title: Trends and patterns of justifiable homicide: a comparative analysis.
abstract: This paper reports the first national level analysis of police and citizen justifiable homicides for a twelve year period. Utilizing data from the Comparative Homicide File, trends and characteristics of police and citizen justifiable homicides are described and reviewed. Particular emphasis is given to comparing justifiable homicides to criminal homicides. The results establish that while similar to criminal homicide, police and citizen justifiable homicides differ significantly in terms of factors such as circumstance, relationship, weapons, and racial characteristics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Criminal Justice, Northern Arizona University.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alvarez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003416:Criminal Law; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006708:Homicide / Q000208:ethnology / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D012926:Social Control, Formal; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data