study analysed the association between homicide injury severity and benzodiazepine status of the offender.
• Offenders who tested positive for benzodiazepines did not inflict more severe injuries on their victims.
• These findings do not support the hypothesis that benzodiazepine influence generally causes offenders to inflict more severe injuries on homicide victims.

     

Homicide Trends and Illicit Drug Markets: Exploring Differences Across Time

Ample speculation and some evidence suggests that the decline in homicide rates since the early 1990s was partially attributable to declining levels of drug market activity. This analysis explores that explanation, along with an alternative: the strength of the drug market–lethal violence relationship has weakened over time. We outline several conceptual reasons to expect period‐specific differences in the drug market–homicide relationship. These include the aging of market participants, shifts in the normative and transactional climate of markets, and changes in structural factors affecting the magnitude of the relationship between drug market indicators and homicide rates (such as socioeconomic disadvantage). These arguments are evaluated for a sample of large US cities. The results generally show a pattern of attenuation in the drug market–homicide relationship and lead us to conclude that part of the homicide decline is likely due to a drop in the amount of drug market activity, some of it is attributable to the aging of drug market participants, and some appears to be due to unmeasured factors which may have created a “kinder and gentler” drug market.     

Media Coverage of Capital Murder: Exceptions Sustain the Rule

Scholars have demonstrated that prominent media coverage of crime shapes the creation of public policies. More subtly, such coverage can also sustain existing policies. In this paper, we ask: which capital crimes captivate the media and thus sustain popular support for the death penalty? To answer the question, we examine newspaper coverage of capital murders that occurred in Harris County (Houston), Texas between 1992 and 1999. Our findings reveal that prominent media coverage presents a distorted reality in which brutal crimes tend to be committed by minority offenders against vulnerable, “worthy” victims. Thus, the public mandate for capital punishment is sustained by atypical crimes that conform to existing cultural templates about criminal threat and victimization.     

SENTENCING HOMICIDE OFFENDERS IN THE NETHERLANDS: OFFENDER,VICTIM, AND SITUATIONAL INFLUENCES IN CRIMINAL PUNISHMENT*

Empirical investigations of criminal sentencing represent a vast research enterprise in criminology. However, this research has been restricted almost exclusively to U.S. contexts, and often it suffers from key data limitations. As such, an examination of more detailed international sentencing data provides an important opportunity to assess the generalizability of contemporary research and theorizing on criminal punishment in the United States. The current study investigates little-researched questions about the influence of prosecutorial sentencing recommendations, victim/offender relationships, and extralegal disparities in sentencing by analyzing unique data on the punishment of homicide offenders in the Netherlands. The results indicate that offender, victim, and situational offense characteristics all exert important independent effects at sentencing and that prosecutorial recommendations exert powerful influences over judicial sentences. The article concludes with a discussion of future directions for comparative sentencing research across international contexts.     

Economic Development,Change of Age Distribution,and Stream Analogy of Homicide and Suicide: A Cross-National Assessment

The current study tests the stream analogy of lethal violence, proposed by Unnithan et al. on a large sample of 124 nations. Spatial econometric regression models confirm that economic development decreases homicide rate and increases suicide–homicide ratio (SHR). The SHR developed by Unnithan et al. accounts for the impact of economic development better than original measure of suicide rate. The most important finding of the current investigation is that the increase in the population size of the elderly, consequent to economic development, is partially responsible for elevated suicide rates and SHRs.     

Filicide, attempted filicide, and psychotic disorders

The objective of the study was to describe and discuss the cases of two women who faced criminal charges, one for attempting to murder her three children and the other for killing her 1-year-old boy. After a forensic psychiatric assessment of their level of criminal responsibility, these patients were considered not guilty by reason of insanity and were committed to forensic mental hospitals. These two patients received a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, according to the DSM-IV-TR criteria. In both cases, psychotic symptoms were present before the manifestation of violent behavior, in the form of persecutory delusions, auditory hallucinations, and pathological impulsivity. The investigation into cases of filicide may contribute powerfully to expand our understanding of motivational factors underlying this phenomenon and enhance the odds for effective prevention.     

Working Smarter on Cold Cases: Identifying Factors Associated with Successful Cold Case Investigations

Cold case squads have garnered much attention; however, they have yet to undergo significant empirical scrutiny. In the present study, the authors interviewed investigators and reviewed 189 solved and unsolved cold cases in Washington, D.C., to determine whether there are factors that can predict cold case solvability. In the interviews, new information from witnesses or information from new witnesses was cited as the most prevalent reason for case clearance. The case reviews determined that there were factors in each of the following domains that predicted whether cases would be solved during cold case investigations: Crime Context, Initial Investigation Results, Basis for Opening Cold Case, and Cold Case Investigator Actions. The results suggest that it is possible to prioritize cold case work based on the likelihood of investigations leading to clearances.     

The Relationship between Meteorological Conditions and Homicide,Suicide, Rage,and Psychiatric Hospitalization

This study focuses on the relationship between the incidence of homicide, rage, suicide, and psychiatric hospitalization as violent behaviors with temperature, humidity, and air pressure as specific meteorological variables in the city of Mashhad, in the northeast of Iran. The data were obtained from Iran Meteorological Organization, official registry of Legal Medicine Organization and the local psychiatric hospital, March 2009 to Feb 2010 daily and were analyzed with SPSS‐14 using Pearson correlation coefficient, ANOVA, and post hoc analysis tests. The rates of rage and psychiatric admission had a significant relationship with the daily mean air temperature, minimum relative humidity, maximum relative humidity, minimum daily pressure, and maximum daily air pressure (p < 0.0001). There was no significant correlation between homicide and suicide rates with any meteorological variables (p > 0.05). We concluded that, the possibility of nonfatal violence and psychiatric hospitalization would increase in hot and arid weather with low air pressure.     

交通肇事罪“因逃逸致人死亡”情节新论

虽然交通肇事后因"逃逸致人死亡"情节规定于交通肇事罪,但其本身仍具有独立性,认为该情节属于结果加重犯、情节加重犯或者复杂的情节加重犯的观点均不能合理解释相关立法规定。"因逃逸致人死亡"情节的主观罪过形式不是过失,而是间接故意。同时,刑法之所以对"因逃逸致人死亡"情节规定了七年到十五年有期徒刑,实际上是因为该情节的法律评价范围包含了对不作为形式间接故意杀人罪的法律评价。     

Crime Volume and Law and Order Culture

The literature on public opinion about crime and justice has neglected the exploration of macro‐ or community‐level influences on individual‐level attitudes. A key macrofactor that may be related to individual level attitudes is the volume of violent crime. High crime rates can facilitate the development of a culture of “law and order,” a response that may be a practical or instrumental attempt to control crime. The present paper tests the hypothesis that persons residing in nations marked by a high volume of crime will be more likely to adhere to elements of a law and order culture. It employs data from the International Social Science Program (N = 15,024). Controls are taken from major theoretical perspectives on public opinion about crime as well as demographic factors. The results from a hierarchical linear model support the hypothesis that individuals residing in nations with high crime rates are more likely than others to support law and order ideologies. The findings extend the support for this relationship from research based on the US alone to other industrialized societies.