Interpersonal violence and suicide are major health concerns, leading to premature death, extensive human suffering and staggering monetary costs. Although violent behaviour has multiple causes, it is well known that acute substance intake and abuse increase the risks of both interpersonal and self-directed violence. This association is quite well established for alcohol, while a more ambiguous literature exists for other common drugs of abuse. For example, anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS), synthetic analogues to the “male” sex hormone testosterone are suggested to elicit violent and aggressive behaviour. Two studies (I and III) in the present thesis addressed the association between AAS use and being suspected or convicted of a violent crime among remand prisoners and in a general population sample, respectively. Further, using the case-crossover design to control for confounders stable within individuals, I also investigated the triggering (short-term risk) effect of alcohol and drugs such as benzodiazepines and AAS, on violent crime (Study II). Finally, a fourth study (IV) based on a large national forensic sample of suicide completers (n=18,894) examined the risk of using a violent, more lethal, suicide method, when under acute influence of alcohol, central stimulants or cannabis. The results of this thesis suggested that AAS use in itself is not a proximal risk factor for violent crime; the observed risk is probably due to the co-occurrence of abuse of other substances. Alcohol is a strong triggering risk factor for violent crime, constant across males and females as well as individuals with or without behavioral and psychiatric vulnerability. Intake of high doses of benzodiazepines is associated with an increased risk for violent crime. Cannabis use is associated with an increased risk of using the lethal suicide method of jumping from a height. I conclude that mapping substance abuse patterns may inform violence risk assessment and treatment planning.

Victim precipitated homicide is a phenomenon generally credited to the seminal work of Marvin Wolfgang (1957, 1958, 1967). While a limited number of studies have been conducted supporting this concept, limited understanding exists of the event dynamics of homicidal transactions in general and victim precipitated homicides in particular. In this study, the presence of an audience and alcohol impairment are treated as catalysts that influence the dynamics of the homicide event. It is hypothesized that homicide events are more likely to take shape as victim precipitated transactions when audience members are present. It is further hypothesized that the victim’s consumption of alcohol serves as a moderator between the presence of an audience and victim precipitated homicide. These hypotheses were tested using a dataset of 473 homicides occurring in Dallas, Texas from 1988 to 1997. The author found support for the first hypothesis postulating that the presence of an audience increases the odds of a victim precipitated homicide, but found little support for alcohol as a moderating factor. Potential theoretical and policy implications and future research are discussed.

Meanness and Disinhibition are two components of psychopathic personality, conceptualized by the Triarchic Psychopathic Model (Tri-PM). Psychopathic personality traits are related to criminal behavior. There is however, little research on how meanness and disinhibition relate to violent crime and non-violent crime. Data were drawn from a sample of college students and prison inmates (N = 1,787 mean age = 26.8 years). Meanness, disinhibition, violent crime and non-violent crime was measured using the Externalizing Spectrum Inventory ([ESI] Krueger et al., 2007). The results indicated that meanness and disinhibition explained 61% of the variance in violent crime and 77% of the variance in non-violent crime. Disinhibition had a stronger relation to both violent crime and non-violent crime. There was also a small, but significant interaction effect of meanness and disinhibition on violent crime and non-violent crime. The results support the theoretical outlines of the Tri-PM. Implications from these findings are that the ESI and the Tri-PM can be used risk assessment tools and in work related to crime prevention. Future research should in addition to meanness and disinhibition also include boldness from the Tri-PM and more severe violent types of crime in order to examine how these traits relate to intentions of violent- and non-violent crime. / Meanness och disinhibition ar tva komponenter av psykopatisk personlighet, konceptualiserad utifran The Triarchic Psychopahtic Model (The Tri-PM). Psykopatisk personlighet ar relaterat till brottsliga beteenden. Det finns dock lite forskning pa hur meanness och disinhibition relaterar till våldsbrott och ickevåldsbrott. Data drogs fran ett urval av universitetsstudenter och intagna i fangelse (N = 1 787 medelalder = 26,8 ar). Meanness, disinhibition, våldsbrott och ickevåldsbrott mattes med The Externalizing Spectrum Inventory ([ESI] Krueger et al., 2007). Variablerna analyserades med linjara multipla regressionsanalyser. Resultatet indikerade att meanness och disinhibition forklarade 61% av variansen av våldsbrott och 77% av variansen av icke-våldsbrott. Disinhibition hade en starkare relation till bade våldsbrott och icke-våldsbrott. Det fanns aven en liten, men signifikant interaktionseffekt for våldsbrott och ickevåldsbrott. Resultatet stodjer den teoretiska utgangspunkten fran Tri-PM. Implikationer fran dessa fynd ar att ESI och Tri-PM kan anvandas som riskbedomningsverktyg och brottsforebyggande syfte. Framtida forskning bor tillsammans med meanness och disinhibition aven inkludera boldness fran Tri-PM och mer grova typer av valdsamma brott for att undersoka hur dessa drag relaterar till olika avsikter for brott.

