Reading Questions

Ch. 10, Homicide and Aggravated Assault

  • Name/explain the four categories of murder and nonnegligent murder.

    • First-Degree Murder: The offender Planned to kill someone and did it

      • includes felony murders: the commission of a felony such as rape, robbery, or arson causes someone’s someone’s death even if not intended

    • Second Degree Murder: deaths in which an offender intended to do serious harm short of killing the victim but the victim died anyway

    • Voluntary Manslaughter: killings committed out of intense emotion such as anger or fear

    • Involuntary Manslaughter: killing committed because offenders have acted recklessly

  • Name/explain the two categories of assault.

    • Simple Assault: an unlawful attack that does not include a weapon or cause serious injury

    • Aggravated Assault: an unlawful attack that uses a weapon or causes serious injury

  • Consider the "social dynamics" of homicide and aggravated assault. (1) Describe at least 4 similarities. (2) Then describe the major difference.

    • Both tend to be spontaneous and in a fit of anger, revenge or other strong emotions, both are mostly committed by non-strangers, both can involve weapons though homicides use fire-arms the most,

    • whether a victim dies or not

  • How does the book explain:

    • why males have higher rates of homicide and aggravated assault?


    • why do black Americans and certain other people of color have higher rates of homicide and aggravated assault?


    • why the U.S. has higher homicide rates?



Ch. 10, Robbery and other forms of violence

  • What is the key social patterning difference between robbery and homicide/aggravated
    assault?

  • Think of gender and the victim-offender relationship in the patterning of homicide: What seems to be different for "women who commit murder"?

  • What is the key difference between males and females in the victim-offender relationship in workplace violence?

  • What is the key difference between a "mass murderer" and a "serial killer"? What is a key difference between these two groups in terms of who they kill?

  • What is the key difference between hate crimes reported in UCR and hate crimes reported in the NCVS?

  • What are the key findings discussed in the section on “Firearms, Crime, and Violence”?