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The current research provides an examination of felony murder to determine the similarities and differences among jurisdictions in the nation. It provides a current analysis of jurisprudence to update the literature as to practices in the United States pertaining to the availability of felony murder and the specific elements that make up the rule. This research conducts a survey of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Federal System. It provides an overview of the felony-murder rule and its availability, the degrees to which the doctrine is utilized, and the subsequent sentences allowable for defendants convicted under the theory. Current statutes are analyzed to establish what circumstances specifically constitute felony murder and the criteria required by each of the jurisdictions. Additionally, it determines to what degree jurisdictions subscribe to the felony-murder theory, which ones allow individuals to be eligible for life sentences or death sentences, and which jurisdictions allow the rule to be applied to non-triggerman offenders.

In 2017 a 17-year-old girl called Wilma Andersson went missing in the Swedish town Uddevalla. A few weeks later the police made a discovery that confirmed that she was dead. Her former boyfriend Tishko Ahmed was prosecuted and convicted for her murder and sentenced to 18 years in prison. The murder of Wilma Andersson is a murder case that touched a lot of people and was very big in Swedish news media. This study ́s purpose was to investigate how tabloidization effect crime journalism. Four research questions were asked in order to investigate this. The questions were: 1. How is Wilma Andersson framed in Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter? 2. How is Tishko Ahmed framed in Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter? 3. What similarities and differences are there in how Wilma Andersson and Tishko Ahmed are framed in Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter? 3a. How does tabloidization effect the framing and the crime journalism? The results of this study show that Wilma Andersson is framed as an innocent, kind and orderly girl by the tabloid paper Aftonbladet. The findings also show that Aftonbladet framed the perpetrator, Tishko Ahmed, in several ways. He is framed as a normal guy that no one thought would be capable of murder, but he is also framed as a violent boyfriend and mentally unstable. The broad sheet paper, Dagens Nyheter, framed Wilma Andersson as a vulnerable girl who had a difficult life situation and the perpetrator Tishko was framed as mentally unstable and unreliable. The result of the study show that the tabloid newspaper framed the victim and perpetrator in a more personal and dramatic way by using writing technique and personal sources. The tabloid newspaper also used pictures more than the broad sheet, which empathized the dramatic and personal framing. The findings in this study show that tabloidization effect crime journalism by making it more dramatic and entertaining in order to attract readers and make money.

The aim of the study is to examine how the evening newspaper Aftonbladet portrays the murder victim Lisa Holm and her killer Nerijus Bilevicius, and how these portrayals are related to Nils Christie's theory about the ideal victim. The central questions investigated are: How are the victim and the perpetrator portrayed by the evening newspaper Aftonbladet, and how does Aftonbladet's portrayal relate to the theory of the ideal victim? To examine the research questions, a deductive thematic analysis was conducted. Before commencing the analysis, five themes were found based on Christie's theoretical framework, which served as the foundation for the analysis. The selection analyzed consisted of 48 chosen articles all written by Aftonbladet. The result of the analysis shows how Lisa is portrayed as "the girl" - a young and vulnerable individual, described as happy, shy, and goal-oriented. At the time of the crime, she was engaged in a respectable project, she had finished her work shift, and was on her way home. It is emphasized that the location of the crime, her workplace, cannot be blamed. The analysis also indicates that Lisa and Nerijus Bilevicius had no prior relationship, signifying that the perpetrator was unknown to the victim.  Nerijus, the perpetrator, is portrayed as large and malevolent, aligning with the idealized image of an offender. Despite a few positive descriptions from relatives, the negative descriptions prevail. The analysis of Aftonbladet's portrayal of Lisa Holm and Nerijus Bilevicius demonstrates a close alignment with Christie's model of the ideal victim and the ideal offender, fulfilling all five criteria outlined by Christie. These findings underscore how Aftonbladet's representation of Lisa and Nerijus resonates with the idealized image of a victim and perpetrator according to Christie's theory, emphasizing the media's impact on the public perception of crime victims and offenders. This case serves as an illustration, according to the perfect ideal victim. The results suggest that Aftonbladet portrays Lisa as the ideal victim and Nerijus as the ideal offender according to Christie's model. It emphasizes how media portrayal can influence our general perception of crime victims and offenders.

The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the development of violent crime in the geographical area belonging to the district courts of Mellersta- and Västra Värends, as well as Växjö Magistrate´s Court, during the period 1960—1970. The questions addressed include: What was the demographic distribution among crime victims and perpetrators in terms of gender, age, possible alcohol influence during the crime, and the relationships between the victim and the perpetrator? To what extent were young people perpetrators? How have the number of judgements changed over time? How can crime history be utilized in high school education? The prime material used consists of judgements from court records, and the theoretical frameworks include social vulnerability, peer influence and socialization, among others. The method employed is primarily quantitative, with the results presented in tabular form. The study confirms previous research on violent crimes, revealing that the majority of those convicted or victimized by violence during the period were men. However, one woman faced charges of rape but was ultimately convicted for assault, a charge outside the scope of sexual offences. The highest average age (31,8 years), including both men and women was found in Växjö Magistrate´s Court and stood out in the study. Concerning youth offenders, the study revealed that in Västra Värends district court, the majority (36,6 %) were in the 15—20 age group. Alcohol emerged as a recurring factor in the study. Of the total cases in Mellersta Värends district court, 65,6 % were influenced by alcohol at the time of the defense. In conclusion, the study confirms that socialization, peer influence and alcohol played significant roles in shaping the characteristics of violent crimes during this period.

