NCJ Number
220074
Journal
Homicide Studies Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2007 Pages: 189-212
Date Published
August 2007
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This study compared characteristics of German and United States homicide, for offenders’ ages 14 to 30 years, at the end of the 20th century and offered the first in-depth analysis of homicide within the Freiburg Cohort study data.
Abstract
Study findings indicate that many of the characteristics of offenders, victims, their relationships to one another, and methods of killing are not culture specific, particularly for female offenders. However, despite significant difference between the two areas in overall homicide levels, the offending rates for this 14 to 30 year old group were 5 to 6 times the overall national rates in each country. Also, peak ages for homicide offending by males were 2 to 5 years older for German nationals and immigrants than for specific racial and/or ethnic subgroups of United States offenders. Support was found in both countries for the concept of an aging out of crime in the case of homicide. For some time, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law have overseen a major longitudinal analysis of crime and criminal justice, known as the Freiburg Cohort Study. In turn, a number of analyses of Houston, TX homicides have been completed in recent years. As primarily an exploratory study, this research collaborated in comparing individual-level characteristics of homicide offending in the State of Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, and the United States city of Houston, TX, for the period of the mid-1980s to 2001. Tables, figures and references