>Has anyone tried to arrive at some social breakdown of murders.
There are a bunch of tables on victim-offender relationships at <http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/1995/tost_3.html#3_aj>. Here's a summary I made, compressing some categories so it would fit on the screen. (E.g., close relative = spouse, parent, child, sibling; lover = boyfriend, girlfriend.) The column headings refer to the victim. "Felony type" refers to murders commmitted during the course of another crime, by crime shown. So it reads as follows: 11.0% of murders are of close relatives of the victim; 2.5%, by friends of the victims; 4.1% are drug-related. Note that *lots* are unknown; 32% of the circumstances under which the murder happened, and in 44.6% of cases, the victim-offender relationship was unknown.
Doug
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Murders and nonnegligent manslaughters known to police
By victim-offender relationship and circumstances of the offense, United States, 2001
(-represents zero)
close Other Acquain- Circumstances Total relative family tance Friend lover
Total 100.0% 11.0% 2.1% 21.7% 2.5% 4.3%
Felony type, total 16.6% 0.6% 0.3% 3.6% 0.3% 0.1%
Rape 0.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
Robbery 7.6% 0.0% 0.1% 1.3% 0.1% 0.0%
Burglary 0.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
Larceny-theft 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Motor vehicle thef 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
Arson 0.5% 0.1% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
Prostitution and
commercialized 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Other sex offenses 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Narcotic drug laws 4.1% 0.0% 0.0% 1.4% 0.1% 0.0%
Gambling 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Other - not specif 3.1% 0.4% 0.1% 0.5% 0.0% 0.0%
Suspected felony type 0.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
Other than felony type, 50.5% 9.1% 1.4% 14.6% 1.9% 3.7%
Romantic triangle 0.9% 0.1% 0.1% 0.4% 0.0% 0.1%
Child killed by ba 0.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
Brawl due to influence
of alcohol 1.1% 0.1% 0.0% 0.4% 0.1% 0.0%
Brawl due to influence
of narcotics 0.9% 0.0% 0.0% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0%
Argument over money or
property 1.4% 0.1% 0.0% 0.7% 0.1% 0.0%
Other arguments 25.8% 4.8% 0.8% 7.7% 1.2% 2.9%
Gangland killings 0.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
Juvenile gang kill 6.3% 0.0% 0.0% 1.5% 0.0% 0.0%
Institutional kill 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
Sniper attack 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Other - not specif 13.3% 3.9% 0.4% 3.0% 0.4% 0.6%
Unknown 32.4% 1.3% 0.3% 3.4% 0.2% 0.5%
employer/ Unknown Circumstances Neighboremployee Stranger relation
Total 0.6% 0.1% 13.1% 44.6%
Felony type, total 0.1% 0.0% 3.9% 7.7%
Rape 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.2%
Robbery 0.0% 0.0% 2.6% 3.4%
Burglary 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.2%
Larceny-theft 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Motor vehicle thef 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Arson 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.3%
Prostitution and
commercialized 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Other sex offenses 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Narcotic drug laws 0.0% 0.0% 0.4% 2.0%
Gambling 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Other - not specif 0.0% 0.0% 0.5% 1.6%
Suspected felony type 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.4%
Other than felony type, 0.5% 0.1% 6.6% 12.7%
Romantic triangle 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.1%
Child killed by ba 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Brawl due to influence
of alcohol 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 0.2%
Brawl due to influence
of narcotics 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.3%
Argument over money or
property 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.3%
Other arguments 0.3% 0.0% 3.6% 4.3%
Gangland killings 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.3%
Juvenile gang kill 0.0% 0.0% 1.0% 3.7%
Institutional kill 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Sniper attack 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Other - not specif 0.1% 0.0% 1.4% 3.4%
Unknown 0.1% 0.0% 2.6% 23.8%