Behavioral Sciences and the Law

Behav. Sci. Law 25: 629–639 (2007)

Published online in Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/bsl.779

Elderly Homicide in Chicago:

A Research Note
Seena Fazel, M.D.*,y, Mieko Bond, Ph.D.z,
Gautam Gulati, M.B.B.S.,x and
Ian O’Donnell, Ph.D.ô

There is a body of knowledge about elderly crime victims,

but we know little about the characteristics of elderly
perpetrators, especially of homicide. The few studies that
have been published are based on small samples and are
somewhat dated. In an examination of homicides com-
mitted in Chicago over a 31-year period, we compared
cases involving perpetrators aged over 60 years (n ¼ 443)
with those involving younger perpetrators (n ¼ 24,066).
There were a number of significant differences. Elderly
killers were more likely to be White and to commit suicide
afterwards. Their victims were more likely to be spouses,
females, and aged over 60 years. Inter-racial homicide was
more common for younger offenders. The low number of
homicides involving the elderly is explained by reference to
routine activity theory. Copyright # 2007 John Wiley &
Sons, Ltd.

INTRODUCTION

Two patterns have characterized homicide in the US over the past 50 years. One is
the substantial rise and then fall in the overall rate. According to the Bureau of Justice
Statistics, the national rate per million population was 4.6 in 1950, 5.1 in 1960 and
7.9 in 1970. In 1980 it reached a peak of 10.2. If the 1980 rate had remained stable
until 1999 (when the actual rate was 5.7), there would have been 485,000 homicides
over this 20-year period. In fact 395,000 were recorded, a difference in human terms
of 90,000 fewer lives lost.
The other is the consistency with which the research literature reflects the fact that
victims and perpetrators are young, poor, predominantly male, and disproportio-
nately Black or Latino (Tardiff, Gross, & Messner, 1986; Goetting, 1992; Tardiff

*Correspondence to: Seena Fazel, M.D., Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford
Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX, U.K. E-mail: Seena.fazel@psych.ox.ac.uk
We are grateful to Dr Carolyn Block for her assistance with the dataset.
y
Clinical Senior Lecturer.
z
Pupil at 6 King’s Bench Walk (Roy Amelot QC) at the Criminal Bar in Inner Temple, London, U.K.
x
Specialist Registrar in Forensic Psychiatry at the Oxford Clinic Medium Secure Unit, Oxford, U.K.
ô
Professor of Criminology at the School of Law, University College Dublin, Ireland.

Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

630 S. Fazel et al.

et al., 1994; Whitman, Benbow, & Good, 1996). References to the elderly, when
found, usually emphasize their plight as vulnerable victims (Nelson & Huff-Corzine,
1998; Ohrui, He, Tomita, & Sasaki, 2005). However, demographic changes in
Western societies have led to increasing numbers of elderly criminals who are
stealing and killing, and to a lesser extent raping and robbing. There have also been
sizeable increases in the elderly prison population in the US and Canada, but these
have been largely accounted for by longer sentences and increasing incarceration of
elderly sex offenders (US Department of Justice, 2004; Flynn, 1992; Fazel & Jacoby,
2002).
In some jurisdictions the elderly are the fastest growing demographic group
among prisoners and they pose significant new challenges, in particular to prison
health care services (see, e.g., Uzoaba, 1998; Fazel, Hope, O’Donnell, & Jacoby,
2001, 2004; Gallagher, 2001; Fazel, Hope, O’Donnell, Piper, & Jacoby, 2001).
Although persons who have committed homicide comprise about 20% of elderly
prisoners, they have attracted little research interest (notable exceptions include
Goetting, 1992; Kratcoski & Walker, 1988; Wilbanks & Murphy, 1984). Serial
homicide offenders are rarely older persons—2% of all such offenders were aged
over 50 in a recent study of FBI case files (Kraemer, Lord, & Heilbrun, 2004).
This aim of this brief paper is to contribute to our understanding of a little known
area by describing demographic and criminological factors associated with elderly
homicides. Descriptive statistics are presented and some of the distinctive
characteristics of elderly killers are indicated. In explaining observed changes in
homicidal behavior in the elderly, our perspective is informed by the routine activity
approach (Cohen & Felson, 1979). This assumes that criminal inclinations are
present, and examines the manner in which the organization of social activities
provides individuals with the opportunity to translate these inclinations into action.

