Homicide resulted from several types of crimes: fights (69 percent), robbery (17 percent), rape (1 percent), burglary (1 percent), from other circumstances like a contract killing (less than 1 percent), and unknown circumstances (12 percent). The unit of analysis was the victim, and offender data was collected where available. Characteristics used in the analysis were age, gender, race/ethnicity, weapon, and the precipitating crime. Unexpected correlations were that domestic homicide was most common among blacks and involved wives killing husbands more often than husbands killing wives, and < weapon use generally depended more on the victim's characteristics than on the offender's characteristics. Other relationships showed that male/male was the most common gender interaction, black and Hispanic Americans were more likely to be killed with a firearm than whites, and males were more likely to use weapons than females. The patterns of homicide changed over the 17-year period. Homicide increased rapidly until 1974 and then leveled off or declined. Data tables, notes, and 154 references are supplied.