NCJ Number
137400
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology Volume: 34 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1992) Pages: 15-34
Date Published
1992
Length
20 pages
Annotation
Characteristics of offenders, victims, and circumstances of the offense for Canadian youth charged with homicide between 1961 and 1983 were examined and compared with findings from published American data.
Abstract
The Canadian data confirm the general findings of American studies that most homicide involves single offenders and victims, but some differences emerge between the American and Canadian juvenile homicide. When strangers were victims in Canada, a single offender was involved 67 percent of the time; the similar figure for the United States was 31 percent. For every category of social relationship, there was substantially more multiple offender perpetration in the United States than in Canada. Of the homicides committed by youth in Canada, 14 percent involved a parent as the victim and 19.5 percent involved other family members, 35 percent were acquaintances, and strangers accounted for approximately 31.5 percent. Children who committed homicide in the United States tended to focus less on family members and more on acquaintances than their Canadian counterparts. 7 notes, 1 figure, 8 tables, and 27 references (Author abstract modified)