finally Most studies focusing on this type of crime does not reach beyond the period 1600-1820. However if, something we have hardly any knowledge about, the crimes were most common in this period, this is also a time when, very generally speaking, the condemned first became and was in many places an increasingly central and active figure in the execution scene, and then this active role, also progressively, diminished. The increase and decrease of the preparation and the length of the scene also were of importance. Studies including statistics of these crimes display naturally a problem of limiting beyond geography and time. Which crimes are of this type and which motives are the cause of each crime? The discussion between Tyge Krogh and Tine Reeh and Ralf Hemmingsen illustrate both how difficult the question of motive is and how our choices of sources and methods can result in different outcomes. While Krogh in many of the cases sees theology and especially Pietism as a background to the motives, Reeh and Hemmingsen, studying fewer sources, primarily sees mental disorder, possibly in some cases a wish to die, and find few references to faith and theology. They therefore in many cases leaves the question of the decisive motive for the murder open.940 This illuminates the general problem of finding out which crimes are committed due to this motive or, rather, to this group of motives. We can discuss the ideas of legislators and of others openly stating their view, but of one important group, the perpetrators, we rarely find much, but we need to remember that the answers we might find can say much about the specific case but less much generally. In the view of those committing crimes aiming to be executed their interest in the execution probably could have several focuses: Was the interest confined to being killed by somebody else, with reasonable time for preparation, or were the actions taken by the authorities and the scene created thereby – methods of execution, timespan, pain – of any interest? 940 Krogh 2012 esp p 172 sqq and 179 sqq, Reeh and Hemmingsen 2018 p 130 sq. 267
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