Journey to crime and victimization: An application of routine activities theory and environmental criminology to homicide

Despite the attention the crime of homicide has received by the academic community there are still gaps in the literature. One of these gaps pertains to the examination of the mobility patterns of homicide victims and offenders. This study addresses this gap by focusing on three research questions - (1) Does the distance traveled by homicide suspects and victims from their residence to the incident location vary by homicide motive type? (2) Does the reason why homicide victims and suspects travel to the incident location vary by homicide motive type? (3) What victim and suspect characteristics significantly predict the distance traveled from the residence to the incident location? The analyses show that there are statistically significant differences among the homicide types in terms of the length of the journey of victims and suspects to the incident location. In addition, there is variation by motive in terms of why the victims and suspects traveled to the incident location. Finally, the findings suggest that the demographic and lifestyle characteristics of victims and suspects have an impact on their journey to crime and victimization.