The Relationship Between a Person's Criminal History, Immediate Situational Factors, and Lethal Versus Non-Lethal Events

Soenita Minakoemarie Ganpat, Joanne van der Leun, Paul Nieuwbeerta

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

When investigating serious violence, studies tend to look primarily at offenders and their background. This study investigates the influence of offenders' and victims' criminal history and immediate situational factors on the likelihood that violent events will end lethally. For this purpose, we compare lethal with non-lethal events, and combine Dutch criminal records with data from court files of those involved in lethal (i.e., homicide, n = 126) versus non-lethal events (i.e., attempted homicide, n = 141). Results reveal that both criminal history and immediate situational factors clearly matter for the outcome of violent events; however, immediate situational factors have the strongest effect on violent outcomes.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2535-2565
JournalJournal of Interpersonal Violence
Volume32
Issue number17
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Jul 2015

Keywords

  • (non) lethal violence
  • (attempted) homicide
  • violence
  • alcohol
  • criminal history
  • event characteristics
  • actor's behavior

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