The Finnish Homicide Database is part of a homicide monitoring project which started in 2002. The database contains all registered international fatal violent crimes committed in Finland and reported to the Finnish authorities. This report on homicides, homicide offenders, and victims in Finland in 1998-2002 is based on the data maintained in the Finnish Homicide Database and on an analysis of the homicides of 1998-2000 which was done by Statistics Finland and the National Research Institute of Legal Policy in the spring of 2002. Summarized information includes: (1) the annual number of crimes; (2) the main characteristics of homicides (i.e. time and place, weapon, intoxicants, relationship between victim and offender, and crime types and motives); (3) demographics of homicide offenders and victims, such as sex, age, family status, participation in working life, education, housing conditions, substance abuse, earlier convictions, and homicides compared with those of other Scandinavian countries. Tables