DATA

Data were drawn from the Chicago Homicide Dataset for the years 1965–1995. This
consists of all records held in the murder analysis files of the Chicago Police
Department (n ¼ 26,030), and is among the largest and most detailed datasets on
violence in the world. This dataset has previously been used to identify trends in
intimate partner homicide (Block & Christakos, 1995) as well as patterns of
homicide in relation to race/ethnicity (Block, 1985). It consists of two databases—
one on victims and another on offenders. We used the offender-level file, which
includes one record per offender known to the police. This information was made
available by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research at the
University of Michigan (Block, Block, & the Illinois Criminal Justice Information
Authority, 1998). All cases investigated by the police as homicide are included,
irrespective of whether they led to an arrest and successful prosecution. This has the
advantage of including offenders who are known to the police but evade arrest, or die
at the scene or shortly afterwards. In keeping with recent criminological research, we
have used the cut-off age of 60 years and above to define ‘‘elderly’’ (Fazel & Jacoby,
2002, p. 920). From the Chicago files, 443 homicide perpetrators (50 female and
393 male) satisfied this age criterion.

Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Behav. Sci. Law 25: 629–639 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/bsl
 Elderly homicide in Chicago 631

There were 1,521 cases where no information on age was available (5.8% of the
total). Missing cases were more likely to involve male perpetrators and female
victims. There were no differences between the missing and non-missing cases in
terms of the perpetrator’s race. No information is available from this dataset on
educational status or current employment.
We compared the demographic, victim and offence circumstances of offenders
aged less than 60 years with those 60 years and over. Statistical analysis was
conducted on SPSS Version 9, and group comparisons were made using standard x2
tests. There were no missing data in the analysis of perpetrators over 60 years with
respect to gender, race, method of homicide, or relationship to victims. There were
data missing on the racial description of a small number of offenders under 60 years,
but this was not significant (n ¼ 4, 0%). There are, however, a large number of
missing data on prior offending in both groups (see Table 1).

FINDINGS
Characteristics of Perpetrators

The average age was 26 years for the non-elderly group (SD ¼ 9.7; median ¼ 23,
range: 5–59 years) and 66 for the elderly group (SD ¼ 6.1; median ¼ 65, range:

Table 1. Perpetrators

Under 60 years (n ¼ 24,066) 60 years and over (n ¼ 443)

Gender
Male 21,343 (88.7%) 393 (88.7%)
Female 2,723 (11.3%) 50 (11.3%)
x2 ¼ 0.0, df ¼ 1, p ¼ 0.99
Mean age (SD) 26.0 (9.7) 66.5 (6.1)
Race
White 2,179 (9.1%) 81 (18.3%)
Black 18,402 (76.5%) 340 (76.7%)
Latino 3,313 (13.8%) 19 (4.3%)
Other 168 (0.7%) 3 (0.7%)
Missing 4 (0) 0 (0)
x2 ¼ 69.0, df ¼ 4, p < 0.0001
Method
Automatic gun 3,775 (15.7%) 48 (10.8%)
Handgun 8,333 (34.6%) 210 (47.4%)
Rifle 664 (2.8%) 9 (2.0%)
Shotgun 829 (3.4%) 26 (5.9%)
Firearm type unknown 2,014 (8.4%) 11 (2.5%)
Knife 4,549 (18.9%) 89 (20.0%)
Club/blunt instrument 1,419 (5.9%) 21 (4.7%)
Arson 174 (0.1%) 5 (1.1%)
Hands/fists/feet 1,573 (6.5%) 18 (4.1%)
Any other weapon 736 (3.1%) 6 (1.4%)
x2 ¼ 325, df ¼ 9, p < 0.0001
Prior offending
Violent 3,489 (14.5%) 76 (17.2%)
Non-violent 11,937 (49.6%) 131 (29.6%)
Missing 8,640 (35.9%) 236 (53.3%)
Homicide followed by suicide 257 (1.1%) 29 (6.5%)

Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Behav. Sci. Law 25: 629–639 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/bsl
632 S. Fazel et al.

