Patterns and Major Determinants of Homicide in the United States

Criminal homicide has increased steadily during the past two decades to account today for more than 1 percent of deaths in the United States. After providing background information on the rates and patterns of bomicide in the U.S., the author uses the literature to present a twofold discustion of factors affecting the incideuce of homicide: those that act as a deterrence to crime, such as punishment, and environmental and biological factors that can interact in a complex way to produce violence and murder. Exampies of these latter factors include firearms, drug and alcobol abuse, genetics, race, psychiatric disorders, metabolic states, the economy geograpbic region, the media, and political instability.