Murder and manslaughter

The figures contained in this news release concern all homicide cases which took place in the Netherlands. Victims include both residents as registered in the Key Register of Persons (BRP) at the time of death and non-residents (13 percent in 2019). These data are incorporated into the unnatural causes of death statistics.

The primary sources for the figures on murder and manslaughter are:
• data from cause-of-death certification as completed by the attending physician or coroner;
• court files in cases of unnatural death.
No distinction is drawn here between manslaughter (either voluntary or involuntary killing) and murder (killing with malice aforethought) since, at the time of consulting the court files, there has not (yet) been a court decision in most cases. This also means there is no distinction yet between suspects and offenders.

Cases where the suspect is found guilty concern cases in the first instance. Appeals are not included in this news release.