The National Police Agency (KLPD) provided two data sets, one with general information on each homicide and one with more detailed information on homicides with a sexual or bizarre motive. Newspaper clippings were also used to validate the data. Interviews were conducted with police officers responsible for the investigations. The OMdata system, from the prosecutor's office, was the source of the information on prosecution and court decisions. Homicides were classified according to the motive of the offender and by the relationship between the offender and the victim. Eleven categories were followed: liquidations, drug-related, criminal-other, sexual, robbery, intimate, fights between acquaintances, fights between strangers, psychotic, other, and unknown. Only completed homicides were taken into account in this report, excluding self defense and suicide euthanasia, and abortion. In 1998 in the Netherlands, it was reported that there were 202 homicide events, with 225 victims and 230 known offenders. It was found that nearly one-third were intimate homicides; a fifth involved liquidation, drug-related and criminal-other situations; and 4 percent involved sexual and other types of disputes between strangers. Forty percent of the victims were killed by a gun, 27 percent by a knife, and 33 percent by other means. Additional statistics are provided concerning the division between criminal categories.