Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

Homicide as the most serious form of lethal violence has always represented an important research focus in criminology. Much of the existing research, however, is based on aggregated homicide data and is limited to macrolevel analyses. The European Homicide Monitor (EHM) is an initiative promoting standardized international data collection, with the aim of collecting disaggregated and detailed data on homicide. Originally developed by researchers from the Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland, the EHM coding scheme is currently applied in several European countries. In this article, we take stock of the use of the EHM approach by describing its key principles and aims. We also review research conducted within the EHM framework and identify the most significant developments in its use, such as expanding to the Global South, to the historical past, and to more accurate measurement of drug-related incidents. We conclude this investigation by discussing the challenges facing future research in this domain.

This article describes patterns in the homicides committed in Estonia since the 1990s. The overall decreasing trend in mortality is first described using mortality statistics. Based on a dataset of court verdicts spanning the 2016−2023 period, we extend previous research in this domain by describing current homicide patterns. To reflect on changes, we compare the results yielded by our investigation with those obtained in prior key studies. According to our analyses, mortality due to homicide exhibited a relatively stable trend over the last decade, with alcohol as a major contributor to most of these incidents. At the same time, there has been a decrease in economically motivated cases, as well as in homicides committed with firearms. Guided by these results, we provide suggestions for future research aimed at contributing to the European Homicide Monitor (EHM) database.

The aim of the present study is to examine the links between high intentional homicide rates and alcohol abuse in the context of social transition in Lithuania. According to the extant literature, both the increase in homicide rates and the increase in alcohol abuse have a negative impact on public health and are often associated with challenges at the macrosocial level. In recent decades, Lithuania has experienced substantial political, economic, and social transformations. Lithuanian society has transitioned from a Soviet regime to embrace the Western principles of liberal democracy. Yet, despite positive political and economic progress, Lithuania remains a country with one of the highest homicide and alcohol-related harm rates in the European Union. These characteristics have made the Lithuanian homicide situation a captivating topic for a range of international and national studies, expert analyses, and evaluations. Unfortunately, the lack of reliable and consistent data on homicide continues to obstruct researchers from delving deeper into the analysis and explanation of the homicide phenomenon in Lithuania. To mitigate this issue, in this work, we present thoroughly collected and processed historical data on intentional homicide trends from 1961 to 2022. We also examine changes in the rate of homicide suspects, including their socio-demographic characteristics and alcohol intoxication for the 2004–2022 period. Finally, we investigate changes in homicide mortality rates and homicide victims’ socio-demographic characteristics. Our analyses are based on data sourced from the Lithuanian Special Archives, as well as national and international databases of crime statistics and demographic data. We noted a continuous decline in intentional homicide rates after the steep increase in 1989–1994. Furthermore, between 2004 and 2022, more than half of intentional homicide suspects were under the influence of alcohol. These findings are discussed in the broader context of societal changes in Lithuania.

This study analyzes the trend in firearm and criminal milieu–related homicides in Sweden in the past three decades. A particular focus is on the 2010–2019 period, during which a dramatic increase was noted, although an increase in firearm homicides with illegal guns had already started in the late 1990s. In extant literature, the rapid increase in the 2010s is posited to be associated with fast access to illegal weapons, especially among youth in the most urban regions, Stockholm and Skaane County in particular. As a result, many victims and perpetrators are young men. This issue is proposed to be exacerbated by the new possibilities for organized crime setups in the wake of the digital revolution, a heightened level of social problems in the aftermath of high immigration from developing countries in combination with the dismantling of welfare institutions, and a self-increasing chain reaction of violence triggered by random episodes in the criminal milieu. These hypotheses are largely supported by this study’s findings.

Homicide remains a major cause of death globally. The global risk differentials are a persistent public health challenge. Africa’s homicide rate of 13 victims per 100,000 people is markedly higher than the European average (2.2 per 100,000 people). To understand the causes of such large differences, homicide research needs to move from country-level rates to disaggregated analyses in which homicide is broken down by victim, offender, and incident characteristics. We conducted a pilot study in which the European Homicide Monitor (EHM) coding manual is applied to a South African research location and compared to an extreme point in the Global North, Finnish urban areas. We find differential patterns in the two locations. The high-rate context of South Africa manifests a younger offender and victim age structure, a higher share of criminal and revenge motives and the use of firearms, and incidents in public places. In contrast, the comparatively low-rate Finnish context shows a higher relative share of intimate partner violence and familial incidents taking place in private places. The role of alcohol and drugs appears more salient in Finnish urban homicide, a finding calling for replication. We conclude by discussing the methodological challenges revealed by the pilot comparison.

Firearms are used in around 25% of homicides in Europe. More so than other weapons commonly used in violent encounters, firearms have the ability to inflict lethal injuries. Yet, theoretical approaches to understanding the impact of firearms on the prevalence, lethality, and nature of violent encounters are scarce and have been developed almost exclusively within and for the context of the United States, where the levels of firearm violence and firearm availability are much higher than in Europe, limiting their applicability to the European context. To address this issue, European empirical data are reviewed in this paper to critically assess the few existing theoretical approaches focusing on the use of firearms in lethal and non-lethal violence. Based on the obtained findings, future directions for empirical research, as well as suggestions for new conceptualizations of firearm violence in Europe are presented.

This study examines diagnosed mental health disorders among nearly 800 perpetrators of homicide in Sweden between 2005 and 2017. The analysis is based on information from in- and outpatient registers, which has been linked to crime data on homicide. The results show that four out of the 10 homicide perpetrators had been in contact with psychiatric services during the year prior to the crime. It is about seven times more common for a perpetrator of homicide, irrespective of sex, to have been in contact with psychiatric services during the year prior to the crime than it is for someone in the general population to have such contacts in the course of a calendar year. The prevalence of different psychiatric disorders among homicide perpetrators follows the same pattern as that observed in the general population although at higher levels. In both populations, substance abuse, depression, and anxiety disorders dominate. However, the overrepresentation of substance abuse—especially multi-substance abuse—and personality disorders is particularly high among the perpetrators. Perpetrators of family-related homicide had particularly frequent contacts with psychiatric services prior to the crime. Female perpetrators had been treated for psychiatric disorders more often than men, which may reflect not only actual differences in levels of psychiatric ill-health but also differences in the propensity to seek treatment.