Homicide Studies

Firearm violence is considered a public health crisis in the United States. Firearm violence spatially concentrates within neighborhoods and is associated with community factors; however, little is understood about the geographic differences in gunshot wound mortality and associated neighborhood social processes. Applying a public health approach through the Haddon’s Matrix, the results demonstrate systematic differences in social and physical features associated with gunshot mortality. These findings have important implications to improve neighborhood physical and social conditions, police transporting gunshot victims, and police-public health partnerships to improve data collection on nonfatal shootings and shots fired.

Recent cross-sectional research has disclosed a positive relationship between opioid-related death rates and homicide rates. The current study adds a longitudinal dimension to this research. We estimate fixed effects panel models of the temporal relationship between race-specific homicide rates and opioid-related death rates within U.S. counties and county clusters between 1999 and 2015. The results reveal a positive association between change over time in homicide and opioid-related deaths, net of multiple socioeconomic and demographic controls, in both the Non-Hispanic White and Black population. The association is stronger in the Appalachian counties, where the opioid epidemic has been particularly severe.

This is the first study to explore the relationship between Inglehart and Baker’s national cultural measures and the stream analogy of lethal violence. Using data for 70 developed and developing countries, the regression analysis indicates that a country with self-expressionism or secularism is likely to have a high suicide rate relative to its homicide rate. In contrast, a country with a survivalism or traditionalism orientation is likely to have a high homicide rate relative to its suicide rate. This study suggests that national culture is related to the direction of lethal violence (i.e., suicide vs. homicide).

Media research on intimate partner homicide (IPH) has primarily focused on male perpetrators and female victims. This study analyzed 203 English-language news articles of IPH involving male victims and female perpetrators for the year 2019. Using thematic analysis, we identified two main themes: doubting the victim (who is the victim?) and victim recognition (“he didn’t deserve this”). The findings suggest that male victims of female perpetrated IPH tend to be blamed for their victimization and represented as non-ideal and illegitimate victims in the news media.

The study examined “gendered” and “general” factors associated with homicide using interviews with men convicted of murder or manslaughter in Australia. We compared men committing intimate partner femicide (IPF; n = 68) with men killing female non-intimate partners (MF; n = 44) and male non-intimate partners (MM; n = 135). They shared developmental and socio-economic characteristics. MM men reported extensive criminal histories and serious substance problems compared with IPF men. Many IPF men had perpetrated partner violence. Similarities existed across jealousy and marital role attitudes, though IPF men more likely condoned wife abuse and behaviorally controlled partners. Policies informed by complexity and diversity are important.