Indholdsfortegnelse - Scandinavian Research Council for Criminology

Figure 3: The age distribution of male victims, by period.
The typical female homicide victim has become older than she used to be in the main period 1960-74
(Fig. 4).
Figure 4: The age distribution of female victims, by period.
One of the most interesting changes is the diminishing percentage of young victims of 1 to 14 years of
age. (The absolute numbers of these victims in the four periods of Figures 5 and 6 were 43, 39, 34 and
7, corresponding to annual averages of 8.6, 7.8, 6.8 and 3.5 victims). One relevant factor may be the
diminishing average number of children in families. Since homicidal parents tend to kill all or most of
their children (and possibly the spouse too), a large part of the young victims are killed in multiple
victim situations (Fig. 6). This suggests that the reduction of typical family size (Fig. 7) may
contribute to the reduction in the number (and percentage) of child victims.
Figure 5: Young (1-14 year old) homicide victims, of all victims.
47