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Abstract
This is a systematic study of the social background of Danish males convicted for the first time of lethal violence, either actual or potential (e.g. unlawful killers, attempted homicides, negligent homicide, grievous bodily harm, n = 125). Using registers, the paper addresses the following question: Do young men, convicted of a lethal violent crime (either actual or potential), have the same kind of risk factors related to social disadvantage as other first‐time convicted violent offenders (n = 1,849) and first‐time attempted suicides or completed suicides (n = 476)? The paper describes three separate analyses of the total 1966 birth cohort followed through a 13‐year period from age 15 to 27 (n = 43,403). In each case the discrete‐time Cox model is used to analyse associations between the relatively rare response events and the relatively rare stress factors. Results suggest that all three groups of subjects have a similar exposure to risk conditions, but also that there are important differences in the predictors for the three groups when the risk factors are analysed one by one. So, for example, the experience of domestic violence during adolescence is a strong predictor of males' later violent behaviour but a less strong predictor of suicidal behaviour. In contrast, being battered and being neglected during childhood more strongly predict later suicidal behaviour than violent behaviour. The implications for prevention are considered.
1. An earlier version was presented at the 4th Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 25–28 August 2004.
Acknowledgements
We thank the Danish Health Insurance Fund for generous research support and Gerda Engholm for her assistance and comments of the use of the statistical models. Likewise, Professor Håkan Stattin is thanked for his useful comments. We are also grateful for the support of the UK Economic and Social Research Council (Grant number RES 576‐25‐5020).
Notes
1. An earlier version was presented at the 4th Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 25–28 August 2004.
2. Recent studies based on the same birth cohort have been published (Christoffersen, Francis, Soothill Citation2003; Christoffersen, Poulsen, Nielsen Citation2003; Christoffersen, Soothill Citation2003; Christoffersen, Soothill, Francis Citation2005), while other Danish studies have been based on a sample of the total population and extracts from crime statistics and unemployment registers (Kyvsgaard Citation1998, Citation2001). Previous Danish register‐based studies of mental disorder and crime were conducted by Ortmann (Citation1981) and Hodgins with colleagues (Citation1996). The first included all male persons born in the metropolitan area of Copenhagen in 1953, while the latter included all persons born between January 1, 1944 and December 31, 1947. These subjects were screened for criminal convictions and admissions to psychiatric wards in Denmark (Hodgins et al. Citation1996).
3. The Danish Criminal Code has been translated into English by Høyer, Spencer and Greve (1999). Section 252 states that ‘Any person, who for the purpose of gain, or purely wantonly or in any similar reckless manner, exposes the life or physical ability of others to impending danger shall be liable to simple detention or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding four years’. It has to be proven that the person has intention, purpose to cause harm or expose others to impending danger. So it is clearly a behaviour which falls under our category of ‘lethal violence’. Examples of such behaviour are shooting at a person without hitting them, and the throwing of a fire‐bomb against police.