60–90 years). 336 (75.8%) were in their 60s, 87 (19.6%) were in their 70s, and 20
(4.5%) were over 80 years old. The ratio of male to female perpetrators was identical
(8:1) for each group (see Table 1).
In both the elderly and non-elderly samples, three-quarters of perpetrators were
Black. One key difference was the higher proportion of Whites among the elderly
perpetrator group.
One difference between the elderly and non-elderly groups was that the former
was more likely to follow homicide with suicide. The number of elderly persons
committing homicide followed by suicide was 29 (6.5%), compared with 257 in the
younger age category (1.1%) x ¼ 113; df ¼ 1; p < 0:0001.
Prior offending was common in the elderly offenders, although more than half the
data were missing. In the elderly, 46.8% had a previous arrest record, 29.6% for
non-violent offences and 17.2% for violent offences. This compares with 49.6% for
non-violent offences and 14.5% for violent offences for the non-elderly. In this sense
their criminal violence may be seen as part of a pattern.
While there was a statistically significant difference in the overall pattern of
weapons used, as shown in Table 1, a broader form of aggregation reveals striking
similarities. For example, two-thirds of perpetrators used some type of gun to kill
their victim, with one in five using a knife and one in 20 a blunt instrument. These
proportions were similar for the elderly and non-elderly samples.

Characteristics of Victims

Victims of elderly homicide offenders were most often male (71.8%), but the
proportion was significantly lower than that found for younger offenders, 84.2% of
whose victims were male. The most prevalent ethnic group was Black (77.0% of the
victims of elderly homicide and 70.6% of victims of non-elderly). Compared with the
victims of younger offenders, victims of elderly homicide perpetrators were less likely
to be Latino (see Table 2).
The mean age of victims of elderly homicide perpetrators was 37.3 (SD ¼ 19.0).
This did not differ significantly from the average victim age for non-elderly
perpetrators (mean ¼ 38.7; SD ¼ 18.3). However, this conceals an interesting
difference in the overall distributions. The proportion of victims aged 60 and over
was significantly higher for the elderly perpetrators (25.7 versus 6.0%). The
proportion of victims aged under 20 was significantly lower for the elderly
perpetrators (5.0 versus 21.0%). No elderly person killed a child under the age of
10 years.
There were significant age-related differences in the nature of the relationship
between victim and perpetrator. Victims of the elderly were more likely to be related
to the offender by being a spouse, and less likely to be a stranger or gang member.
There was a higher rate of intimate homicide amongst the elderly (Table 3).
Elderly perpetrators were less likely to have multiple victims: 1.4% killed two or
more people compared to 3.8% of non-elderly offenders.
In Table 2, the category ‘Other’ accounts for 897 victims of the under 60 year
olds. This includes 63 security guards, 95 police officers and 38 suspects killed while
carrying out a crime. In the over 60s, five were in this category (four as suspects and
one the target of a contract killing).

Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Behav. Sci. Law 25: 629–639 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/bsl
 Elderly homicide in Chicago 633

Table 2. Victims

Perpetrator Perpetrator Statistic and p value

under 60 years 60 years and over (comparison between under
60 and over 60 groups)

Gender
Male 20,261 (84.2%) 318 (71.8%) x2 ¼ 49.7, df ¼ 1, p < 0.001
Female 3,805 (15.8%) 125 (28.2%)
Race
White 3,631 (15.1%) 83 (18.7%) x2 ¼ 38.9, df ¼ 3, p < 0.001
Black 16,993 (70.6%) 341 (77%)
Latin 3,203 (13.3%) 15 (3.4%)
Other 234 (1%) 4 (0.9%)
Relationship to perpetrator
Spouse 2,610 (10.8%) 106 (23.9%) x2 ¼ 258.3, df ¼ 10, p < 0.0001
Child 752 (3.1%) 27 (6.1%)
Other party 603 (2.5%) 24 (5.4%)
Friends 1,765 (7.3%) 63 (14.2%)
Acquaintance 7,354 (30.6%) 127 (28.7%)
Rival gang 2,293 (9.5%) 0 (0)
Business/work 612 (2.5%) 34 (7.7%)
Illegal business 784 (3.3%) 5 (1.1%)
Other 897 (3.7%) 5 (1.1%)
Stranger 5,250 (21.8%) 45 (10.2%)
Undetermined 1,146 (4.8%) 7 (16%)
Age
0–9 yrs 668 (2.8%) 0 x2 ¼ 444.2, df ¼ 6, p < 0.0001
10–19 4,370 (18.2%) 22 (5.0%)
20–29 8,405 (34.9%) 71 (16%)
30–39 4,679 (17.4%) 73 (16.5%)
40–49 2,784 (11.6%) 93 (21.0%)
50–59 1,709 (7.1%) 70 (15.8%)
60þ 1,451 (6.0%) 114 (25.7%)

