NCJ Number
192352
Journal
Homicide Studies Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2001 Pages: 293-310
Date Published
November 2001
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This article presents a descriptive survey of all homicides in 1998 in the Netherlands.
Abstract
It is suggested that the numbers of homicides in the Netherlands might be somewhat higher than shown in official statistics. The literature on homicides in this country is sparse. The aim of this research is to expand the existing literature on homicide. It involves collecting data from police records, court records, newspaper clippings, and interview data collected from all involved police teams. Four major correlates of homicide were incorporated into the data collection: age, gender, race, and social class. The motive of the offender had four main categories: criminal background, sexual, robbery, and dispute. Results showed that during 1998, 202 homicide incidents, claiming a total of 225 victims, occurred in the Netherlands. These incidents involved 230 offenders, only 1 of whom was involved in 2 homicide incidents. The majority of homicide events were a single-victim incident. It was found that 40 percent of the victims were killed by a gun, 27 percent by a knife, and 33 percent by other means, including strangling, hitting, and drowning. The remaining 36 incidents had more than 1 victim, more than 1 offender, or both. Just more than half of all homicides were committed inside a house. Many of the homicides occurred between intimates in the context of a dispute. Women constituted a small proportion of offenders but a larger proportion of victims. Ethnicity was prominent in that 58 percent of offenders for whom ethnicity was known were not of ethnically Dutch descent, a large overrepresentation relative to the proportion of non-ethnic Dutch in the population. Alcohol and drugs were found to play a prominent role either as a precursor or background characteristic of the offender or during the event. Offenders, more so than victims, were likely to be outside of mainstream participation in the larger society, especially through their unemployment or participation in criminal activity preceding their involvement in homicide. 5 tables, 5 notes, 24 references