Recent literature suggests that different “styles” of homicide will most appropriately be reflected in the different types of behaviors committed by offenders at a crime scene. These distinctions, it has been proposed, can best be understood using an instrumental and expressive thematic framework to analyze the way the offender acts at the crime scene. Multidimensional analysis was carried out on the crime-scene actions of 210 Greek single-offender, single-victim stranger homicides, with the aim of replicating earlier studies. A multivariate structure resulted, encompassing both hypothesized themes, allowing 63% of the cases to be assigned to dominant styles. Results are discussed in terms of implications for cross-national similarities and differences in the thematic structure of homicide and in terms of future avenues for research.
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