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15 J. Quantitative Criminology 1 (1999)

handle is hein.journals/jquantc15 and id is 1 raw text is: Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Vol. 15, No. 1, 1999 Exploring the Social Context of Instrumental and Expressive Homicides: An Application of Qualitative Comparative Analysis Terance D. Miethe' and Kriss A. Drass' Using data from the UCR's Supplementary Homicide Reports, the method of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is used to examine whether instrumental and expressive homicides are similar or unique in their social context (i.e., combi- nations of offender, victim, and situational characteristics). Instrumental and expressive homicides are found to have both common and unique social contexts, but the vast majority of homicide incidents involve combinations of individual and situational factors that are common in both general types of homicides. Among subtypes of instrumental (like rape, prostitution, robbery murders) and expressive homicides (like lovers' triangles, brawls, and arguments), there is wide variability in their prevalence of unique and common components. After dis- cussing these results, the paper concludes with illustrations of how QCA may be used in other areas within criminology. KEY WORDS: homicide; qualitative comparative analysis; instrumental motives; expressive motives; social context. 1. INTRODUCTION There are various ways to classify and distinguish types of criminal homicide. State statutes distinguish between criminal and noncriminal homi- cides, degrees of murders, and types of manslaughters. Law enforcement agencies often categorize homicides according to the characteristics of the offender (e.g., gang vs nongang), the victim (e.g., child murders, teen violence, elderly victims), or its situational context or attributes (e.g., dom- estic violence, stranger assaults, drive-by shootings, robbery-mur- ders, road rage, or workplace homicides). Lawyers, social scientists, and law enforcers also classify homicides in terms of their motive. Common 'Department of Criminal Justice, University of Nevada Las Vegas, 4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154. 1 0748-4518/99/0300-0001$16.00/0 © 1999 Plenum Publishing Corporation

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