Robbery-Homicide: Understanding the Interaction with Different Types of Actors

• In Event: Special Types of Homicide and Homicide Threats

Abstract

According to Wright and Decker (1997) robbers typically do not resort to lethal violence during the course of a stickup and prefer to use nonlethal violence to subdue a resistant victim. However, that is not to say robbery-homicide does not occur. Using homicide data from three cities (Newark, New Jersey; Rochester, New York; Detroit, Michigan), this paper focuses on examining the differences in robbery-homicide interactions. This paper will determine if there are key differences in robbery-homicide incidents where the interactants vary, for example, the offender and victim are gang members, only the victim is a gang member, only the offender is a gang member, and neither the interactants are gang members. Policy implications will also be discussed.

Authors

• Victor Mora, Arizona State University

• Jesenia M Pizarro, Arizona State University