Gender and the victim-offender relationship in homicide: A comparison of finland and the united states

Prior work in homicide research has demonstrated hat gender patterns in victimization vary considerably both over time and across sociocultural contexts. Our research focuses on cross-national comparisons of the gender gap in the risk of homicide victimization (i.e., the ratio of male to female victimization rates). We argue that aggregated differences in the gender gap may concal theoretically meaningfsl patterns in distinct types of lethal violence. Specifically, we predict that differences in the gender gap in homicide victimization between Finland and the United States are not unifonn across all forms of homicides but depend on the nature of the relationship between the victim and the offender. Our findings provide strong support for this basic hypothesis and illustrate the utility of disaggregated analysis in cross-national homicide research.