Homicide in Los Angeles: An Analysis of the Differential Character of Adolescent and Other Homicides.

摘要

This report describes the findings from an assessment of comparable samples of adolescent homicides and homicides without youths. Following a brief description of the research methods, we present bivariate comparisons of selected incident and participant characteristics and then discuss these findings relative to the gang, drug, gun and ethnicity questions posed above. Multivariate analyses that identify the most important characteristics in differentiating between the two groups of homicides are then presented. Confirming the conclusions derived from the adolescent homicide sample only, we find that gang factors in this Los Angeles setting loom very large in the distinction between adolescent and other homicides. Also, some drug and alcohol indicators surface as important due to higher presence in adult homicides. Less important to the distinction between the two types of cases are firearms use and ethnic patterns. We conclude this report with a discussion of some policy and programmatic directions based upon these results.