NCJ Number
108120
Journal
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume: 78 Issue: 2 Dated: (Summer 1987) Pages: 398-429
Date Published
1987
Length
32 pages
Annotation
A national sample and a psychiatric sample of stranger homicide in Canada are compared on the factors of mental illness, history of violence, alcohol and drug abuse, sexual problems, and biological factors.
Abstract
Data on the national sample were obtained from Statistics Canada for 1978-83. Only those persons convicted were examined, yielding a sample of 1,418 cases. The psychiatric sample was drawn from psychiatric referrals to the Clarke Institute as analyzed by Langevin et al. There were 109 killers and 38 nonviolent, non-sex offender controls. The study shows numerous similarities between stranger killers and acquaintance killers. Both were mostly composed of young, white, single males who were grade school dropouts with poor job skills. Their victims were older white, single males who were killed in public places mostly by stabbing, beating, and shooting. Stranger killers were more likely to use excessive force on a victim who had not provoked them. Stranger killers were less likely to have attempted suicide than acquaintance killers, but the former group tended to hallucinate more often at the time of the offense. As a group, the stranger killers had poorer interpersonal and sexual relationships than the acquaintance group members. Both groups were similar in their abuse of alcohol and drugs, disturbed family backgrounds, and history of excessive violence. 19 tables and 73 footnotes.