Domesticity, Divorce, and Deadly Quarrels - An Exploratory Study of Integration-Regulation and Homicide (From Critique and Explanation, P 133-147, 1986, Timothy F Hartnagel and Robert A Silverman, eds. - See NCJ-102349)

• NCJ Number: 102354
• Author(s): A R Gilis
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 15 pages
• Sale Source: Transaction Publishers
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This analysis demonstrates the utility of distinguishing types of homicide on the basis of the social distance between victims and offenders.

Abstract

Data were obtained on all known cases of murder in Canada between 1961 and 1974. Cases of infanticide and manslaughter were excluded. Victim-offender relationships were classified as: domestic, other primary relationships, a secondary relationship or no relationship, and unsolved (no known suspect). Spontaneity and emotional content of the murders were measured by the proportion of persons charged who were acquitted as insane and the method by which the murder was committed. The closer the ties between offender and victim, the more often were homicides spontaneous and emotional. In such homicides, there was a high level of participation by both males and females over the age of 30 as offenders and victims. In murders involving offenders socially removed from their victims, there was little or no evidence of an emotional content, and the choice of weapon did not indicate spontaneity. The findings imply that an organizational factor, social integration-regulation, rather than the demographic maturation of a population, may affect the form and prevalence of homicide. Possible implications of the findings for the relationship between homicide and divorce are discussed. 5 tables, 1 figure, and 1 note.