Change and Stability in the Characteristics of Homicide Victims, Offenders and Incidents During Rapid Social Change

• NCJ Number: 218049
• Journal: British Journal of Criminology Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Dated: March 2007 Pages: 331-345
• Author(s): William Alex Pridemore
• Date Published: March 2007
• Length: 15 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

Using data on homicide events drawn from court and police records in the Udmurt Republic (Russia), this study examined stability and change in the distribution of Russian homicide victim, offender, and incident characteristics before and after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Abstract

The study found that despite the substantial changes in homicide offender and incident characteristics during the 1990s, the two victim characteristics examined (proportion female and proportion drinking at the time of the homicide) remained stable. These two characteristics did show significant changes for homicide offenders, however. This suggests that homicide offender and incident characteristics may be more sensitive to social change than victim characteristics. The proportion of homicide offenders who were female increased more than tenfold during the 1990s. There may be several direct and indirect reasons for this increase. First, Russian women have faced increasing stress in a number of economic arenas. Female unemployment rates increased substantially immediately following the break-up of the Soviet Union. At the same time, women may be experiencing the detrimental effects of the stress faced by their intimates, against whom they are striking back when they commit homicide. Regarding homicide incident characteristics, the findings show no changes during the 1990s in the use of guns, the proportion of homicides that involved a victim and offender who were strangers to their victims, or homicides that occurred outside in a public place. Increases in victim-precipitated and acquaintance homicide suggest homicides that stemmed from arguments. The author discusses the potential mechanisms through which the structural and cultural shifts are resulting in these changes and conclude that the ongoing transition is largely responsible for the changing nature of homicide in Russia. The term "criminological transition" is introduced to label a phenomenon that parallels "demographic transition." 1 table and 45 references