AFTE Store - A Twenty-Year Review of Firearms Calibers Used in Offences Against Human Life in Greece

A survey took place in 2015, in the Department of Firearms & Toolmark Examination Laboratory of the Forensic Science Division of Hellenic Police, located in Athens, Greece. The data that was collected covers the last twenty years, from 1995 to 2014. This data was only from crimes where firearms were involved, ballistic evidence from the crime scenes was submitted to the laboratory for examination, and firearms were used against human life, such as homicides, attempted homicides, robberies, and terrorist acts. The evidence items consisted of cartridge cases, bullets, bullet fragments and, in some cases, firearms. Firearms were classified into five (5) different categories: pistols, revolvers, sub-machine guns, rifles and shotguns. Incidents in which a person was actually struck by a projectile accounted for 66.6% of the total number of all cases. Seventy percent of the firearms used in the homicides for the last twenty years were handguns. Furthermore, from this 20-year study, the leading contender in the caliber category is the 9mm Luger for firearms crimes in Greece (this caliber represents almost thirty three percent of the total). The results of this survey show the distribution of crimes in Greece according to the caliber of the type of firearm that was used.