Confrontational Homicide a Final Report to the Criminology Research Council Prepared By: Kenneth Polk Criminology Department Melbourne University David Ranson Victorian Institute of Forensic Pathology

SUMMARY This report is an analysis of forms of male-on-male homicide. It is a follow-up to an earlier study which, consistent with research elsewhere, found that males not only constitute a vast majority of homicide offenders, but further that slightly over half of all homicides involve males taking the lives of other males. The purpose of the present research is to establish, if possible, the patterns which characterize these distinctively male homicides. The data for the research are drawn from the files of the Office of the Coroner of Victoria, and include all homicides reported to the Coroner for the years 1985-1989. The files consist of an initial report of the attending police regarding the death, the brief prepared by the police for presentation at the Coroner's Inquest, the autopsy report regarding the cause of death, any relevant toxicology reports, and the report of the Inquest itself. For each of the 376 homicides reported in the five year period, a case study was prepared which focused particularly on the dynamics of the interaction which had taken place between the victim and the offender. Just over half (51.6%) of these homicides consisted of events where males were involved both as offenders and victims in the homicide. From the analysis of the case study material, there were three major scenarios which describe these male-on-male killings. The first of these consisted of confrontational homicides, which typically began as a form of honour contest between males which then resulted in a fight, leading ultimately to the lethal violence. Such honour contests are distinctively male (only one case with these dynamics involved women), and individuals of either underclass or working class origins (only two cases clearly involved a person of higher social class position). These events were likely to occur in open public settings, such as pubs, discos, streets and laneways, parks or reserves, or perhaps parties or BBQs. The violence was frequently played out against a backdrop of male peers, and alcohol use by either victim or offender was found in a majority of cases. This confrontation scenario accounted for roughly one in five (74 or 19.6%) of all reported homicides. The second major scenario consisted of homicides which can be seen as a form of conflict resolution. In all cases these individuals knew each other well, and in most they previously had been friends. Most commonly the parties involved were exceptionally marginal in …