An Investigation of Offender and Victim Relationships in a Sample of Juvenile Homicides in California

Homicide is the one of the most heinous crime however in most cases it is related to social interaction between people. Disaggregating the homicide data based on victim-offender relationship can provide additional information that would otherwise have been overlooked. This study seeks to determine the relationship between the selected situational and socio-demographic variables and the victim-offender relationship among the juvenile homicides. The situational and demographic variables that were statistically significant in the Chi Square test were also significant in the logistic regression model using acquaintance homicide as the dependent variable. This research revealed that among the demographic variablesgender, marital status, education and race were all statistically significant. Routine activity theory provided an excellent framework for understanding crime but also for implementation and intervention strategies for different types of homicide.