Victims of criminal homicide in Sweden: A matched case-control study of health and social risk factors among all 1,739 cases during 1978-1994

Objective: The psychiatric and medical characteristics of victims of homici de have not been systematically studied and are often confounded by race. T his study was undertaken to determine health and social factors contributin g to the risk of being murdered in the Swedish, predominantly Caucasian pop ulation. Method: All 1,739 homicides between 1978 and 1994 in Sweden were s tudied in terms of variables in national case registers regarding health, c rimes, immigration, and marital status. The same data were extracted for ma tched comparison persons in the general population, with controls for time of exposure. The data were analyzed by conditional logistic regression on m atched pairs. Results: Traumatic brain injury, physical abuse, alcohol depe ndence, and criminal recidivism conferred risk of being murdered. Conclusio ns: To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report of traumatic brain injury, in both men and women, as a risk factor for being murdered. Brain i njury may mark risk-taking behavior in general or may cause provocative beh avior.