Children as victims of homicide: Making claims, formulating categories, and constructing social problems

Abstract

The construction of a social problem involves two interrelated processes: making claims about a particular condition and typifying the problematic behavior in terms of related people or conditions. This paper examines the operation of these two processes in relation to homicide where the victims are children (child homicide). Both claims‐making and typification have been unfocused. Popular and academic research as well as organizational attention to child homicide have been minimal. These efforts have also been hampered by difficulties among social control agencies in defining, identifying, and reacting to child homicide. There are three reasons for this: child homicide perpetrators are often parents and guardians, there are varying patterns of homicide associated with the developmental stages of the victims, and, most important, aspects and examples of the issues have been captured by proponents of other social problems.