No abstract

No abstract

Criminologists tend to focus their attention on the dynamics of offending, paying only limited theoretical and empirical attention to the well-established relation between offending and victimization. However, a number of criminological theories either explicitly or implicitly predict similarities in the correlates and etiology of victimization and offending, suggesting substantial overlap across offender and victim populations. Empirical research over the last few decades confirms this overlap across offender and victim populations, at least among those involved in non-lethal incidents. This research explores whether similarities between offender and victim populations extends to homicide, using criminal justice, health care, and U.S. Census data, linked to homicide offenders and victims in Bernalillo County, New Mexico between 1996 and 2001. Our findings indicate substantial overlap in the social contexts and risk behaviors of homicide offenders and victims. However, our results also side with more recent suggestions that while many victims overlap with offender populations, there is also a group of victims that appears to be distinguishable from offender groups. These findings have important implications for both theory and intervention.

No abstract

No abstract