The purpose of this study is to examine how sex influences the physical demandof weapons used in homicide. The study focuses on two research questions using data from Newark, New Jersey: (1) Does sex influence the use of a weapon that is more or less physically demanding to commit homicide? and (2) Does the sex dyad of the offender and victim influence using a weapon that is more or less physically demanding? The descriptive analysis shows significant relationships between the sex dyad of the offender and victim in homicide and the level of physical demand used to perpetrate homicide. The logistic multinomial regression analysis shows suspect sex and suspect and victim sex dyads significantly predict the physical demand of the weapons used to perpetrate homicide compared to those who utilized weapons of low physical demand. The results support the need to challenge traditional perspectives regarding the role of sex in criminal decision-making and seek to integrate more intersectional and gendered explanations into neoclassical theories of criminal behavior. Theoretical implications and future avenues of research are also discussed.

Scholars have found that firearm-related deaths are the third leading cause of death in 2019 overall among U.S. children and teens between ages 1 and 19, surpassing the number of deaths from other diseases including the flu and heart disease. Despite this, recent scoping reviews have highlighted the limited knowledge in the field surrounding the impact of risk factors for firearm homicide victimization for children and teens at the situational- and community-level. Those that have researched children and teen firearm violence have focused mainly on individual-level risk factors and largely ignored situational and community-level factors, such as the impact of the presence of domestic violence and other interpersonal conflicts within the home. Moreover, researchers who have examined risk factors and correlates for firearm homicide have yet to include gun laws as a covariate of firearm homicide in conjunction with individual, situational, and other structural factors. Given the clear need to remedy these gaps in our understanding of firearm homicide, in this dissertation, I seek to examine what the correlates are for children and teen firearm victimization and how these two age groups differ. Children and teen victims are examined in the context of risk factors at the micro-, situational, and macro-level. I examine three research questions: What are the significant individual and situational variables for firearm homicide among children and teens? How do the individual and situational covariates of firearm homicide differ for children relative to teens? Controlling for differences in state and year, what are the most salient covariates of firearm homicides involving children relative to teens? Findings from this dissertation demonstrate the importance of the disaggregation of homicide typologies. Differences were discovered at the individual and situational levels for child and teens. The results of this dissertation demonstrated that firearms were less likely to be used in incidents involving child victims. Further, race, sex, gang-involvement, engagement in delinquency, and the victim-offender relationship were particularly important for predicting the likelihood of a child or teen being killed in a homicide. When compared to teens, children were more likely to be killed with a non-firearm weapon within the home by a family member. In the multilevel models, individual and situational level factors were the most salient predictor of firearm homicide among children and teens during the study time period. Results of the multilevel models showed that states that had laws requiring a permit to purchase a firearm and domestic violence restraining order (DVRO) firearm laws outside of the automatic prohibition of a DVRO subject from possessing a firearm had a decreased likelihood of the firearm being used in a child or teen homicide.

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that influence the choice of weapon in homicide. The study focuses on three research questions using data from Newark, New Jersey: what is the most commonly associated weapon with each motive? What factors influence the use of a particular type of weapon in a homicide? How does the method of weapon retrieval, or lack thereof, affect the choice of weapon? The cross-tabulation findings revealed that domestically-motivated homicides are most likely to be committed with knives and blunt objects; and drug-, gang-, dispute-, revenge, and robbery-motivated homicides were most likely to be committed using a firearm. The logistic regression demonstrated the method of weapon retrieval, the mode of how the homicide was carried out, the offender’s gender, and the victim and/or offender being a drug dealer or a gang member were all significant in terms of how they affected the offender’s use of a firearm to carry out the homicide. For knives and blunt objects, the method of weapon retrieval, the mode of how the homicide was carried out, the offender’s gender, and the victim and/or offender being a drug dealer or a gang member were all significant in terms of how they affected the offender’s use of a knife or blunt object to carry out the homicide. The results support the need for focused deterrence and conflict resolution interventions.