This article uses data derived from interviews with 268 homicide offenders incarcerated in New York State correctional facilities to examine their drug use prior to and at the time of the homicide, and their perceptions as to whether and how the homicides were related to their drug use. Most respondents who used a drug were not hard-core users of that drug. About one in five of the respondents could be considered polydrug abusers. Thirty percent of the sample believed that the homicide was related to their drug use. Alcohol was the drug most likely to be implicated in these homicides. The implications of this research are discussed.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02791072.1995.10471681 | DOI Listing |
Crim Behav Ment Health
January 2025
Human Development and Violence Research Centre (DOVE), Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil.
Background: Many studies have found that a small group of chronic offenders is responsible for the majority of crimes and tend to be particularly violent. However, there is a major lack of evidence on chronic offending in low- and middle-income countries; understanding these patterns is especially important in settings with very high levels of serious violence, such as Brazil.
Aims: To identify the extent that crime is concentrated in chronic offenders and linked to violence and homicide in a Brazilian cohort.
Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol
January 2025
Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Iowa State University, Ames, USA.
Despite cultural references to the dangers of hitchhiking, particularly for sexual homicide, no published research investigates these incidents from both an offender and crime scene perspective. Using the Sexual Homicide International Database (SHIelD), we explore lifestyle risk by comparing sexual homicide cases involving hitchhiking victims to those involving victims engaged in sex trade work. The results, based on the use of bivariate and multivariate statistics, indicate that offenders view hitchhiking victims as opportunities for confinement without physical restraint, often engaging in sexual acts and theft.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCrime Sci
December 2024
Center for Law and Behavior, Amsterdam Law School, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Background Setting: Punitive approaches to deter offending remain popular despite limited evidence of their effectiveness. This study investigated what effect presenting empirical criminological findings about the effectiveness of deterrence to a general public has on their punishment preferences. It builds on earlier research showing that such presentation reduces the public's inclination towards strict punishment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Law Psychiatry
December 2024
National University of Singapore, Faculty of Science, 6 Science Drive 2, 117546, Singapore.
Singapore implemented legal amendments that led to a transition from a mandatory death penalty to a discretionary death penalty in some cases of murder. This has granted judges greater leeway in the sentencing of homicide offenders, with a decade having now passed since the 2012 amendment. A notable scarcity of research exists to understand the relationship between mental illnesses and criminal culpability, as well as how diminished responsibility impacts sentencing outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBehav Sci Law
December 2024
Department of Social Policy, Sociology, and Criminology, School of Social Policy and Society, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
Research on sexual homicides has primarily focused on male offenders, and thus little is known about female offenders who perpetrated sexual homicides. This study aimed to develop the first statistical classification of female single-victim (SV) sexual homicide offenders (SHOs) using the U.S.
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