Comparative Context

The very scary, yet fascinating, thing about murder is the perception that it is a random occurrence that could happen to anyone at any time anywhere. These perceptions might seem validated by the FBI Crime Clock telling of a murder every 31.5 minutes (FBI, 2006) and by news stories detailing random killings, such as the recent execution-style killings of four college kids in Newark, NJ by robbers and the murderous gun rampage of a Virginia-tech student. Despite these images of murder, the reality is that murder most often is not “random violence.” That is, there are statistically identifiable, predictable patterns to murder offending. This chapter explores these statistical patterns of criminal homicide, primarily in the United States, and offers qualitative accounts of various types of murder. This chapter aims to answer the following questions: How common is murder? When and where has murder been most frequent? Who is most likely to commit murder? And, most importantly, Why would someone