TY - JOUR PY - 2003// TI - Homicide and infanticide in Stockholm 1920–1939 JO - Journal of Scandinavian studies in criminology and crime prevention A1 - Kaspersson, Maria SP - 135 EP - 143 VL - 3 IS - 2 N2 - This article studied 45 cases of homicide and infanticide in Stockholm District Court 1920–1939 and compared them with cases in Sweden in the 1990s. Compared with homicide in Sweden today, fundamental similarities were found in the category of domestic homicide, but with the important differences that extended suicides have decreased and changed in character from being passive to becoming active, and from having been committed by many women to being committed mainly by men. Drunken brawls are the same in character, but have increased with time. The free access of alcohol and the financial means of a large group of relatively young people can explain this increase. Infanticide has decreased considerably, indicating that social development has reduced the incitement to this type of killing. The view of offenders' responsibility in the inter-war period depended on their gender and whether they were intoxicated by alcohol. The view of insanity has changed with time, but regarding alcohol no comparable material was available. Finally, the lessons we can learn from studying the inter-war period is that domestic violence has to be taken seriously and the alcohol factor, with its sometimes negative consequences, has to be accepted, unless we want to fundamentally change our society and way of life.

LA - SN - 1404-3858 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14043850310010802 ID - ref1 ER -