FATAL HUMILIATION: THE ROLE OF SHAME IN HOMICIDAL MOTIVATIONS

Abstract

Few criminological researchers have focused on the role of shame in homicide motives. However, those that have (Anderson 1994, Websdale 2010), have emphasized shame as an important contributing factor to homicides, particularly when there is an interpersonal conflict involved. This study ultimately focuses on the significance of shame as a predictor of expressive homicides and homicides that arise from an interpersonal conflict. It begins with an inter-rater agreement study that empirically assesses coding decisions for the key variables later used in this study: homicide circumstance, instrumental/expressive homicide type, shame, and victim-offender relationship. The results indicated a moderate to substantial level of agreement for the coded variables. In the second part of the study, instrumental and expressive homicides are analyzed with victim-offender relationship as the key independent variable. The results confirmed the centrality of that variable in predicting homicide type and identified victim’s sex, offender’s race/ethnicity, and weapon choice as significant predictors of expressive homicides. Finally, in the third part of the study, I examine the role of shame, as well as victim and offender demographics, victim-offender relationship, and weapon choice in homicide types (instrumental or expressive) and the circumstances surrounding the homicide. The results confirmed the salience of shame in understanding homicide motives. Like in the second part of the study, victim-offender relationship, offender’s race/ethnicity and sex, and weapon choice were also significant predictors of expressive homicides. Additionally, offender race/ethnicity and sex, offender age, and weapon choice were also significant in predicting the circumstances surrounding homicides.