The typical Greek murderer kills for reasons of financial gain and is at least acquainted with, if not related to the victim, according to research by a leading criminologist made public yesterday.

A survey by Angelos Tsigris, who teaches criminology at the police academy and the Panteion University of Athens, also found that most murders are carried out in the winter, particularly in the month of February.

Tsigris studied 196 murder cases heard in the Athens criminal courts between 1986 and 1995, and found that the main murder motive in most cases was enrichment. The second most common reason given for killings was violent anger on the spur of the moment (in 14 percent of all cases), followed by passion (12.4 percent), revenge (9.2 percent) and wounded honor (7.5 percent).

Only in 31.6 percent of all cases was the victim a total stranger, or somebody the killer had met shortly before the crime. In 14.5 percent of all instances the victim was related to the murderer.

Some 31.2 percent of murders were in the winter (mostly in February), followed by spring, autumn and summer.