NCJ Number
115036
Date Published
1989
Length
17 pages
Annotation
In focusing on aspects of homicide relevant to clinical practice, this chapter addresses social and environmental factors, firearms, developmental factors, mass media effects, and psychopathology.
Abstract
Among the studies of social factors that affect homicide is one by the author and Messner which found that economic inequality and race were not related to homicide; the prime determinants were absolute poverty and marital disruption. Regarding environmental factors, there is evidence that the informal social control of crime through moral conditioning and structural restraints, other than law enforcement, may deter violence. The presence of firearms is an important factor, since this turns into homicides what might otherwise have been assaults. Factors that impact on a child's development increase the child's propensity for violence as an adult. Findings on the effects of mass media content on violence are contradictory and incomplete. In discussing the influence of psychopathology on violent behavior, the chapter considers schizophrenia, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, neurophysiological dysfunction, genetics, hormones, neurotransmitters, and personality disorders. The chapter concludes by noting that the psychiatric patients are at greater risk of becoming homicide victims than the general population. 91 references.