Homicides Among Relatives in the Republic of Dubrovnik (1667-1806)

The article analyses 185 homicides committed among relatives in the Republic of Dubrovnik between the great earthquake of 1667 and the Republic’s fall in 1806. Although each homicide involving relatives is a case in itself, the analysis has shown that the murders tend to breed on a number of socially determined factors which remain beyond the mental frame of the offenders themselves. Besides an uneven seasonal, monthly and gender distribution of crime, the impact of the underlying social trends is supported by a correlation between the number of homicides and the overall social climate, type of family structure, and the geographical distribution of crime with regard to the Republic border