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American Homicide
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American Homicide

First Edition
Other Titles in:
Homicide | Sociology | Violent Crime
288 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
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American Homicide examines all types of homicide, and gives additional attention to the more prevalent types of murder and suspicious deaths in the United States. Authors Richard M. Hough and Kimberly D. McCorkle employ more than 30 years of academic and practitioner experience to help explain why and how people kill and how society reacts. This compressive text takes a balanced approach combining scholarly research and theory with compelling details about recent cases and coverage of current trends.
 
CHAPTER 1: Introducing You to Homicide
Introduction

 
Homicide: What Most People Think They Know

 
Organization of the Book

 
Historic and Contemporary

 
What This Book Is Not

 
Policy Implications

 
 
CHAPTER 2: Who's Killing Whom and How Much
Introduction

 
What We Measure

 
How We Measure

 
Studying Homicide Situations

 
Data Challenges

 
 
CHAPTER 3: Murder by the Numbers
Introduction

 
Victims—Who Dies

 
Offenders—Categories and Demographics

 
Location, Location, Location

 
Weapons Used in Violence

 
Other Circumstances

 
Trends and Patterns

 
Homicide Internationally

 
 
CHAPTER 4: Why We Do It: Theories of Homicide
Introduction: Sociological and Criminological Perspectives

 
Individual Explanations

 
Social Structural

 
Life Course, Lifestyle, and Routine Activities Theory

 
 
CHAPTER 5: Confrontational Homicide
Introduction

 
Victim Precipitation

 
Honor Contests

 
Road Rage

 
Audience

 
Alcohol

 
Physiology

 
Girls, Women, and Confrontational Violence

 
Investigative Considerations

 
 
CHAPTER 6: Intimate Partner Homicide
Introduction and Definitions

 
Rates

 
Dynamics of Intimate Partner Homicide

 
Theories to Explain Intimate Partner Homicide

 
Lethality Assessment

 
Fatality Review Teams

 
Prosecution of Intimate Partner Homicide

 
 
CHAPTER 7: All in the Family
Introduction

 
Familicide

 
Parents and Children

 
Other Family Killings

 
 
CHAPTER 8: School Killings
Introduction—Perception and Prevalence

 
Mass Shootings and Attacks

 
The Killers

 
Motivations of Those Who Kill

 
Policy Responses

 
 
CHAPTER 9: Workplace Mass Killings
Introduction

 
Workplace Violence

 
Workplace Victims

 
The Workplace Killer

 
Assessing Violence Potential

 
Policy Implications

 
 
CHAPTER 10: Tool of Terror
Introduction

 
Definition and History

 
Acts of Terror

 
Who are Terrorists?

 
Hate Crimes and Killing

 
Role of the Media

 
Stopping Terrorists

 
 
CHAPTER 11: Serial Killing
Introduction

 
Myth and Mayhem

 
Typologies

 
Profiling Serial Killers

 
Female Serial Killers

 
Medical or Healthcare Serial Killers

 
Team Serial Killers

 
Catching Serial killers

 
 
CHAPTER 12: Cults and Gangs
Introduction

 
Cult Leaders and Followers

 
Assessing Impacts

 
Policy Implications

 
Gangs and Killing

 
 
CHAPTER 13: Solving Homicides
Introduction

 
First Officer on the Scene

 
Investigator Arrives

 
Documentation

 
Collection of Evidence

 
ME or No ME?

 
Prosecutor: Who Needs ‘Em?

 
Technology

 
Case Personnel

 
Working With the Media

 
 
CHAPTER 14: Murder in Court
Introduction

 
Stages in Homicide Cases

 
Building the Case and Charging Decisions

 
Evidentiary Issues

 
Defense Attorney Functions and Tactics

 
Ethical Issues

 
Plea-Bargaining

 
Sentencing

 
 
CHAPTER 15: Victims, Society, and the Future
Introduction

 
Victim Impact

 
Public Health Perspective

 
Criminal Justice System Response and Legislation

 
Societal Issues

 
Predicting Violence

 
Technology

 
 
References
 
Index
 
About the Authors

Supplements

Instructor Site
Calling all instructors! It’s easy to log on to SAGE’s password-protected Instructor Teaching Site for complete and protected access to all text-specific Instructor Resources. Simply provide your institutional information for verification and within 72 hours, you’ll be able to use your login information for any SAGE title! Then, you pick and choose from this list, depending on what each site offers.

Password-protected Instructor Resources include the following:
  • A Microsoft® Word® test bank, is available containing multiple choice, true/false, short answer, and essay questions for each chapter. The test bank provides you with a diverse range of pre-written options as well as the opportunity for editing any question and/or inserting your own personalized questions to effectively assess students’ progress and understanding.
  • Editable, chapter-specific PowerPoint® slides offer you complete flexibility in easily creating a multimedia presentation for your course. 
  • Teaching notes summarize key concepts on a chapter-by-chapter basis to help with preparation for lectures and class discussions.
  • Chapter-specific discussion questions help launch classroom interaction by prompting students to engage with the material and by reinforcing important content.
  • EXCLUSIVE! Access to full-text SAGE journal articles that have been carefully selected to support and expand on the concepts presented in each chapter are included.

“My students love true life examples, and this book has plenty of those…The chapters are long enough to inform the student of the subject matter, but not too long to discourage reluctant readers…Very well written and thought out.The author speaks on great authority on the subject matter.”

Stephen Ruegger
Mercer University

“Well written to keep the student engaged throughout the chapter…The book does an excellent job organizing the current and past explanations of IPH.”

Shawn Keller
Florida Gulf Coast University

“The text would be a great companion piece for a profiling or criminal investigation course. If a program offered a “murder” themed course, would be an excellent fit.”

Cathryn Lavery
Iona College

“Clear and concise writing, combination of academic and practitioner’s points of view and pedagogical features used.”

Gordana Rabrenovic
Northeastern University

“I found it to be very thorough and well organized. I felt the selection of case studies were good and up-to-date.”

Cathryn F. Lavery, PhD
Iona College

“Wide variety of topics”

Christian Bolden
Loyola University New Orleans

A good solid text that covers many areas of homicide. Good PPT support, that matches up well for instructor's added ease in when using in building the course. Students feel comfortable reading the text, while not being overwhelmed as a data driven book, but one with real-life application to theory and understanding.

Professor Mike Grabowski
Criminal Justice Dept, Sonoma State University
September 22, 2017
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Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Richard M. Hough Sr.

Dr. Richard Hough has taught criminal justice and criminology courses in the college and university setting for twenty-five years and he has taught investigative methods and other law enforcement and corrections topics in the academy and in-service law enforcement setting for thirty years. This is added to the author’s extensive professional experience including investigating homicide. Dr. Hough has held increasingly responsible positions in law enforcement and has served as director of law enforcement and corrections in sheriff’s offices, as well as superintendent of detention centers for the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. Dr.... More About Author

Kimberly Dianne McCorkle

Kimberly D. McCorkle is a former state prosecutor and currently serves as Vice Provost and Professor at the University of West Florida, where she has been on the faculty since 2002. As a prosecutor, she worked as a specialized domestic violence (DV) prosecutor and conducted over 50 misdemeanor and felony jury trials as lead counsel. In that position, she also trained law enforcement officers on the legal aspects of investigating domestic violence crime. Over the last 20 years, she has been interviewed numerous times by local and national media as an expert on domestic violence crime. Her primary research focus is intimate partner and... More About Author

Also available as a South Asia Edition.