Age, Gender and Race

Whether elderly or not, homicide in Chicago usually involved men slaying other
men. Women rarely killed and when they did the victim was usually a man. Elderly
men were most likely to kill females. This pattern of results is shown in Table 4.
Inter-racial killings were not the norm. Elderly Whites, Blacks and Latinos were much
more likely to kill a member of the same racial group. This trend is shown in Table 5. The
proportion of inter-racial killings was lower among the elderly, where killings are more
usually between intimates. Younger persons could kill in the course of another offence
(e.g. robbery, burglary), where a victim’s race would be less predictable.
We investigated the number of crimes per decade by race (Table 6). There were
few racial differences by decade for elderly perpetrators. However, the total number
Table 3. Intimate homicides by age group

Type of homicide Offender Offender Missing age Total

under 60 over 60 information

Intimate 2,610 (10.8%) 106 (23.9%) 8 (0.5%) 2,724 (10.5%)

Non-intimate 21,456 (89.2%) 337 (76.1%) 1,513 (99.5%) 23,306 (89.5%)
Total 24,066 (100%) 443 (100%) 1,521 (100%) 26,030 (100%)

x2 ¼ 250, df ¼ 2, p < 0.0001.

Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Behav. Sci. Law 25: 629–639 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/bsl
634 S. Fazel et al.

Table 4. The role of gender

Male perpetrator Female perpetrator Male perpetrator Female perpetrator

60 years and over 60 years and over under 60 years under 60 years

Male victim 277 (70.5%) 41 (82%) 17,962 (84.2%) 2,299 (84.4%)

Female victim 116 (29.5%) 9 (18%) 3,381 (15.8%) 424 (15.6%)
Total 393 50 21,343 2,723

x2 ¼ 54.2, df ¼ 3, p < 0.001.

Table 5. The role of race

Perpetrator Perpetrator Perpetrator Other Total (%)
White Black Latino

I. Perpetrators aged 60 years and over*

Victim White 70 (86.4%) 8 4 1 83 (18.7)
Victim Black 7 (8.6) 331 (97.4%) 3 0 341 (77.0)
Victim Latino 2 (2.5) 1 12 (63.2%) 0 15 (3.4)
Other 2 (2.5) 0 0 2 4 (0.9)
Total 81 340 19 3 443 (100)

Perpetrator Perpetrator Perpetrator Other Missing Total (%)

White Black Latino

II. Perpetrators aged under 60 years.y

Victim White 1,624 (74.5) 1,376 (7.5) 579 (17.5) 57 (34.3) 0 3,636 (15.1)
Victim Black 207 (9.5) 16,491 (89.6) 279 (8.4) 12 (7.2) 4 16,993 (70.6)
Victim Latino 314 (14.4) 446 (2.4) 2,422 (73.1) 21 (12.7) 0 3,203 (13.3)
Other 34 (1.6) 89 (0.5) 35 (1.1) 76 (45.8) 0 234 (1.0)
Total 2,179 18,402 3,315 166 4 24,066 (100)
*x2 ¼ 686, df ¼ 9, p < 0.0001.
y 2
x ¼ 23,875, df ¼ 12, p < 0.0001.

Table 6. Changes over time and by race of homicide offenders

Race 1965–74 1975–84 1985–94 Total

I. Perpetrators aged 60 years and over.

White* 42 (20.5%) 16 (13.2%) 23 (19.7%) 81 (18.3%)
Black 158 (77.1%) 95 (78.5%) 87 (74.4%) 340 (76.7%)
Latino 3 (1.5%) 10 (8.3%) 6 (5.1%) 19 (4.3%)
Other 2 (1.0%) 0 (0%) 1 (0.9%) 3 (0.7%)
Total 205 (100%) 121 (100%) 117 (100%) 443 (100%)
II. Perpetrators aged under 60 years.
Whitey 894 (11.6%) 793 (9.5%) 544 (6.3%) 2,177 (9.0%)
Black 6,099 (79.4%) 5,727 (73.5%) 6,575 (76.5%) 18,401 (76.5%)
Latino 638 (8.3%) 1,253 (16.1%) 1,424 (16.6%) 3,315 (13.8%)
Other 53 (0.7%) 67 (0.9%) 46 (0.5%) 166 (0.7%)
Total 7,686 (100%) 7,787 (100%) 8,590 (100%) 24,063 (100%)

*x2 for trend ¼ 0.2, df ¼ 1, p ¼ 0.67.

y 2
x for trend ¼ 137, df ¼ 1, p < 0.0001.

Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Behav. Sci. Law 25: 629–639 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/bsl
 Elderly homicide in Chicago 635

of elderly homicides reduced by nearly a half over the three decades. In contrast, in
the younger perpetrators, there was an increase in the number of homicides, and
significant racial differences over time. There were more Latino homicides in the
latter two decades, consistent with the increase in the Latino population of Chicago
from the 1960s.
In homicides in Chicago between 1965 and 1995, alcohol was not thought to be a
factor in two-thirds of cases (both elderly and non-elderly). In 19.0% of elderly
homicides and 13.3% of non-elderly homicides, the victim had been drinking. Both
had been drinking in 8.4 and 6.8% of cases respectively, and only the perpetrator in 1
and 2% of cases.

CONCLUSIONS

This study of elderly individuals committing homicide is the largest to date,

including 443 elderly perpetrators (cf. Goetting’s (1992) sample of 45 perpetrators
aged over 55 years and the sample by Kratcoski and Walker (1988) of 82 perpetrators
aged at least 60). It is based on police records, and this introduces a number of
potential limitations. For example, the role of alcohol misuse, or mental health issues
more generally, may be underestimated. To address this problem in future homicide
research, it might be worth considering the application of the ‘psychological autopsy’
technique, which has proved useful in suicide studies (for a review, see Isometsa,
2001). This would provide a richer context for the interpretation of research
findings.
Another problem with police data is the implication that the definitions of victim
and perpetrator are unproblematic, whereas in reality they are often ambivalent and
shifting, the victim of homicide being whoever came off worse in the exchange, even
if he or she initiated the events that led to his or her demise. (See, e.g., Luckenbill
(1977) on the dyadic nature of violence more generally and the problem defining
victim status.)
Where relevant, we compare our findings to those of Kratcoski and Walker (1988)
and Goetting (1992). Kratcoski and Walker (1988) analyzed 1670 homicide records
from the coroner’s office of Cuyahoga County, OH, between 1979 and 1983, finding
82 ‘elderly homicide offenders’. Cuyahoga County is a highly industrialized area and
a commercial centre with a population of approximately 1.9 million in 1980, 82% of
which was White. In contrast, Goetting (1992) studied 45 elderly homicide
offenders in connection with homicides committed in the city of Detroit between
1982 and 1983, representing a sample drawn from an ‘urban, predominantly black
population with an inordinately high homicide rate’.
Our findings are broadly consistent with other research in crime and the elderly.
Goetting (1992, p. 206) found that 93.9% of elderly homicides were intra-racial
(87.8% were Black on Black and 6.1% were White on White). In the remaining cases
(6.1%), Whites killed Blacks. Goetting’s sample did not include Latino participants.
This could reflect the population of Detroit at the time, which was predominantly
(63%) Black. Our finding of the higher proportion of Whites in the elderly
perpetrator group corresponds with the work of Kratcoski and Walker (1988, p. 71).
It is possible that this finding could reflect differing rates of life expectancy between
racial groups in the US, with life expectancy at birth being six years less for black

Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Behav. Sci. Law 25: 629–639 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/bsl
636 S. Fazel et al.

