Society has ambivalent attitudes toward homicide, simultaneously condemning and justifying it. Social indicators -- age, sex, work, and wealth -- are often used to prove that poverty causes crime, but analysis shows that while homicide may occur more frequently in impoverished areas, poverty is not the sole cause. Many researchers relate ethnic differences to differing rates of violent crime; the text looks at such studies in various European countries, Israel, Canada, and the United States, as well as relationships between alcohol consumption and violence. No single factor by itself increases the potential for violent criminality. The text details many other motives for homicide -- love and sex, different forms of mental illness, rational killing for wealth and power, terrorism. Other contemporary violence-generators include frustration, entitlement, nihilism, and the drug culture. Notes, tables, more than 875 references, and name and subject indexes are supplied. A booklet of test questions accompanies the volume. The text can be used singly or in conjunction with three other volumes on criminal careers. For the other volumes in the series, see NCJ 87528 and 87530-31.