Victim Precipitated Homicide Theory Essay

Victim-precipitated homicide theory is the focus on how the victim contributes to their own death by provocation. In 26% of homicide cases, the victim is the direct, positive precipitator in the crime (Wolfgang, 1957) . Some potential victims cause their own death when they engaged in situations that cause them to be victimize. In all victim precipitated homicides, the victim either initiated the confrontation or continue the confrontation. There are many actions that these victims can do to cause their own death. It could be as minor as throwing insults and giving dirty looks or can be as major as assault (i.e. brawl).
Whatever is the case, victims’ situations are self-generated and can be prevented if these potential victims can improve on their interpersonal skills. For example, there are two type of situations that are connected to victim precipitated homicide. The first situation is the situational rage where the victim engaged with the offender due to an

unpleasant encounter. During the confrontation, the victim says or act in a threating or negative manner which causes the offender to act out. A perfect example would be road rage. Initially, the victim would perform an illegal traffic move with the offender responding to the act either by blowing the car’s horn or hand gesture. Instead of doing what normal people would do and ignore the offender’s insult, the victim continues to act inappropriate towards the offender until the offender decides to pull out a gun and shoot at the victim.
Another situation is called accumulated rage.

It is when the offender accumulates rage overtime due to the potential victim’s taunts. Eventually, the offender will get to a point of uncontrollable rage and attack the victim. The perfect example for accumulated rage is the battered wife syndrome. As it is more of a legal term than a proven medical disorder (Cornell University Law School, n.d.), it is when a battered wife kills her husband due to years of abuse. A marriage works when there are open communication, trust and support. If a spouse is having problems in their life, they are supposed to lean on their partner for support. In the aboved example, the husband fails to not only uphold is vows but fails to communicate his problem in a healthy way. Instead, he takes out his frustration on his wife, lowering her self-esteem and worth. With the continuous abuse by the husband, the wife will eventually accumulate rage towards her husband until the day she acts upon them resulting in the husband’s

death.