ABSTRACT
These motives are often subclassified to differentiate between two general types of homicides: “instrumental” and “expressive” homicides.
Using data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program’s (UCR) Supplementary Homicide Reports and the method of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), the present study examines whether instrumental and expressive homicides are qualitatively different in their social context (i.e., combinations of offender, victim, and situational characteristics). We do this empirically by identifying the most prevalent combinations of individual and situational elements unique to each type of homicide, as well as those common to both, through a systematic process of holistic comparison.