women and eight years less for black males in 1991 as compared with their white
counterparts (US Census Bureau, 1994). Another apparent racial/ethnic difference
is that there were substantially more Latinos in the younger group (13.8 versus
4.3%). This could be explained by the fact that there are more ethnic minorities in
younger age groups.
Goetting found that 89% of those aged 55 years and over who committed
homicide were Black, and that victims were on average 22 years younger. In contrast
to Goetting, we found that the male:female ratio of homicide perpetrators was
similar in the elderly compared with younger offenders. Our finding replicates the
gender balance reported by Kratcoski and Walker (1988, p. 71). We also found a
lower rate of previous offending among the elderly (46.8%) than the Detroit sample
(73%). Our data also found a higher rate of older victims (26% of victims were older
than 60) than has been reported elsewhere (Maltz, 1998).
The proportion of elderly perpetrators committing suicide following homicide
was higher than in the younger age group. This may reflect the fact that suicide risk
increases with age but may also reflect psychopathology. Depression has been
implicated in homicide–suicide (Rosenbaum, 1990). Cohen, Llorente, and
Eisdorfer (1998), studying homicide–suicides in Florida during 1988–1994, found
that the older population had higher rates than the younger group for most years,
with spousal/consortial homicide–suicide being the most common type. This was
thought to possibly reflect the lethal consequence of hopelessness and depression in
male caregivers. Kratcoski and Walker (1988, p. 72) found that 15% of killers aged
60 or over took their own lives. In a classic study, West (1965) found a much greater
proportion of homicide–suicides in England and Wales than in the US. It would be
interesting to examine whether this cross-national variation has persisted over time.
Goetting (1992, p. 206) found that a higher proportion of elderly killers selected
strangers as victims. This contrasts sharply with the findings of Wilbanks and
Murphy (1984) and Kratcoski and Walker (1988). Our findings support the latter
two studies and suggest that Goetting’s results may reflect something specific to
Detroit in 1982 and 1983 when their research was carried out. Her sample is drawn
from an urban, predominantly Black population at a time when Detroit had what she
characterized as an ‘inordinately high’ homicide rate (Goetting, 1992, p. 204). It
may also reflect her small sample size (n ¼ 45). Consistent with this, we found a
higher rate of intimate homicide among elderly homicide perpetrators. This may be
reflective of a homicide syndrome, in that intimate homicide in the elderly is the fatal
outcome of another crime, namely intimate partner violence (Block & Block, 1992).
Kratcoski and Walker (1988, p.69) found that perpetrators aged 60 and above were
twice as likely to kill their spouses as younger perpetrators.
Firearm use in our sample was lower than found in other studies. Like the present
study, Kratcoski and Walker (1988, p. 73) found no difference in the proportionate
use of firearms by age category. However, the overall level they found was higher:
guns were the method chosen by 89% of over 60 year old killers and 88% of under
60 year olds. Goetting (1992, p. 208) found that firearms were most popular for all
age groups, but slightly more so for the elderly. Wilbanks and Murphy (1984)
posited that older and weaker persons choose guns to compensate for a lack of
physical strength. We found few meaningful differences in weapon choice, with a
similar proportion of the over 60 year olds using knives, blunt instruments or their
hands. They were not choosing guns more regularly to compensate for their physical

Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Behav. Sci. Law 25: 629–639 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/bsl
 Elderly homicide in Chicago 637

frailty. It must also be said that elderly victims are perhaps more physically
vulnerable so there is a lesser degree of resistance to be overcome. It may be that
elderly perpetrators are more likely to use firearms against younger victims due to the
imbalance in strength. This would be an interesting hypothesis to test in future
research.
The role of alcohol in violent crime is beyond dispute (Grann & Fazel, 2004).
Studies, including those of street disorder, domestic abuse and interpersonal violence,
have repeatedly reinforced this finding (Bye, 2007; Dawson, Grant, Chou, & Stinson,
2007; Shaw et al., 2006). The high level of abstemiousness among perpetrators found
in our sample is difficult to understand and should be treated with caution. For
example, in a study of homicide in Ireland between 1992 and 1996, it was found that
39% of perpetrators were intoxicated at the time of the offence (Dooley, 2001, p. 19).
The low level of detected intoxication in Chicago may be explained by unsystematic or
unscientific data collection practices, and like mental disorder may be significantly
underestimated. It is unlikely to be accounted for by cultural variation alone.
There are important issues still to be resolved regarding the frequency and
distribution of elderly homicide. First of all, why are there so few elderly killers? Is it
due to physical decline and accompanying reductions in mobility and strength? Or
due to a greater fear of the consequences of criminal activity (Covey & Menard,
1987)? Or a reduction in criminal lifestyles and attitudes (Harpur & Hare, 1994)? Or
the declining importance of peer group approval or a wider criminal subculture as
sources of self-esteem and identity formation? Or is the explanation to be found in
the increased mortality by suicide of a subgroup of persistent offenders before they
reach old age (Kullgren, Tengström, & Grann, 1998)? (See Kercher (1987) for a
brief review of the extent to which the causes of crime are non-age-specific.)
Using the language of routine activity theory (Cohen & Felson, 1979), it may
simply be that there are fewer suitable victims and potential offenders. Quite simply,
criminal opportunities are reduced for the elderly. This may be due to factors such as
natural attrition, incarceration, and shorter life expectancy on the part of violent
offenders. As for the pattern of elderly homicide, it is unlikely that old people will be
involved in the kinds of pursuit that put them at risk of becoming involved in violence
directed at strangers. Examples of such pursuits include gang membership, armed
robbery, and street drug dealing. In such contexts, killings can occur during the
commission of another crime.
Kratcoski and Walker (1988, p. 67) argue that elderly homicides are
disproportionately intraracial, a finding supported in this study. This is based on
the notion that older people spend more time in their home environment (marriages
tend to be intraracial) and withdraw from wider social contacts (i.e. interaction with
strangers). Thus, when the potential for homicide becomes apparent it is likely to be
in a domestic context. Shichor and Kobrin (1978, p. 215) put it well when they
observed that ‘‘. . . as the range of social interaction contracts with advancing age,
interpersonal primary relationships become intense, with a resulting increase in
opportunities for conflict.’’
With further rises in the level of criminal activity in the elderly projected as the US
population continues to age, research into the specific characteristics of this group of
offenders should help criminologists and policy makers understand the causes and
consequences of such crime. The higher rate of homicide followed by suicide in the
elderly may represent a significant level of undetected depression, which supports

Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Behav. Sci. Law 25: 629–639 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/bsl
638 S. Fazel et al.

screening for depression in the elderly prison population (Fazel, Hope, O’Donnell, &
Jacoby, 2001). This study has found some interesting differences in the offence
behavior of elderly perpetrators of homicide. Further work is required to explore
whether these differences exist for other serious crimes, and the extent to which they
can be generalized to other jurisdictions. The next step for researchers interested in
this developing area would be to go beyond the brief descriptive account that we
present and to see what the application of advanced statistical methods (e.g.
discriminant analysis) yields in terms of further understanding and theory building.

REFERENCES
Block, C. R. (1985). Race/ethnicity and patterns of Chicago homicide 1965–1981. Crime and Delinquency,
31, 104–116.
Block, C. R., Block, R. L., & the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. (1998). Homicides in
Chicago 1965–1995, 4th ICPSR version. Produced by Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
and distributed by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research.
Block, C. R., & Christakos, A. (1995). Intimate partner homicide in Chicago over 29 years. Crime and
Delinquency, 41, 496–526.
Block, R. L., & Block, C. R. (1992). Homicide syndromes and vulnerability: Violence in Chicago
community areas over 25 years. Studies on Crime and Crime Prevention, 1, 61–87.
Bye, E. K. (2007). Alcohol and violence: use of possible confounders in a time-series analysis. Addiction,
102, 369–376.
Cohen, D., Llorente, M., & Eisdorfer, C. (1998). Homicide–suicide in older persons. American Journal of
Psychiatry, 155, 390–396.
Cohen, L., & Felson, M. (1979). Social change and crime rate trends: A routine activity approach.
American Sociological Review, 44, 588–608.
Covey, H. C., & Menard, S. (1987). Trends in arrests among the elderly. The Gerontologist, 27, 666–671.
Dawson, D. A., Grant, B. F., Chou, S. P., & Stinson, F. S. (2007). The impact of partner alcohol
problems on women’s physical and mental health. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 68, 66–75.
Dooley, E. (2001). Homicide in Ireland 1992–1996. Dublin: Stationery Office.
Fazel, S., Hope, T., O’Donnell, I., & Jacoby, R. (2001). Hidden psychiatric morbidity in elderly prisoners.
British Journal of Psychiatry, 179, 535–539.
Fazel, S., Hope, T., O’Donnell, I., & Jacoby, R. (2004). Unmet treatment needs of older prisoners: A
primary care survey. Age and Ageing, 33, 396–398.
Fazel, S., Hope, T., O’Donnell, I., Piper, M., & Jacoby, R. (2001). Health of elderly male prisoners: Worse
than the general population, worse than younger prisoners. Age and Ageing, 30, 403–407.
Fazel, S., & Jacoby, R. (2002). Psychiatric aspects of crime and the elderly. In R. Jacoby, & C.
Oppenheimer (Eds.), Psychiatry in the elderly (3rd ed.) (pp. 919–931). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Flynn, E. (1992). The graying of America’s prison population. The Prison Journal, 72, 77–98.
Gallagher, E. M. (2001). Elders in prison: Health and well-being of older inmates. International Journal of
Law and Psychiatry, 24, 325–333.
Goetting, A. (1992). Patterns of homicide among the elderly. Violence and Victims, 7, 203–215.
Grann, M., & Fazel, S. (2004). Substance misuse and violent criminality: Swedish population study.
British Medical Journal, 128, 1233–1234.
Harpur, T., & Hare, R. (1994). Assessment of psychopathy as a function of age. Journal of Abnormal
Psychology, 103, 604–609.
Isometsa, E. T. (2001). Psychological autopsy studies—A review. European Psychiatry, 16, 379–385.
Kercher, K. (1987). The causes and correlates of crime committed by the elderly. Research on Aging, 9,
256–280.
Kraemer, G. W., Lord, W. D., & Heilbrun, K. (2004). Comparing single and serial homicide offenses.
Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 22, 325–343.
Kratcoski, P. C., & Walker, D. B. (1988). Homicide among the elderly: Analysis of the victim/assailant
relationship. In B. McCarthy, & R. Langworthy (Eds.), Older offenders: Perspectives in criminology and
criminal justice (pp. 62–75). New York: Praeger.
Kullgren, G., Tengström, A., & Grann, M. (1998). Suicide among personality-disordered offenders: A
follow-up study on 1943 male criminal offenders. Journal of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiol-
ogy, 33, 102–106.
Luckenbill, D. F. (1977). Criminal homicide as a situated transaction. Social Problems, 25, 176–186.

Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Behav. Sci. Law 25: 629–639 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/bsl
 Elderly homicide in Chicago 639

Maltz, M. D. (1998). Visualizing homicide: A research note. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 14,
397–410.
Nelson, C., & Huff-Corzine, L. (1998). Strangers in the night—an application of the lifestyle-routine
activities approach to elderly homicide victimization. Homicide Studies, 2, 130–159.
Ohrui, T., He, M., Tomita, N., & Sasaki, H. (2005). Homicides of disabled older persons by their
caregivers in Japan. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 53, 553–554.
Rosenbaum, M. (1990). The role of depression in couples involved in murder–suicide and homicide.
American Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 1036–1039.
Shaw, J., Hunt, I. M., Flynn, S., Amos, T., Meehan, J., Robinson, J., Bickley, H., Parsons, R., McCann,
K., Burns, J., Kapur, N., & Appleby, L. (2006). The role of alcohol and drugs in homicides in England
and Wales. Addiction, 101, 1117–1124.
Shichor, D., & Kobrin, S. (1978). Criminal behavior among the elderly. The Gerontologist, 18, 213–218.
Tardiff, K., Gross, E. M., & Messner, S. F. (1986). A study of homicides in Manhattan, 1981. American
Journal of Public Health, 76, 139–143.
Tardiff, K., Marzuk, P. M., Leon, A. C., Hirsch, C. S., Stajic, M., Portera, L., & Hartwell, N. (1994).
Homicide in New York City. Cocaine use and firearms. The Journal of the American Medical Association,
272, 43–46.
US Census Bureau. (1994). Retrieved 9 March, 2007, from http://www.census.gov/prod/1/pop/p23-190/
p23190-d.pdf
US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2004). Prisoners in 2003. Retrieved 21 July, 2006,
from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/p03.pdf
Uzoaba, J. (1998). Managing older offenders: Where do we stand ? Ottawa: Correctional Service of Canada.
West, D. J. (1965). Murder followed by suicide. Cambridge Studies in Criminology Vol. 21. London:
Heinemann.
Whitman, S., Benbow, N., & Good, G. (1996). The epidemiology of homicide in Chicago. Journal of the
National Medical Association, 88, 781–787.
Wilbanks, W., & Murphy, D. D. (1984). The elderly homicide offender. In E. S. Newman, D. J. Newman,
& M. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Elderly criminals (pp. 79–91). Cambridge, MA: Oelgeschlager, Gunn & Hain.

Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Behav. Sci. Law 25: 629–639 (2007)
DOI: 10.1002/bsl