ABSTRACT
Yet both these [quantitative] scientific studies and practitioners’ responses share the problem … [that] they move from an empirical consideration of rates to a theoretical explanation of why the homicide happens without ever considering the homicide event itself. And this is where qualitative sociology offers a unique and constructive approach not only to understanding what is happening in the day-today world in which homicide occurs, but to devising policies and programs at the pragmatic levels of city and county government. (Cheatwood 1997: 539)