Violent crime and its prevention Abstract Violent crime has been a part of our society since its inception. Nevertheless, just like our society, it keeps changing and evolving and for that reason its research remains relevant. As violent crime raises serious concerns for one's safety, the police, the media and the public pay close attention to it. The topic of violent crime is very extensive and it is difficult to grasp within the limited scope of the diploma thesis. With regard to this fact, the aim of this diploma thesis is to provide in six chapters at least a basic overview not only of violent crime, but also its prevention. The first chapter explains the concepts related to violent crime, and the attached overview table also lists the crimes that are classified as a violent crime. The second chapter provides information, based on the analysis of data from police statistics, on the share of violent crime in the total crime numbers, the state of violent crime in individual regions and throughout the Czech Republic and the structure of violent crime in 2020. It also discusses the development and evolution of violent crime up until 2020. The third chapter deals with the characteristics of violent crime with emphasis on the crime of robbery, its typology and international comparison. The fourth chapter...

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The topic of this thesis is the effect of alcohol consumption on committing violent crime. The aim of this work is to describe the relationship between alcohol use and perpetration of violent crime using a description of selected violent crimes. The theoretical part deals firstly with the individual areas such as alcohol and violent crime. In the following paragraphs work connects these two concepts - thus dealing with alcohol as a criminogenic factor. Finally, the work is devoted to the theoretical models that describe link between alcohol and crime. The practical part contains a description and analysis of two selected violent crimes - murder and robbery, which resulted from a qualitative analysis of court files. Within it are described the circumstances in detail that led to the commission of a crime in connection with the use of alcohol. The work aims to address three main issues - whether the use of alcohol has a role in the criminal career of the offender; on what circumstances related to the commission of the offense is the expertise pointing, as to the issue of alcohol use and express that it is possible in these cases find the influence of alcohol applied to the offense.

OF THE THESIS Name: Bc. Lada Broklová Specialization: Addictology Head of the thesis: Mgr. Jaroslav Šejvl Opponent: JUDr. Michaela Štefunková, Ph.D. Pages: 91 The name of the thesis: THE RELATIONSHIP OF ALCOHOL AND MURDERS OF WOMEN IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC - CASE STUDIES Abstract: The aim of the thesis is to analyze committing murders by women who are under the influence of alcohol. The theoretical part focuses on explaining the concepts and characteristics of the alcohol, crime, violent crime and the concept of alcohol as a criminogenic factor. There are the chapters specifically aimed at women and alcohol and women-murderess. The first part summarizes the essentials of what was published in this issues. The work is accompanied by several illustrative charts. The practical part focuses on qualitative research using methods of analysis of court files. The work is conceived as case study, detailed studies of three cases of murders committed by women under the influence of alcohol. Using the method of trapping patterns alcohol career perpetrators, the effect of alcohol on the offense, personality structure of perpetrator and the crime were monitored. It was found that the examined cases are without departing from the cases commonly described in the literature. Perpetrators at the time of crimes were...

Violent Crime and Its Prevention Abstract This thesis deals with violent crime and its prevention. This topic is broad, therefore only few aspects are included into this work. I focused mostly on phenomenology of violent crime, worldwide comparation and prevention of crime. The violent crime is a traditional criminologic topic, but despite that, it is still very actual. My goal was to chart violent crime and its prevention. This work is divided into six chapters. In the first chapter, basic concepts are defined. The focus of a second chapter is on phenomenology, state, dynamics and extent of the violent crime in Czech Republic and in countries, that I have chosen. In the following chapter, the state of violent crime is compared in-between some chosen countries through index crime of homicide. Crime in United States and Great Britain is compared in more detail later in this chapter. In the same chapter, relapse and latent crime is also described. In the third chapter, perpetrator of violent crime, various kinds of typology, ratios between men and women in sense of numbers of offences and age composition of offenders are discussed. Victims, victimization, types of victims, forms of experiencing harm and impact of violent crime on the victim is the main topic of the fourth chapter. The fifth chapter deals with...

Both elite deviance, committed by the upper echelons of society, and organized crime threaten development and the rights and security of people across and within nations; however empirical research on these topics is limited, especially in the field of criminology. This study addresses this gap in the literature by testing hypotheses derived from Simon’s symbiotic theory of elite deviance, which posits that direct and indirect relationships exist between elite deviance, organized crime, and conventional crimes exist (2008). The intervening effects of national culture and political economic ideology are also considered. To test the research hypotheses, this study uses homicide rates, corruption and organized crime measures, and indicators of national culture from 114 nations. Findings suggest that empirical linkages exist between elite deviance, organized crime and conventional deviance at the cross-national level. These data suggest the level of corruption and organized crime within a nation are better predictors of homicide than conventional explanations of violent crime (e.g., modernization/development, opportunity/routine activities). Furthermore, organized crime partially mediated the relationship between corruption and homicide rates in the same (positive) direction. This implies that the criminogenic effect of elite deviance on non-elite deviance operates indirectly through organized crime. The corruption-homicide relationship was also partially mediated by a national culture of moral cynicism and capitalist economic conditions. Although not definitive given methodological concerns and alternate theoretical explanations, this study provides avenues for future research into the underlying social processes that influence the crime rate within nations.