Attributes of Homicides

Abstract

The empirical value of traditional measures related to homicide, the cause of death, and weapon use are well researched and documented in the literature. This research proposes new scale measures quantifying the degree of injury exhibited in homicide cases that can be used to further examine the dynamics of homicidal behavior. These scales are then tested in an examination of a limited set of data reflecting homicides of elderly women. Normally the purview of trauma studies, where the use of injury scales to assess patient survivability is known, homicidal injury is examined using a similar method as a means for exploring offender and crime scene variables. As proposed here, these injury scales may also prove to be useful in furthering other areas of homicide research...