Research into the nature and sources of intimate violence has not resolved the question of whether intimate violence differs from other forms of criminal violence to the extent that it should be considered separately. This study applied hierarchical modeling techniques to data from the Supplementary Homicide Reports to estimate multilevel models of stranger homicide and compared them with results from research on intimate homicide. Intimate homicides differed from stranger homicides in several important respects and should be considered separately. The study: (1) established that the incidence of intimate and stranger homicide offending varies significantly across States; (2) estimated the amount of variation in the dependent variables that lie within and between States; (3) incorporated individual-level demographic variables into the explanation of stranger and intimate homicide; and (4) modeled some interactions between individual and structural factors in the explanation of intimate and stranger homicide. Notes, tables, references