Typology of Drug-Related Homicides (From Drugs, Crime and the Criminal Justice System, P 171-192, 1990, Ralph Weisheit, ed., -- See NCJ-123316)

• NCJ Number: 123323
• Author(s): H H Brownstein; P J Goldstein
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 22 pages
• Grant Number(s): 85-IJ-CX-0052
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Sale Source: Anderson Publishing Co
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Based on a study of homicides committed in New York State in 1984, this document proposes a typology for the classification specifically of drug-related homicides.

Abstract

Of the 1,459 homicides committed in New York City in 1984, 23.8 percent were identified as drug-related; of the 309 homicides committed elsewhere in the State that year, 41.8 percent were identified as drug-related. Homicides were categorized in two ways: by type of homicide and by the nature of their relationship to drugs. By type of homicide, they were classified as primary or secondary. By their relatedness to drugs, they were classified as psychopharmacological, systemic, economic-compulsive, or as related to drugs through more than one of these dimensions. A tripartite conceptual framework from classifying the relationship between drugs and violence was also used to distinguish the homicides of this study. This analysis demonstrates the complex nature of drug-related homicide. Ten different types of drug-related homicide were identified and empirical evidence of the existence of nine of these was provided. The predominant type was the primary or psychopharmacological, with 50.4 percent of the cases. Next was the secondary or systemic type with 12.4 percent of the cases, and the primary or multidimensional type with 10/9 percent. 2 tables, 53 references.