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Preventing Homicide

- the relevance of a previous history of violence

In some cases, murders are committed by people with absolutely no previous history of offending. These are however a minority, and typically they are either "crimes of passion" or more tragically the result of improperly treated mental illness. More typically however, they are the culmination of a long track record of violence. Examples abound in our own Offender Databases, but there is also considerable research to support this contention.

So exactly how many murderers have a previous history of violence? The answers vary, but average out at around 55% or so.

From this charming document Homicidal Sex Offenders: Psychological, Phallometric and Diagnostic Features....

"82 % of Homicidal Sex Offenders have Previous History of Violence"

From this report OFF THE MARK by Karen Selick....

"A study of husbands killing wives in Canada between 1975 and 1991 showed that in 80 percent of the cases, there had been a history of previous violent incidents. In 73 percent, these prior disputes were "reasonably well known to acquaintances" of the victim; however, in only 22 percent was the prior violence known to police. (This last figure may be low because people were less likely two decades ago to report problems of this kind. This attitude may be changing. For 1993 alone, Statistics Canada says that 43 percent of domestic homicides "involved a history of domestic violence known to police.")

"This pattern of prior violence is even more thoroughly documented in the United States. In studies done in Detroit and Kansas City, researchers found that in 85 percent of domestic homicides, there had been a previous history of domestic violence known to police within the preceding two years, and that 54 percent of these cases had required five or more police interventions."

"However, Canadian women still demonstrate extraordinary reluctance to report marital violence to the police. A recent Statscan survey showed that only six percent of women who had experienced a single such incident reported it. Much more significant, however, is that only 49 percent of women who had experienced more than 10 incidents of violence had ever reported even a single incident."

and....

"A study of firearms crimes in Toronto from 1991 to 1993 found that more than half the homicide victims were known to the perpetrators but were not family members. Of the suspects charged, 65 percent had been previously convicted of some criminal offence."

From this UK report HOMICIDE FINDINGS.....

Previous Convictions
"We obtained details of previous convictions (antecedents) in 1,564 cases (98%). Of these, 574 (37%) had a history of violence against the person, 250 (16%) of threats of violence, 257 (16%) of possession of offensive weapons, 62 (4%) of sexual offences and 487 (31%) of criminal damage. Previous convictions for violence against the person were more common in men (41% of men compared to 18% of women)."

Of course a number of these offender will have had previous convictions for more than one type of offence, so we must assume a fairly high degree of overlap, but even so, it would appear that the percentage of offenders with previous violent offenders is likely to be well over 50%.

From this report form the Australasian Institute of Criminology Homicide in Victoria....

"Research indicates that homicide offenders in Australia are predominantly male (in the range of 80-85 per cent), are mostly over the age of 25 (in the range of 66 per cent), and that slightly more than half (55 per cent) have had a prior adult criminal record (Wallace 1986; Grabosky, et al. 1981). Relatively few of the offenders come from middle to upperclass occupational backgrounds (less than five per cent), with roughly onethird being unemployed (Wallace 1986, p. 47)."

Unfortunately no breakdown is given of whether the prior adult criminal record is one of violence or not.

Evidence from this report Youth as Victims and Offenders of Homicide from the same source indicates that even amongst offenders in the 17-25 age group who will not have time to have built up a significant record, well over one third had a history of violent offending.

And from a local source, this NZ Corrections Department document Storm Warning Statistical Models for Predicting Violence....

"The best predictor of future violent behaviour is past acts of violence" (Klassen and O'Connor 1994).
"Mulligan (1991) found that New Zealand offenders who had previously committed a violent offence had a 50% chance of committing a violent crime in the future - twice the likelihood of general offenders."

"In addition, having offences for violence, property damage and disorder in their current offences increased offenders' risk. Both the number of previous violent offences and the time spent out of prison between the last two court appearances were found to be predictive of violent reconviction. In total 2037(44%) out of the 4601 offenders were reconvicted of a violent offence in the five years following release"

So what can we do to prevent homicide?

We need to recognise that offenders with a long track record of violence pose an extremely high risk of committing homicide - the longer the record, the greater the risk. And we need to be willing to permanently incapacitate offenders with extensive records. To some extent we are already starting to do this, but we need to make this a formal policy rather than something that occurs as a result of sustained public and media pressure upon a reluctant Judiciary and Corrections system. We need to recognise that the primary function of prisons must be to protect those outside them from those we place inside.

But the reasons for preventative incarceration extend far beyond just murder, as the NZ Corrections Department report clearly demonstrates. By locking up those with a previous track record of violence, we will prevent further assaults and rapes, as well as a good proportion of murders. In a society that has experience a huge rise in violence over the last 30-40 years, surely this should be a priority.

Of course prison is not the only solution - we need far more early intervention in families, rehabilitation and job training for first/second offenders and so on. However for offenders that already have significant criminal histories it is the best solution, as it is the one that removes the risk from the law abiding public.

A number of excellent and relevant articles can be found here at the Crime Policy page of CIVITAS UK The Institute for the Study of Civil Society
and also here at a similar page for Reform (also in the UK)

This article is by Peter Jenkins. If you wish to use it in your own work, go right ahead. Some acknowledgement of the source i.e. Sensible Sentencing Trust would be appreciated.