ABSTRACT
Lethal violence exacts a devastating toll on humanity across all age groups.
Although all are at risk of becoming the victim of a homicide, that risk is not
equally distributed. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), lethal
violence is one of the leading causes of death for 15-44 year-olds worldwide
(Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi, & Lozano, 2002). Of the many forms of lethal
violence, homicide is among the most devastating. In the United States, homicide
rates rose sharply from the mid 1960s to the 1980s and remained high into the
early 1990s. In the 1990s, we saw a sharp decline to our current rate of 5.6 per
100,000 population in 2002 (Fox & Zawitz, 2004). This rate is comparable to
U.S. homicide rates in the 1950s and early 1960s. In the United States, risk of
homicide victimization is greatest among infants and in the late teens and young
adulthood (Finkelhor & Ormrod, 2001). Figure 1 shows the trends in the risk of
homicide by age group over the 26-year period between 1976 and 2002 (Fox &
Zawitz, 2004). As can be seen, there was a small increase in homicides in the
early 1980s and a large increase among people 14 to 24 during the early 1990s.
Since the late 1990s, homicide rates have declined sharply among 14-to
34-year-olds and remained steady among other age groups. Differences in risk
of death by homicide vary by gender, race and ethnicity, and age. This chapter
examines the social characteristics of homicide victimization in the United States
across the life span for children, teens and young adults, middle-aged adults,
and the elderly. Additionally, a discussion of the impact on people left behind
in the wake of a homicide is presented along with an overview of sociological
explanations.
