SUNY series in Violence – serie

The authors show how and why alcohol and violence are so often linked today.The relationship between alcohol and homicide in America is explored both historically and theoretically, providing the groundwork for two empirical analyses. The first, a theoretical approach, leads to the development of a selective disinhibition hypothesis, the implications of which are tested in a longitudinal analysis of alcohol availability and homicide in 256 U.S. cities between 1960 and 1980. Alcohol availability was found to significantly increase homicide rates. Availability also interacted with city poverty rates, lack of social bonds, and the age structure to further increase the incidence of murder.The second analysis, policy based, focuses on the impact on youth homicide rates of increases in the minimum age of purchase for alcohol, enacted by most states during the 1980s. This analysis shows that increases in the minimum drinking age had a significant impact on certain types of youth homicide. The book concludes with a discussion of the causes of the alcohol and homicide relationship, public policy and crime control alternatives for reducing alcohol related homicide, and other ongoing research that addresses these and other issues.

Building on past work, the authors outline an integrated model for linking suicide and homicide and show how that research from this perspective can further our understanding of violence. Specifically, they show that research based on this model provides new insights into how structural and cultural factors combine to produce high homicide levels in the American South and cross-national difference in lethal violence rates. In conclusion, they evaluate the model's utility, address possible criticisms of this perspective, and suggest avenues for further investigations of lethal violence.

A fascinating profile of female homicide offenders emerges from this analysis of the characteristics of women murderers in six cities in the United States, including the circumstances of the murders, the role of the victims, the role of the perpetrators, and their fates in court.The volume explores every aspect of females who murdered-from arrest through sentencing-and provides descriptions of ecological and other circumstances of the murders, the victims, the motives of the perpetrators, and their fates in court. The generous utilization of case examples dramatically reveals the homicide scenarios.This exploratory, descriptive study compares 296 females arrested for homicide in six urban areas-Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York City-in 1979 and 1983. During field trips to these cities, which have the highest murder rates in the country, both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from police files, homicide records, F. B. I. reports, and criminal court information. Research analyses reveals a fascinating profile of today's female murderer. When Women Kill presents a comprehensive, yet highly readable, overview of this previously neglected subgroup of homicide offenders.

Provides a comprehensive look at violence as rooted in routine conflict in daily social interactions.When Push Comes to Shove examines the ways in which people define and respond to confrontations and interpersonal dilemmas in their lives. It includes insights from constructionist, interactionist, and criminal event perspectives to present the situational factors that contribute to conflict. The recent revelation that violence is connected with public and private life, and the realization that mainstream society tolerates many forms of violence, leads Kennedy and Forde to explore the circumstances when people use or don't use violent means to solve everyday disputes.