Between 2014 and 2023, a total of 57 persons were found murdered, 38 males and 19 females, the NSO said Friday. 

During the 10-year period under review, there were 51 incidents where wilful homicides were registered by the Malta Police Force. A total of 57 persons were victims of these incidents. Two-thirds of the victims were males (66.7%) while a third were females. During this period, the years that saw the least number of homicides were 2021 and 2023 with 2 homicides occurring during each reference year. In contrast, the year which saw the highest annual incidence of homicides was 2017 with 9 murders during that year. It is important to note that data on victims is based on the date of death or discovery, and the terms ‘wilful homicide’ and ‘homicide’ are used interchangeably.

The annual average number of homicides varies when analysing the 10-year period split into two main time periods: 2014-2018 and 2019-2023. Between 2014 and 2018 the annual average number of homicides stood at six, while during the period 2019-2023 the average number of homicides stood at four per year.

Almost half of all victims were aged between 25 and 44 (49.1 per cent), while 19.3 per cent were between 45 and 59 years of age. About one in every five victims was over the age of 59. Five of the 57 victims, or 8.8 per cent, were under the age of 25.

Almost 30 per cent of all victims were murdered in the Northern Harbour district (29.8 per cent) while 22.8 per cent were killed in the Southern Harbour district. 17.5 per cent and 14.0 per cent of the victims were killed in the Northern and the Southern Eastern districts, respectively. 8.8 per cent of the victims were killed in the Western district while 7.0 per cent of victims were murdered in the district of Gozo and Comino. When analysing homicide rates by district of event, the highest homicide rate was observed in the Southern Harbour district with a rate of 1.6 per 100,000 persons of the respective district. The lowest homicide rate was observed in the Western district with a rate of 0.8 homicides per 100,000 persons of the respective district.

During the period under review, two-thirds of the victims were Maltese, while a third were of foreign citizenship. When analysing the 10-year period split into the two main time periods, between 2014 and 2018, 75.0 per cent of victims were Maltese while 25.0 per cent were of foreign citizenship. This distribution varied when compared to the 2019-2023 period with 56.0 per cent of victims being Maltese while 44.0 per cent were of foreign citizenship.  

45.6 per cent of victims were murdered with weapons such as sharp objects, blunt objects or another object used as a weapon, such as a vehicle (excluding firearms or explosives). More than a third of victims were killed by means of a firearm or explosive (38.6 per cent), while 12.3 per cent were attacked without a weapon or through other mechanisms including strangulation, suffocation, drowning, or through bodily force, such as sexual assault, among other types of mechanisms. For 3.5 per cent of victims, the mechanism of killing was undetermined.

When looking at victims of wilful homicide during the 2014-2023 period, 42.1 per cent of males were allegedly killed by a person known to victim, excluding intimate partners or family members. 5.3 per cent of male victims were allegedly killed by an intimate partner or a family member, one in every five by a person who was not known to the victim, and almost one-third by an unknown perpetrator/s.

Regarding female victims of wilful homicide throughout the same period, close to half (47.4 per cent) were allegedly killed by an intimate partner and just over one-fifth by a family member. 10.5 per cent allegedly died at the hands of someone whom the victim knew, excluding intimate partners or family members, and 15.8 per cent by a person not known to the victim. The percentage of females allegedly killed by an unknown perpetrator/s stood at 5.3 per cent.

The total homicide rate was the lowest during the 2019-2021 period at 0.7 homicides per 100,000 population while the highest was during the 2016-2018 period at 1.4 homicides per 100,000 population. The homicide rate for males was the lowest during the 2021-2023 period at 1 male victim per 100,000 males in the population, while the highest rate stood at 2.1 male victims during the 2016-2018 period. The homicide rate for females was the lowest during the 2019-2021 and 2020-2022 periods with a rate of 0.5 female victims per 100,000 females in the population. The highest rate was attributed to the 2017-2019 and 2018-2020 periods with 1.1 female victims per 100,000 females in the population. The homicide rate is calculated using a 3-year average to smoothen the time series with regard to year-on-year fluctuations due to the small counts observed.

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