Homicides in Oklahoma: An examination of weapon selection

This study examined 216 solved homicide cases from the state of Oklahoma. The cases occurred from 1995 to 2005. The purpose of the study was to examine whether a correlation existed between the weapon chosen to commit a homicide and the offender/victim relationship. Each case was examined for the type of weapon that was used and the relationship that existed, as perceived by the offender. The cases were chosen from the Oklahoma Homicide database. A chi-square analysis was used to isolate potential correlations and descriptive statistics were used to examine the hypothesis.