MURDER IN SPACE CITY A Cultural Analysis of Houston Homicide Patterns

Hardback. A study of gun violence - murder as a product of culture is what the book is all about. The author applies the methods and theories of cultural anthropology to the analysis of homicidal behaviour in a modern "civilised" urban community. Murder is one of the ten principal causes of death in Texas, almost as common as death from cancer, heart failure, or industrial accident. Houston - "space city" - became a centre for science and technology, medicine, and commerce; yet it has one of the highest per capita murder rates in the country. The author looks at how and why in 1969 nearly 300 Houstonians died as a result of murder and why more than half the killers escaped official punishment. Although the book focuses on murder episodes in one American city in one particular year, it provides an empirical baseline for explaining and understanding interpersonal violence in the country at large. In an effort to make sense out of what is, to most people, senseless behaviour, the author provides numerous case histories of actual murders, along with descriptions of official police, medical, and judicial procedures for handling murders, and then analyzes the outcomes. He employs 3 distinctive killer-victim relationship categories : (1) relatives (2) friends and associates (3) strangers. The data reveals that killers in the first category receive the least punishment while killers in the last receive the most; that is, the penalty for killing one's husband is far less severe than for killing a stranger. He concludes that a series of complex cultural beliefs in personal freedom, the rights of property ownership, and conceptions of privacy play a significant part in the handling of interpersonal violence. A provoctive and unusual contribution to the anthropology of law. Illus., Appendices, Notes, References and Index. 269pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true-crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. With underlining to text and marginalia throughout including notes on bep. Vg. in Vg+ dw.