Homicide in Italy

Criminological and Medico‐legal Aspects in Homicidal and Suicidal Sharp Force Fatalities

“…In particular, a potential motive explaining the fatal event that involved responsibilities of third parties was present in 90.3% of the cases, and the existence of an interpersonal conflict against a psychopathological background of the perpetrator was the most frequent (38.5%) scenario, suggesting that the management of the psychiatric patient is sometimes very delicate in relation to not only his or her health but also with respect to people in close relationships with the individual, such as immediate family or a partner. Jealousy is also a frequent motive, and in our study, it was the second most prevalent motive (40). The presence of potential motives explaining the crime was an independent factor associated with homicide in our study, prompting the need for a careful criminological evaluation in cases where classic necroscopic data are missing.…”

“…In Italy, domestic and criminal homicides are the most frequent homicidal incidents (40). In recent years, an important drop has been observed in homicides related to organized crime, especially in the central-south area, explaining the relative increase in the proportion of female homicide victims (3).…”

“…Around 80.5% of female victims are killed by an acquaintance, whereas this is true for only 24.8% of male victims. A frequent scenario is, indeed, that of a family member, generally a man, who assaults other relatives, often the spouse (3,40).…”

“…Sharp force violence is, in particular, an offense of a domestic nature: compared with men, a higher degree of interrelationship between perpetrator and female victim is suggested by the fact that they are more frequently killed in their own homes and tend to suffer a larger number of injuries, including to the upper extremities and superficial thoracic injuries ("scratches") (3,11,13,14,30,32,41). The escalation of a chronic conflict within a family is the most common motive for domestic homicide (11,40).…”

Homicide drop in Finland, 1996–2012

“…This period is interesting from the point of view of the current trend because the developments since the mid-1990s can be seen as a return to the pre-1970s 'normalcy', at least when considering mere aggregated homicide rate levels. Information about the structural changes connected with the period of increasing homicide rates in different European countries has been available from Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain (Kivivuori, 2002;Nieuwbeerta & Leistra, 2007;Birkel & Dern, 2012;Medina, 2012;Preti & Macciò, 2012;Salla, Ceccato, & Ahven, 2012).…”