[Lingo] 件（けん）

[s smith <sjs@example.com>]

Hi.  Can someone help me understand this character?

It looks like as けん it is used as a counter but I can't quite narrow down for what.  I first noticed it on a yahoo page where it appeared as 「画像あり（全 1件）」.  From there I went to WWWJdict and Yahoo 辞書.  One of the examples on Yahoo 辞書 was

先月殺人が2件あった
There were two murder cases last month.

And a search on ALE for １件 brought up lots of examples, many of which seem to translate to 'per' but a few look like they're being used as counters.  A search for ２件 also brought up lots of hits.

Counters still confuse me a bit, but this doesn't seem to fit the usual pattern.  What's going on here??  Is 件 just a generic counter when used with a number?

Thanks!

Steve S.