Exploring victim-offender relationships in homicide: The role of individual and event characteristics

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Abstract
A feature common to both macro-and micro-level analyses of homicide is the relationship between victims and offenders. Previous research generally conceptualized this relationship as a dichotomy—either primary and secondary or stranger and nonstranger. Such classifications, however, mask important variation in these subcategories. This paper employs a five-category description of the relationship between victims and offenders: strangers, acquaintances, friends, relatives, and those romantically linked. The relationship between this expanded typology and individual attributes, motives, and event characteristics are examined. Results show that motives and victim-offender relationships are related less strongly than previous research would suggest. Despite this finding, other correlates generally confirm the findings of earlier research.

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