week 3 journal
Chapter 13 Homicide:
Victims, Their
Families, and
the Community
Case Example Canadian Air Force Officer Pleads Guilty to Murder
• Brutal assault and murder
of two women
• Kept meticulous records
and videotapes of his 2-
year rampage
• Began with home break-
ins to steal girls’ and
women’s underwear for
his sexual arousal and
culminated in the murders
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Scope of the Problem
• Earliest classification system in United States is UCR
• Program was the first system to classify homicide in the United States
• Steadily decreased in the 1990s, began increasing again in the 2000s – 13,594 persons murdered in 2014 and 15,192 in
2015, representing an 11.8% increase across those 2 years (FBI, 2017)
• Murder rate considerably lower in Canada than in United States
Number of Murders by Weapon
Used
Data from: FBI Uniform Crime Report – Crime in the United States. 1977, 1981, 1987, 1989, 2003, 2007. Washington, DC: Department of Justice.
Legal Responses to Murder
• All legal codes classify murder as a major
crime
– Where the element of intent exists and there
are no extenuating circumstances, the penalty
may be death or life imprisonment
• Penalties for homicide: Serve longer prison
terms; between 1986 and 2003 length of
stay increased 116%
Legal Responses to Murder
• Recidivism: 67% rearrested; 50%
reincarcerated
– Imperative to examine recidivism patterns to
assess to what extent predictors for recidivism
are similar to those for other violent offenders
• Civil litigation, two areas of law can be
used:
– Denial of equal protection
– Failure to act
Classification of Homicides
• Single homicide (e.g., Ennis Cosby)
• Double homicide (e.g., Half & Susanne
Zantop)
• Triple homicide (e.g., Newark students)
• Mass murder: classic and family
• Spree murder (e.g., Howard Unruh)
• Serial murder (two or more events)
Homicide Victimization Theories
• Social interactionism
– Lifestyle/routine activities theories
– Victim risk
• Cultural theories
– Social learning theories: Modeling behavior
– Violent media: Appears to increase
aggression in youth
Demographic Correlates and
Homicide Offending
• Race, ethnic origin, gender, social class,
age, and victim/offender relationship
• Shows consistent pattern of variation in
terms of gender, age, victim/offender
relationship
• Primarily a male crime
• Race combined with social class has
strong correlation to homicide
Homicide Typologies
• Organized and disorganized offenders: A
typology of crime scene dynamics
– Organized offenders: Planning of the crime,
good verbal skills, high degree of intelligence
– Disorganized offenders: Actions devoid of
normal logic, have poor self-image,
underachievers
Homicide Typologies
• Underclass homicide typology
– Hundreds of thousands of homicide offenders who do not make headlines, commit the crime, serve the time, etc.
• Toward a new homicide typology
– Homicide precipitated by argument et al.
– Homicide during the commission of a felony
– Domestic violence–related homicide
– Homicide charge following an accident
Issues for Covictims
• Forensic issues
– Death notification
– Funeral activities
– Police investigation
– Medical examiner’s office
– Media
Response of Covictims
– Return to work or school
– Grief
– Guilt and blame
– Stigma
– Fears and phobias
– Mental health effects