Homicide

Homicide (Latin: homicidium, Latin: homo human being + Latin: caedere to cut, kill) is an act of a human killing another human. While homicide is commonly thought of as criminal, it refers to the act in general, which is sometimes legal. Murder is one type of homicide, and so are capital punishment and the use of deadly force by police. Most homicide victims are men. Homicide rates in better developed countries have been falling since 1995, but rates are high in less developed parts of the world.

Rarely, a person who has committed such an act is called a homicide.

Criminal homicide takes several forms and includes certain unintentional killings. The crime committed in a criminal homicide is determined by the state of mind of the defendant and statutes defining the crime. Murder, for example, is usually an intentional crime. In some jurisdictions, certain types of murders automatically qualify for capital punishment, but if the defendant in a capital case is sufficiently mentally disabled in the United States he or she may not be executed, for reasons described in Atkins v. Virginia, similar to those utilizing an insanity defense.

Varying by jurisdiction, a homicide that occurs during the commission of a felony may constitute murder regardless the felon's mental state with regard to the killing. This is known as the felony murder rule. Much abbreviated and incomplete, the felony murder rule says that one committing a felony may be guilty of murder if someone, including the felony victim, a bystander or a co-felon, dies as a result of his acts, regardless his intent—or lack thereof—to kill.

Criminal homicides also include voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. The mental state of the perpetrator of these crimes differs from that of one who commits murder.

Although suicide is not a form of homicide, assisting in another's suicide may constitute criminal homicide, as codified, for instance, in California Penal Code Sec. 401.

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another person, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide (such as manslaughter). As the loss of a human being inflicts enormous grief upon the individuals close to the victim, and the commission of a murder is highly detrimental to the good order within society, most societies both present and in antiquity have considered it a most serious crime worthy of the harshest of punishment. In most countries, a person convicted of murder is typically given a long prison sentence, possibly a life sentence where permitted, and in some countries, the death penalty may be imposed for such an act – though this practice is becoming less common. In most countries, there is no statute of limitations for murder (no time limit for prosecuting someone for murder). A person who commits murder is called a murderer.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 862