Topics suggested for future research include: victim precipitation; subcultures of violence; homicide syndromes; sibling crimes and limiting handgun availability. A major issue is whether lethal violence is only the unfortunate result of other violent incidents or the almost inevitable result of an intent to kill. Another major research interest is homicide rates within political units, with the goal of understanding the spatial and temporal distribution of killings. In addition, further research is suggested into the popularity of and public support for the death penalty; types of killings; causes of homicide; theory leading to an ability to predict violence; homicide beyond the American scene; similarities and differences between patterns and trends in homicide and non-lethal forms of violence; why some societies have low or high numbers of homicide; the association of alcohol and violence; situational characteristics for specific types of homicide; organizing data on victim/offender relationships; serial murder and its causes; the components contributing to fluctuations in homicide rates; how long the current down trend in homicide will last; the independence of homicide trends from those of other crimes or its link to general crime trends; and whether homicide trends in the future will be national or regional in scope.