Exploratory Analysis of Homicide Victims, Offenders, and Events in Russia

• NCJ Number: 214448
• Journal: International Criminal Justice Review Volume: 16 Issue: 1 Dated: May 2006 Pages: 5-23
• Author(s): William Alex Pridemore
• Date Published: May 2006
• Length: 19 pages
• Contract Number(s): 817-13
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of State; National Science Foundation; American Sociological Assoc; National Council for Eurasian and East European Research
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This exploratory analysis focused on describing homicide victims, offenders, and events in Russia.

Abstract

Results revealed that 58 percent of the 248 homicide victims in the 225 homicide events were male and 94 percent of the 246 offenders were also male. Approximately two-thirds of offenders (66 percent) had consumed alcohol at the time of the offense and about 30 percent of offenders killed victims who were helpless at the time of the attack. One-third of the homicide cases involved victims and offenders who were strangers to one another (33 percent) while two-thirds of the cases involved victims and offenders who were acquainted. Of those who knew one another, 9.3 percent were involved in current or past intimate relationships, 9.0 percent involved other family members, and 48.8 percent involved friends or acquaintances. A knife was used in 47.2 percent of homicide events, bodily force was used in 18.1 percent of homicides, and firearms were used in 10.1 percent of homicides. Most frequent motives were acute arguments (31.9 percent), profit (24.2 percent), and ongoing arguments (13.3 percent). Closer analysis revealed the most frequent motive for offenders who had not consumed alcohol was profit. No clear pattern emerged for particular time of year but homicides were observed to occur more frequently on Mondays (22 percent) and Saturdays (16 percent). Data were drawn from narratives extracted from 225 homicide court verdicts in the Russian Republic of Udmurtia from 1989 to 1998. The narratives contained information about the homicide event, the victim-offender relationship, motive, time and location, alcohol involvement, situation context, and type of weapon. Data were coded and descriptive statistics were generated. Future research using this same data should employ more sophisticated analysis techniques to further examine the interrelationships between the homicide characteristics and the criminal event perspectives provided by Luckenbill (1977) and others. Tables, appendix, notes, references