title: Space city revisited: patterns of legal outcomes in Houston homicide.
abstract: This study re-examines, and updates, that of Lundsgaarde (1977), who found that among homicide offenders in Houston, Texas, in 1969, less than 50% of those who killed intimates or other family members were ever prosecuted for their lethal acts. The general pattern that emerges from our analysis of a random sample of 428 homicide cases during 1985 to 1994 indicates that killers of intimate partners or relatives are somewhat more likely to be prosecuted as offenders who were friends or strangers to their victims. Also during this 1985 to 1994 time period, the relative percent of defendants who were sentenced to a prison term of 20 years of less was smallest for those who killed intimate partners or other family members compared to those convicted of killing friends/acquaintances or strangers. As for sex-specific legal dispositions in cases of lethal violence against intimates or other relatives, we found that sanctions against women were considerably less severe than those against male offenders, in both time periods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd., Orlando, FL 32816-1360, USA. vtitteri@mail.ucf.edu
authors.forename: Victoria B
authors.initials: VB
authors.lastname: Titterington
authors.forename: Barry P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Abbott
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000145:classification* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003416:Criminal Law / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D003417:Criminal Psychology; D017579:Domestic Violence / Q000145:classification / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006708:Homicide / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D035846:Law Enforcement / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D012306:Risk; D012737:Sex Factors; D013781:Texas / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data