Is the victim blameless?

The study concerned 50 cases occurring throughout Austria between 1950 and 1962 where murder was committed for the purpose of robbing the victim. Fifty-nine convicted killers and 61 victims were involved and 1950 was chosen as the starting point of the research in order to avoid undue influence from the extraordinary factors affecting criminality during and immediately following the Second World War. Cases were consecutive and unselected apart from a very small number excluded through unavailability of their files for legal reasons at the time when the data were collected. Unsuccessful murder attempts were not excluded since there is no difference between crimes actually carried out and those merely attempted as regards criminogenic factors, the pre-criminal situation, the choice of victim, the relationship and interaction between criminal and victim, and the recourse to homicide. However, the inquiry was confined to cases where guilt had been proven because of the aim to study not only the crime and the victim, but also the relationship of the criminal and victim. The latter is obviously not possible where the murderer remains unknown. Accordingly, since the material comprises a large number of cases over a fairly long period (more than a decade) from all over Austria, it is fair to claim that it provides an overview of the criminality of murder with intent to rob, and of the killers and the victims, for an entire country and over a significant epoch.