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Human Side of Homicide

NCJ Number
93170
Editor(s)
B L Danto, J Bruhns, A H Kutscher, L G Kutscher
Date Published
1982
Length
322 pages
Annotation
Twenty-eight multidisciplinary essays focus on the profiles of killers, the specific types of homicide, and the germane legal issues, as well as the criminal justice response to homicide.
Abstract
In the series, one essay identifies some general patterns of murders and reviews the results of research that has attempted to determine types of murderers. Another paper views the growing homicide problem as a public health issue and proposes an approach for preventing homicides, including the development of offender profiles that permit the identification of at-risk persons and groups. Other essays in this section cover the psychoanalytic approach to aggression, murder and the media, survivors of homicide, and euthanasia. In the section of essays dealing with specific types of homicide and homicide patterns, one essay focuses on black homicide, its causes, and some suggested remedies, while other papers address homicides by females, children, and the elderly. Consideration is also given to military homicide and terrorist killings. An essay on homicide and the family advises that diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive efforts must approach family crises with a view of the family as a dysfunctional interacting network rather than as the problem of only one family member. The final section of essays, which deals with legal issues and criminal justice responses pertaining to homicide, includes a review of studies on the pros and cons of gun control. The author of the study concludes that reasonable restrictive procedures for the purchase of handguns constitute the most effective approach. Information pertaining to the investigation, prosecution, and defense of homicide cases is presented in a number of papers, along with a judge's view of the handling of a homicide case in the course of the trial and the pros and cons of capital punishment for murderers. Alternative approaches to dealing with the violent criminal are discussed as well. Chapter references and a subject index are included. For individual documents, see NCJ 93171-82.

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