TY - JOUR
T1 - Is there such a thing as "defended community homicide"?
T2 - The necessity of methods triangulation
AU - Griffiths, Elizabeth
AU - Baller, Robert D.
AU - Spohn, Ryan E.
AU - Gartner, Rosemary
N1 - Funding Information:
Abstract: Data on homicides in Buffalo, New York, are analyzed to demonstrate the importance of “methods triangulation” for assessing the validity of quantitative measures. Defended community homicides are quantitatively operationalized as acts that occur in the offender’s community against a nonlocal victim. Poisson models provide strong support for the existence of defended community homicide, which is significantly more common in residentially stable and racially homogenous neighborhoods. However, subsequent qualitative analyses of the victim and offender characteristics and We thank Bill McCarthy for his permission to use data that were collected as part of his four-city project on homicide with Rosemary Gartner, and the Buffalo Police Department for providing us access to the homicide data. We also thank Matthew Zevenbergen and BriAnna Shannon for their research assistance and Jennifer Glanville, Tony Paik, and Maria Velez for reading an earlier draft of this paper. Support for this research was provided by a grant from the National Consortium on Violence Research (NCOVR). NCOVR is supported under grant #SBR9513040 from the National Science Foundation.
PY - 2008/4
Y1 - 2008/4
N2 - Data on homicides in Buffalo, New York, are analyzed to demonstrate the importance of "methods triangulation" for assessing the validity of quantitative measures. Defended community homicides are quantitatively operationalized as acts that occur in the offender's community against a nonlocal victim. Poisson models provide strong support for the existence of defended community homicide, which is significantly more common in residentially stable and racially homogenous neighborhoods. However, subsequent qualitative analyses of the victim and offender characteristics and motives of these homicides undermine the "defended community" concept. Qualitative analyses are necessary to assess the validity of quantitative measures in criminological research.
AB - Data on homicides in Buffalo, New York, are analyzed to demonstrate the importance of "methods triangulation" for assessing the validity of quantitative measures. Defended community homicides are quantitatively operationalized as acts that occur in the offender's community against a nonlocal victim. Poisson models provide strong support for the existence of defended community homicide, which is significantly more common in residentially stable and racially homogenous neighborhoods. However, subsequent qualitative analyses of the victim and offender characteristics and motives of these homicides undermine the "defended community" concept. Qualitative analyses are necessary to assess the validity of quantitative measures in criminological research.
KW - Defended community homicide
KW - Methods triangulation
KW - Qualitative
KW - Quantitative
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U2 - 10.1080/15564880801938474
DO - 10.1080/15564880801938474
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:47149087513
SN - 1556-4886
VL - 3
SP - 228
EP - 244
JO - Victims and Offenders
JF - Victims and Offenders
IS - 2-3
ER -