Greek literature is infamous for its fondness of narrating in horrific detail the violent plots of man versus man, man versus beast, and even man versus god, encompassing conflicts that range from individual vendettas to large-scale warfare. The extant stories of Greek epic and drama preserve merely a snippet of the ancient audience’s fascination with violence in all its forms. Depicted among these bloody confrontations is a subject that seems taboo even to modern viewers—kin murders. Epic conceals the most brutal violations of kinship ties, preferring a more nuanced approach to such horrors. Tragedy, in contrast, relishes translating these particular crimes onto the public stage. However, in dramatic performance the violent acts themselves are only either described in words or alluded to; they are always completed off-stage, and audience members must rely on their imaginations to recreate the most offensive parts of an episode. There is a similar hesitation in visualizing these gruesome stories of parents slaying children, wives murdering husbands, brothers turning against each other, or sons slaughtering mothers in Greek art. In contrast, there are numerous portrayals of lethal violence in other contexts that are unabashedly explicit and shockingly gory. For example, images of quarrels between political rivals or cultural others enjoyed popularity from the earliest periods of Greek art. But depictions of sanctioned violence in the military sphere occupy a different realm than the rare illustrations of the most sinister of transgressions—the murder of one’s own kin. The tantalizing few examples of this exceptional category of violence prompt further study, yet there has never been a comprehensive investigation on portrayals of intrafamilial murder in in the visual repertoire. In Kindred Killers: Intrafamilial Murders in Archaic and Classical Greek Art, I bring together and examine for the first time the evidence for murder against kin in Greek art from the seventh to the fourth centuries BCE. I assemble a catalog of 202 images related to four types of intrafamilial murder within the nuclear family unit: filicide, spousal homicide, parricide, and fratricide. Geographically, the material spans from mainland Greece, including Attica, Corinth, and the Peloponnese, to East Greece, and to South Italy and Sicily; the objects range from pottery, shield bands, seals, and other representatives of the so-called minor arts, to statue groups, temple architecture, and lost monumental wall paintings. I investigate the iconographic patterns of the four typologies, tracing their changes through time, medium, and area of production, while also considering factors, such as manner, intent, and motivation, in order to establish a visual language for “intrafamilial murder.” I frame the images within broader, shifting cultural notions of violence and explore how the various scenes of kinship murder challenge and solidify social norms, negotiate interpersonal power, and express the tensions brought about by ever-changing family dynamics.

This study sets out to explore the relationship between news media coverage on serial killers and their behavior. As a result of the lack of previous research on this topic, utilizing past research on a few historically well-known serial killers and news media reports about those serial killers, this study attempts to determine if news media has any effect on a serial killer’s behavior prior to apprehension. After a review of the history of serial murder and the past findings about serial murderers, as well as background on the history of the media coverage of crime, this study will look closely at the media coverage and behavior of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer; David Berkowitz, Son of Sam; and John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo, the D.C. Snipers. These three cases received unparalleled attention from the media and involved a unique two-way communication between the offenders and the media/police. The relatively new role of the Public Information Officer in law enforcement agencies will be briefly reviewed to examine the expansion of their role in relation to considering the impact the media has on serial murderer behavior. The subsequent findings of this research will aid in increasing knowledge of serial killer behavior in relation to news media coverage so that news media can be a potential tool used by law enforcement to better control and predict serial killer behavior and aid in their apprehension.

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This research explores the new tradition of creating mass murder memorials in the United States at the turn of the twenty-first century. Using written and oral history sources in combination with memorial designs, I explore the planning processes undertaken by five different communities: Virginia Tech, Columbine, University of Texas, Oklahoma City and Edmond, OK. I analyze what these case studies reveal about how changing cultural expectations and political needs transformed commemorative practices concerning violence in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. By exposing how the timely interventions of national figures increasingly shaped local commemorative aspirations, my research illuminates how the brief period of national unity in the immediate aftermath has been discursively and materially foregrounded as the heart of national public memory narratives of mass murder. I argue that at the turn of the twenty-first century the memory of victims of mass murders"assuming something akin to the role that fallen soldiers have played for the bulk of American history"are now viewed by a range of political, religious and cultural actors as a highly effective means of bolstering perceptions of local, organizational and national unity. This project contributes to the interdisciplinary literature on commemoration in three ways. First, I challenge the literature on memorials built in the immediate aftermath of violence and tragedy by illustrating how these memory sites are increasingly but the first stage of the material culture of public memory. Second, my theory of a ritualized assemblage develops the existing literature by forwarding a concept well suited to analyze the relationship of between seemingly disparate memory sites. Lastly, the rhetoric of what I call the Myth of the Slaughtered Citizen contributes to the literature on nationalism and commemoration by explaining how the victims of mass murder were culturally substituted into the commemorative role traditionally held by fallen soldiers to promote a sense of local and national unity. / Ph. D.