Patterns of Homicide in South Sumatra: Territorial Concentration, Interpersonal Violence, and Institutional Variation

Abstract

This study examines homicide patterns across South Sumatra, Indonesia, by integrating homicide-related conviction records from ten court jurisdictions covering 2014–2024, operational police data from 17 regencies and cities covering 2022–2024, and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in homicide investigation, mediation, and victim support. The analysis focuses on jurisdictional concentration, reported and cleared homicide cases, homicide motives, and homicide scene characteristics. The findings show that homicide is unevenly distributed across South Sumatra, with Palembang, Musi Banyuasin, and the Kayu Agung jurisdiction consistently recording relatively high concentrations of homicide-related cases. Feud was the most frequently recorded motive (56 cases), followed by malice aforethought (43 cases) and miscommunication (32 cases), highlighting the importance of interpersonal conflict and retaliatory violence. Houses were the most common homicide scene (86 cases), followed by streets (34 cases), indicating that lethal violence frequently occurs within familiar social environments. The study also identifies substantial disparities between reported and cleared homicide cases across jurisdictions, suggesting uneven investigative conditions across the province. Drawing on Social Disorganization Theory, Routine Activity Theory, Black’s sociology of self-help, and conflict-escalation perspectives, the study argues that homicide in South Sumatra is best understood as a relational, territorially patterned, and institutionally uneven phenomenon shaped by the interaction of territorial vulnerability, interpersonal conflict, situational accessibility, and institutional variation.