Homicide in Europe

European Lone Actor Terrorists Versus “Common” Homicide Offenders: An Empirical Analysis

“…The empirical research base of Lone Actor attacks, particularly occurring in Europe, is still limited, despite some recent attempts to further improve our understanding of these events ( Ellis et al, 2016a , 2016b ). On one hand, this may be due to the fragmented nature of lethal violence research in Europe ( Liem & Pridemore, 2014 ), in which each European country adheres to its own homicide definition and its own national reporting agency. On the other hand, the relative scarcity of empirical research in this area may be due to the lack of access to primary data.…”

Balkanisation in European Homicide Research

“…Given its salience, it is perhaps surprising that for a long time, European comparative homicide research has remained a relatively marginal field. Compared to the United States and several commonwealth countries, Europe does not have a long tradition of studying homicide trends, patterns, and explanations (Liem, 2017). This may be due to the large differences that exist between European countries in legal definitions of and data sources on homicide.…”

“…In addition, the overwhelming presence of the United States as reference point in studies on European homicide may have impeded comparative analyses within Europe (Granath et al, 2011;Liem et al 2013). The past decade, however, saw a substantial body of new scholarly work on European homicide, combined with initiatives to systematically gather homicide data on a pan-European level (Liem, 2017). In this contribution, I will reflect on these initiatives; particularly, on the construction of the European Homicide Monitor (EHM) and how it relates to other initiatives, such as the Balkan Homicide Study (BHS) described in the book at hand.…”