ABSTRACT
Estimates of stranger murder that range between 53 percent and 90 percent are surely exaggerated. The best available estimates place stranger murders between 19 percent and 25 percent of reported murders. Early treatments of stranger relationships focused on showing that what is apparently outside our social world is very much a part of it. The interactional possibilities are increased by variations introduced by where the stranger is found. Interaction among strangers based on social categories and location are an instance of secondary relationships. The differences between stranger and nonstranger relationships are reflected in other parts of the criminal justice system. A major problem in trying to describe stranger violence is the recognition that much of it is situational. The chapter concludes that the confrontational violence that appears in bars is less a matter of the relationship between the physiology of alcohol and violence and more a matter of good management, effective legislation, and police surveillance.
