HOMICIDE IN LITHUANIA: CRIMINOLOGICAL RESEARCH

HOMICIDE IN LITHUANIA: CRIMINOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Homicides are among the most latent crimes that, comparing them to other criminal acts, form only a small part of the general criminal statistics. However they are the most serious crimes, due to the fact that they infringe upon the human life. Lithuania stays among the European countries with the numbers of homicides per 100 000 population for the last two decades. There is no consistent policy of homicide prevention implemented in Lithuania; there are almost no researches in this field carried out, while the existent researches concentrate on the analysis of legal norms and pre-gathered statistical data only.

The research Project “Homicides in Lithuania: Criminological Research” aims at an integral examination of factors and conditions of homicides and serious infringements on health committed in Lithuania during the last couple of years. The accomplishment of the aforementioned aim will be based on legal, sociological and psychological approaches, employment of quantitative and qualitative research methods, psychological testing of persons imprisoned for homicides, analysis of legal acts and state politics.

The projects will cover a statistical analysis of 1000 of court judgements in criminal cases of homicides and serious infringements on health, psychological testing of persons imprisoned for these crimes, representative social survey, comparative analysis of statistical data, media content analysis, interviews with experts in the field of penal policy. Analysis of the aforementioned aspects should allow identification of sociopsychological, legal and political circumstances that contribute to high numbers of crime and other serious violent crimes in Lithuania. Such identification will serve as a basis for formulating of recommendations for different fields of state policies.


Partner - Vilnius University.


Researchers: dr. Algimantas Čepas (Law institute, Director), dr. Margarita Dobrynina (Law institute, Juvenile Law Section, Research Fellow), Vaidas Kalpokas (Law institute, Criminological Research Department, Junior Research Fellow), prof. Aleksandras Dobryninas (Vilnius University, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Sociology, Professor), prof. Gintautas Valickas (Vilnius University, Faculty of Philosophy, Head of Department of General Psychology, Professor), Alina Mickevič (Law institute, Juvenile Law Section, Junior Research Fellow), dr. Vytautas Navickas (Vilnius University, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of General Psychology, Lecturer), dr. Kristina Vanagaitė (Vilnius University, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of General Psychology, Lecturer), Darius Šneideris (Law institute, Criminal Justice Research Department, Specialist), Ieva Labanauskaitė (Vilnius University, Faculty of Philosophy, Criminological Studies Centre, Junior Research Fellow), dr. Simonas Nikartas (Law institute, Criminological Research Department, Researcher).


Duration: 2012.03.01 – 2013.12.31.

The project is funded by Research Council of Lithuania under the programme "Social challenges to national security."

Project funding agreement number: SIN-11/2012.