Homicide in the Netherlands

There has been little systematic information presented about homicides in the Netherlands. To address this scarcity of literature, an exploratory, descriptive survey of all homicides in 1998 in the Netherlands is presented. Following the tradition of classic U.S. studies, characteristics of offenders, victims, and characteristics of homicide incidents are presented. After a description of the characteristics of the incident, the offender, and the victim, a number of relations between these characteristics are investigated. Suggestions are made for future research, especially complex analyses to determine more precise, and perhaps more meaningful, descriptions of homicide types.