Book Review: Handbook of European homicide research: Patterns, explanations, and country studies

• Published date: 01 December 2014
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567714545219
• Author: Aki Roberts
• Date: 01 December 2014
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Liem, M. C. A., & Pridemore, W. A. (Eds.). (2012).

Handbook of European homicide research: Patterns, explanations, and country studies. New York, NY: Springer.

528 pp. $179, ISBN-13: 978-1461404651.

Reviewed by: Aki Roberts, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA

DOI: 10.1177/1057567714545219

While scholarly work on homicide predominantly focuses on the United States, it is also crucial

to study homicide within other countries or in a cross-national context. An international approach

to studying homicide increases generalizability and gives us deeper understanding, and Europe is

a particularly interesting setting for homicide research. Most contemporary criminological the-

ories were developed in the United States, but many core theoretical ideas originate from Eur-

opean scholars such as Durkheim, Marx, and Beccaria. Also, while European nations are in

close geographical proximity, they are still quite heterogeneous in homicide rates and the social,

economic, cultural, and political correlates of homicide, with especially notable diversity between

Europe’s central/eastern and western regions. The continent’s distinctive experience with histor-

ical events such as the Soviet Union’s collapse provides opportunities for studying the effect on

crime of sociopolitical shocks that are unavailable to researchers who exclusively examine the

United States. Furthermore, the United States and Europe share many important characteristics

but also differ substantially in incarceration rates and policies, so that Europe is an extremely

valuable additional setting in which to examine the relationship between crime rates and the

criminal justice system’s actions.

But despite the importance of a cross-national approach to homicide research, U.S.-trained

scholars may be reluctant to study homicide in other countries, including Europe, due to a lack

of basic knowledge of homicide—definitions, data sources, and research traditions—in other

nations. The chapters collected in Handbook of European Homicide Research: Patterns, Expla-

nations, and Country Studies address this by providing an excellent overview of homicide in Eur-

ope. The edited book consists of two parts. The first part (Chapters 2–17) focuses on Europe as a

whole and provides a valuable introduction for homicide researchers interested in comparing mul-

tiple European nations. Chapter 2 provides detailed up-to-date information on data sources for

cross-national European homicide data, differences in homicide definitions among European

countries, and a review of previous cross-national comparative homicide research in Europe. The

International Criminal Police Organization was once a widely used data source but recently has

stopped reporting cross-national homicide data. The chapter identifies four current sources of

cross-national European homicide data that can be used instead (Eurostat, European Sourcebook

of Crime and Criminal Justice, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations). Even

though criminologists agree that official statistics for homicide are more reliable and valid than

those for other less serious offenses, the chapter describes the considerable variation in legal def-

initions and homicide recording practices across the European countries and the four main data

International CriminalJustice Review

2014, Vol. 24(4) 410-423

ª2014 Georgia State University

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