Young adults as victims of homicide

Social environments and lifestyles

Abstract

The study uses qualitative research methods to deepen our understanding of young adults as victims of homicide. The study focuses on the social environment of homicide victims aged 15–29. The examination is particularly focused on the years and months preceding the homicide. The data consists of nine in-depth interviews with the relatives of the victims of homicide, in which they told the victim’s life story. The interviews were conducted between December 2023 and August 2024. The relatives’ interpretations of the young person’s life are structured through the Lifestyle Exposure Theory (LET) framework. LET assumes that there were features in the victim’s lifestyle that increased his risk of becoming a victim of crime. The victims’ relatives spoke about the use of sub-stances that determined the victim’s social environment and described friendships as a guiding fac-tor in the young person’s life. The results emphasize the need to target serious violence prevention measures to young people living in risky social environments and underline the importance of combating violence as part of a broader approach to safeguarding the well-being of young people in our society.