The material presented here comes from the database of the Homicide Monitoring Program at the Australian Institute of Criminology. The database covers 2226 homicide incidents involving 2415 victims and 2650 offenders over a seven-year period (1989-96). Twenty-eight per cent of all victims of homicides were aged below 25 years, and 35 per cent of offenders were also below 25. In general, young people who kill, kill people of the same age and racial group as themselves.
This paper focuses on youth homicide which is perhaps the most costly of all forms of violence. Patterns of homicide among people under 25 are very different to those over 25. Young people who kill are more likely than older people to kill strangers. Whereas homicides by older people are likely to be the result of a relationship problem, homicides by young people are primarily the result of altercations, or occur in the course of other crimes. Young people use firearms much less than older people.
The killing of a young person represents the loss of many years of potentially productive, active life, not to mention the short and medium-term impact on families, the community and the society as a whole. The imprisonment of a young perpetrator of homicide also entails high costs to society.
This paper examines these issues, and is the first of a new round of reports on the seven-year data set.