NCJ Number
223174
Journal
Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 19 Issue: 5 Dated: May 2004 Pages: 541-557
Date Published
May 2004
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study explored the possibility of predicting the presence of a criminal record in the background of a homicide offender on the basis of victim characteristics.
Abstract
The findings suggest that it was possible to predict, with some confidence, the offender’s criminal record from information routinely collected during a homicide investigation concerning indicators of victim antisocial lifestyle. The study also suggested that certain combinations of victim and circumstantial characteristics related to antisocial lifestyle were especially strongly associated with the offender having a conviction for a previous crime. As predicted, the probability that an offender had a criminal record increased as well. The connection was strongest in those cases in which the victim had a criminal background as well. The results suggest that the more a victim had antisocial tendencies and/or characteristics related to being outside of normative Finnish society, the higher the probability that he or she was killed in a conflict with an offender who had a criminal record. This study shifts the focus to the characteristics of the victim as a potential indicator for the likely characteristics of the offender. It is argued that offenders attack persons resembling themselves. The idea is that the victim and the offender share different characteristics with the same psychological or thematic meaning, thus making it more likely for them to interact with each other. In this study, the indicators of victim antisocial lifestyle were chosen for predicting the presence of a (violent) criminal record in the background of the offender, itself representing an indicator of antisocial lifestyle. Tables, references