Table 1.

Characteristics of European Lone Actor Events Versus European Homicide Events.

Event characteristics	All perpetrators					Single perpetrators
	Lone Actor events (n = 79)		Homicide events (n = 300)		Significant	Lone Actor events (n = 66)		Homicide events (n = 249)		Significant
	n	%	n	%		n	%	n	%
Number of perpetrators per event
One offender	66	84	249	83	ns	—	—	—	—	—
Two offenders	7	9	37	12		—	—	—	—
Three or more offenders	6	7	13	5		—	—	—	—
Number of lethal victimsa	2.0 (0-77)		1.0 (1-4)			2.0 (0-77)		1.0 (1-4)
Relationship to victimb
Stranger/random	61	80	31	10	***	50	77	21	9	***
Knew each other/not random	16	21	233	90		15	23	202	91
Missing	2		36			1		26
Weapon usec
Firearm	29	37	64	22	—	27	41	44	18	—
Sharp instrument	14	18	110	38		12	18	105	43
Smoke/fire	9	11	5	2		3	5	5	2
Explosive	16	20	—			13	20	—	—
Vehicle	6	8	2	1		6	9	2	1
Violence without weapon	—	—	38	13		—	—	27	11
Other	5	6	72	24		5	7	62	25
Missing			9					4
Location
Private home	3	4	193	65	—	2	3	164	68	—
Park/forest	—	—	20	7		—	—	18	7
Institution	6	9	5	2		6	10	5	2
Public place (street/café/car)	33	47	68	23		30	50	49	20
Religious building	10	14	—	—		8	13	—	—
Government building	8	11	—	—		8	13	—	—
Residence refugee or asylum seekers	2	3	—	—		—	—	—	—
Other	9	12	13	3		6	11	7	3
Missing	8		4			6		6

Note. Percentages are based on known observations only. — = no significance tests because of cell count less than 5.

^aMedian and range.

^bChi-square.

^cPlease note that weapon use among Lone Actor Events could only be determined by offender. Given the sometimes very large number of victims involved in Lone Actor attacks, for Lone Actors this variable reflects offender-based weapon use.

p ≤ .05. p ≤ .01. ***p ≤ .001 (two-tailed).