Report on domestic murders in the first half of 1994

Today’s society demands more significant sacrifices and renunciations from individuals than ever: many of its members are denied the possibility of building a future of their own, independently managed through work, and thus of being able to satisfy the basic needs of autonomy and security. This uncertainty has become a ‘risk factor’. Thus, the individual, caught between a society that tends to exclude him and a family sphere that can no longer provide him with solid and stable security, more and more often discharges his aggressiveness in a sudden, violent way, and precisely against the people who are closest to him. In the quantitative analysis of the cases of domestic murders elaborated by Eurispes through an accurate analysis of the press, in addition to all the circumstances of homicides between relatives, also similar episodes have been considered domestic homicides, namely homicides committed by the victims’ partners or by their cohabitants at the time of or before the event. The sample consists of cases occurring in the first six months of 1994, and the results can be considered representative at least of the leading uniform trends characterising the phenomenon.