Symbolic interactionism is within the positivist school of thought. Using a social psychological vantage point, symbolic interactionism—as explained by members of the Chicago school, specifically by Mead and Thomas—posits that one's self‐concept and behavior change from one situation to another. This change depends on the subjects' interpretation of symbols from a given situation and on their generalized interpretation of symbols communicated by others. Symbolic interactionism is often thought of as one of America's main contributions to theory; this theoretical perspective has continued to be popular nearly 100 years after its development around 1914. Some theories shaped by symbolic interactionism include social learning, labeling, and violentization theories. The idea that social reality is fluid, always being re‐created and appearing in new situations is currently very relevant; in consequence, theoretical developments using aspects of symbolic interactionism are likely to continue for some time into the future.

When one intimate partner kills another it is considered intimate partner homicide. The majority of intimate partner homicides occur as a result of ongoing interpersonal violence. Females are the victims of intimate partner homicide over four times more often than males. However, victims can be of either gender and intimate partner homicide can occur among same gender couples as well as opposite gender couples. Guns, particularly handguns, are the most typical weapon used in intimate partner homicide. Early intervention in domestic violence cases with better risk of homicide appraisal and realistic safety planning with the victim could proactively save perhaps thousands of lives each year nationwide. Communities through their health care, criminal justice, social services, religious services, and educational systems could proactively raise awareness of this tragic crime and commit resources to training all personnel to assess, apply existing laws, and intervene in violence cases before they become lethal.

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The subject of this case study is the author's recent attempt to teach forensic interviewing best practices techniques to undergraduate college students within an upper division Victimology class. The three main phases of a forensic interview namely, the report building phase, the substantive aspect, and closure were the primary areas presented to the students. Key components of forensic interviewing such as asking open ended questions without leading the respondent, encouraging elaboration but not imagination, and listening and recording in a neutral manner were emphasized. Rather than just teaching the points to the students, exercises were designed to allow students to practice the skills in real time.

Social learning theory is relatively popular and is in part a psychological learning theory which was developed primarily by Ronald Akers. Social learning theory assumes that both deviant and conforming behavior are a result of the learning process that takes place through interactions in various social structures. Social learning takes place through a process of discovering what actions and behaviors are rewarded and what actions or behaviors are punished. While typically, most men lead nonviolent and noncriminal offending lives, we do see higher rates of crime among men than women. At the same time there are some women who were emotionally neglected, humiliated, or abused as children and they are more likely than their nonabused counterparts to learn violence from these social interactions and become violent and possibly criminal themselves. Thus, there is a disproportionate impact on lower class, minority, females than on other women and girls.