Laurence Dollimore
YOU’RE more likely to be murdered on a Sunday in September than any other day in the year, a new study has revealed.
It comes after an in-depth analysis of murder in Spain was released by the country’s Interior Ministry this week.
The three-year, 85-page study and the first of its kind, analysed 632 homicides between 2010 and 2012.
The report’s findings contradict popular notions on murder and its link to immigration and race. “This is science, not politics,” explains psychologist José Luis González.
If you have killed someone, you’re more likely to be male, with men carrying out 89% of all murders.
If you’ve been murdered, you’re more likely to be a man too, with victims being 61% men.
In 69% of cases, the male murderers had a criminal record and in 31% the homicide was related to drugs.
According to the report, only 7% of male victims are killed by women.
The majority of murders (62%) are men who are killed by men, 28% are women killed by men and 3% are women killed by women.
Foreign killers
A substantial 35% of all murders were committed by foreigners in the period analysed for the study.
In murders related to gang violence, 59% of killers were foreign.
That figure jumps to 95% in murders committed by organised crime.
But it’s not something in our DNA, as Criminologist Jorge Santos explained to El Pais: “A larger percentage of foreigners are young people, who commit the most murders. It’s nothing to do with foreigners being more violent.”
Gender violence
Out of the 148 deaths from domestic violence, 131 were men who killed their female partner or former partner and just 17 were women who killed their male partner or former partner.
A surprise find was the rate of sexual assault in murder cases.
According to the report only three of the 661 murder victims (0.45%) were sexually abused before being killed.
“Fortunately in Spain, it’s not at all common to sexually abuse a girl and kill her,” said study leader González.
However 21% of murders are related to Gender violence.
Meanwhile, claims by Vox leader Santiago Abascal that migrants were behind the majority of women’s murders were quickly put to bed by the study.
Spanish men committed 68% of murders relating to gender violence and 80% of family or domestic homicides.
“Cross-checking the nationality of the victims with the culprits, it’s apparent that Spanish women die significantly more at the hands of Spaniards (85%) and vice versa. It’s much more probable for a foreign woman (77%) to die at the hands of another foreigner,” the report reads.
Murder rate falling
“There are few homicides and the number is dropping. There are increasingly fewer murders,” says criminologist Jorge Santos.
Murders have fallen from 587 in 2003 to 302 in 2015. In Spain, the annual homicide rate is 0.6 for every 100,000 people, much lower when compared to the 1.3 in France, 1.4 in Finland, five in the United States, 19 in Mexico and 30 in Brazil.
Seasonality
The report’s findings also suggested there was a seasonality to murder rates in Spain.
The number of murders peaked in September, with just under 10% of murders taking place (9.8%).
The lowest number of murders took place in November.
Meanwhile, most murders took place on a Sunday (16.3%), while the least amount on a Monday (11.5%).
A huge 60% of murders happened late at night or in the early hours of the morning.
Cause of death
Murders associated with criminal activity are the minority – only 18% of the total.
Most homicides occur during fights or brawls (22%), as a result of gender violence (21%) or domestic and family abuse (20%).
