Rethinking Homicide: Exploring the Structure and Process Underlying Deadly Situations

TERANCE D. MIETHE and WENDY C. REGOECZI with assistance from KRISS A. DRASS

Cambridge University Press (2004), ISBN: 0-521-83299-3 Hardback, ISBN: 0-521-54058-5 Paperback

Rethinking Homicide: Exploring the Structure and Process Underlying Deadly Situationspresents extensive research conducted by the authors based on a data set of 440000 USHomicides. The data were extracted from Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR) from1976 to 1998. Data are also used from the Chicago Homicide Project and the CaliforniaHomicide Data File. In addition, narrative accounts of homicide are drawn upon from LosAngeles, Miami, St Louis and Las Vegas to describe and assess the interpersonal dynam-ics of homicide events.

The vast amount of data collected is used to test the idea that different types of homi-cides occur under qualitatively different circumstances and examines whether differenttypes of homicide have unique profiles. The authors also examine the similarities and dif-ferences in the structure and process of homicides across different social groups over thelast three decades. Until now the situations in which homicides occur has been neglectedas a topic of research so ‘Rethinking Homicide’ makes an important contribution to ourunderstanding of homicide events.

Chapter 1 (Introduction: Studying Homicide Situations) reviews literature on homicideand approaches for exploring homicide situations. The authors propose that a combina-tion of basic elements (offender, victim and offence) define the underlying structure ofhomicide situations.

Chapter 2 (Theoretical Development) divides theories on homicide into three categories:individual, macro and situational. This chapter also examines theories that have been putforward to account for changes in the type and nature of homicides occurring. The authorsadvocate the use of situational analysis for investigating whether different subsets of homi-cide are qualitatively different in terms of offender, victim and offence circumstances andwhether the underlying structures of homicide have remained stable or changed over time.

Chapter 3 (Data and Methodology for studying Homicide Situations) outlines thestrengths and weaknesses of homicide data sources available. These include newspaperaccounts, court, mortality and police records. The SHR which are the main data sourcefor the research provides information on the sex, age and race of offender and victim,victim–offender relationship, number of offenders and victims, motive, type of weaponused, urban or rural location and the region where the offence was committed. The authorsargue that Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), a relatively new technique that

Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender ProfilingJ. Investig. Psych. Offender Profil. 2: 65–67 (2005)

*Correspondence to: Michelle Wright, University of Liverpool, School of Psychology, Eleanor Rathbone Build-ing, Bedford Street South, Liverpool L69 72A, UK. E-mail: meshell@liverpool.ac.uk

bridges qualitative (description and interpretation) and quantitative (explanation andcausal generalisation) methodologies, provides a suitable way of analysing the nature andstructure of homicide situations.

Chapter 4 (The Empirical distribution of Homicide) provides a summary of the dis-tribution of homicides across countries and social groups over time. The SHR data areanalysed using QCA to identify the most prevalent structures of homicide over the lastthree decades. The analysis reveals three stable structural types of homicide: Interpersonaldisputes, domestic violence and instrumental felony.

Chapters 5 to 9 follow similar formats in their explorations of a variety of further issuesrelating to homicide investigation. Across these five chapters the theoretical discussionsof the findings are informative relating the specific issues to changes in society and exist-ing theories of homicide. The use of narrative accounts of homicide at the end of eachchapter brings the QCA findings alive and also highlights the way in which the results ofthe QCA fail to account for the full range of different types of homicide situations. Theimplications of the findings are discussed in terms of criminological theory and publicpolicy. There is a brief mention of using the data for Offender Profiling (p. 129) but theuse of the findings for investigative purposes is not considered further.

Chapter 5 (Instrumental and Expressive Motives in Homicide Situations) examineswhether instrumental and expressive homicides have similar or distinct structures andwhether these types of offences have changed over time. The location in which a homi-cide is committed is divided into large city or less urban area. In my opinion it may havebeen more productive to examine indoors versus outdoor locations to detect qualitativedifferences in instrumental and expressive crimes. The analysis does reveal distinct struc-tures for instrumental and expressive homicides and these are well illustrated with examplecases.

Chapter 6 (Gender Differences in the Structure of Homicide Situations) tests theassumption that homicides committed by males and females are qualitatively different.The authors draw attention to the lack of previous research on both differences in maleand female styles of homicide and on changes in these over time. The current researchgoes some way to addressing this. The findings indicate that males and females kill inqualitatively different situations, with males killing in a variety of expressive and instru-mental situations and females within the context of domestic violence. Changes in thetypes of offences committed by males and females were apparent with an increase in male, teenage offenders committing offences outdoors, the use of firearms by females andoffences committed by females in their teens.

Chapter 7 (Change and Stability in the Structure of Youth Homicide) opens with anaccount of the way in which violent offences committed by youths have become a majorsocial concern over recent years. This chapter explores changes in the structure of youthhomicide over the last three decades. Analysis of the data revealed that juvenile homicideis primarily an offence committed by males against persons of the same race. An increasein acquaintance and stranger killings and homicides committed by more than one youthwere observed. The authors conclude that youth homicide, while similar in many regardsto the adult offence, does have a number of qualitatively unique features.

Chapter 8 (Racial Differences in Homicide Situations) examines differences in homi-cides committed by offenders from different ethnic groups and assesses the changes inthese patterns over time. Common themes in homicides committed by offenders acrossdifferent ethnic groups were identified. These included male sexual jealousy and posses-siveness as motivations for killing a female partner and threats to honour and masculine

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Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Investig. Psych. Offender Profil. 2: 65–67 (2005)

identity in confrontational homicides. At the same time some important ethnic differenceswere identified, with Hispanic offenders emerging as most distinct in the styles of homi-cide they exhibited. The authors conclude that further research is needed to examine sim-ilarities and differences in homicides committed by offenders of different ethnic groups.

Chapter 9 (Victim–Offender Relationships) begins with a discussion of the variousattempts to develop classifications of victim–offender relationship. The authors com-pare three categories of victim–offender relationship: intimate partner and other familymembers, friends and acquaintances and strangers. The analyses indicate that acquaintancehomicide has the most distinct profile of these groups. The narrative accounts at the endof the chapter detail homicide situations that were not evident in the QCA findings, suchas homicides involving mistaken identity, with victims being in the wrong place at thewrong time.

Chapter 10 (Conclusion and Implications) summarises the key findings of the study andthe implications for the development of public policies on homicide. The overall findingsof the research suggest that homicide is both a simple and complex event and homicidesituations are characterised by stability and change over time. The authors note that: ‘Thisconclusion is not necessarily the most parsimonious result, but it is nonetheless the bestrepresentation of the overall nature of homicide situations’ (p. 261). Routine Activitytheory, Strain theory, Social Disorganisation theory, Subculture of Violence theory andRational Choice theory are drawn upon to interpret the findings of the study. The limita-tions of the research are discussed in terms of lethal versus non-lethal violence, the use ofQCA and the generalisabiliy of the findings to other countries.

In conclusion, ‘Rethinking homicide’ presents a new perspective and approach forexamining homicide situations and makes an informative and useful addition to the exist-ing body of literature on homicide, which is of use to students and practitioners research-ing homicide. The book highlights the usefulness of conducting research on large homicidedata sets and urges similar research to be conducted using data from different countries totest the validity of the findings and permit cross cultural comparisons. Future researchcould extend the current study by considering its investigative implications and whetherany of the findings could be used to aid the police in the investigation of homicide.

Michelle WrightPublished online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).

DOI: 10.1002/jip.20

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Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Investig. Psych. Offender Profil. 2: 65–67 (2005)