Homicide

Homicide (Latin homicidium, homo human being + caedere to cut, kill) refers to the act of killing another human being. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English. Although homicide does not define an illegal act necessarily, some jurisdictions use the word to indicate the unlawful killing of a person. Homicide may include murder, voluntary manslaughter, and involuntary manslaughter. There are a number of defenses that make homicide justifiable or not legally "murder" in some cases.

Definition

Homicide is broadly defined as the killing of one human being by another. Homicides may be treated as crimes or as non-criminal, depending upon the situation and the jurisdiction.

Criminal homicide involves the deliberate or negligent death of another. Homicide is considered non-criminal in a number of situations, such as deaths as the result of war. Additionally, the killing of another may be legally justified under certain conditions, including various defenses.

Criminal homicide

Criminal homicide occurs when a person purposely, knowingly, recklessly or negligently causes the death of another. Murder and manslaughter are both treated as criminal homicide.

Criminal homicide is a malum in se crime, meaning the act is "wrong in itself." This means that it is thought to be inherently wrong by nature, independent of regulations governing the conduct, and is thus distinguished from malum prohibitum, which is wrong only because it is prohibited by law. The (unauthorized) killing of human beings is universally agreed to be wrong by other human beings, regardless of whether a law exists or where the conduct occurs. Every legal system contains some form of prohibition or regulation of criminal homicide.

Homicidal crimes in various jurisdictions include:

• murder is generally defined as a homicide committed intentionally. It generally carries a sentence of life imprisonment or the death penalty, depending upon jurisdiction.
• manslaughter is the less serious offense of the taking of human life in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. It carries a less severe sentence than murder. Most legal systems also differentiate between voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.
• negligent homicide is a charge brought against persons, who by inaction, allow others under their care to die. Negligent homicide generally only applies if a pattern of negligence resulted in the death of the individual. This offense is considered less serious than murder, such that someone guilty of this offense can expect a more lenient sentence, often with imprisonment time comparable to manslaughter.
  • Criminally negligent homicide
  • Vehicular homicide

Many forms of 'homicide' have their own term based on the person being killed.

• infanticide - Killing of an infant
• fratricide - Killing of one's brother; in a military context, killing of a friendly combatant
• sororicide - Killing of one's sister
• parricide - Killing of one's parents
• patricide - Killing of one's father
• matricide - Killing of one's mother
• mariticide - Killing of one's spouse (but has become most associated with the murder of a husband by his wife, as the reverse is given the name uxoricide)
• uxoricide - Killing of one's wife
• filicide - Killing of one's child
• child murder - Killing of an unrelated child
• regicide - Killing of a monarch
• genocide - Killing of a race
• suicide - Killing of oneself

Euthanasia (the "mercy killing" of a person who requests to die as painlessly as possibly) is considered a form of homicide in many jurisdictions.

Non-criminal homicide

Homicides that are not do not always involve a crime. Sometimes the law allows homicide by allowing certain defenses to criminal charges. One of the most recognized is self-defense, which provides that a person is entitled to commit homicide to protect his or her own life from a deadly attack.

Some defenses include:

• Justifiable homicide
• Self-defense
• Insanity defense
• Duress

Homicides may also be non-criminal when conducted with the sanction of the state. The most obvious example is capital punishment, in which the state determines that a person should die, but homicides committed during war are usually not subject to criminal prosecution as well.

Some state sanctioned homicides include:

• Capital punishment is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for certain crimes known as "capital crimes" or "capital offenses."
• War - the killing of an enemy combatant (a person who takes a direct part in the hostilities of an armed conflict within the law of war) is not considered a criminal offense.
• In Islamic law (Sharia),
  • Rajm meaning stoning. In Islamic law stoning is prescribed as the proper punishment for married men and women who commit adultery when proof is established, or there is pregnancy, or a confession.
  • Qisas meaning retaliation based on the biblical principle of "an eye for an eye." In the case of murder, it means the right of the heirs of a murder victim to demand execution of the murderer.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Collins, Karen-Michelle. 2002. Negligent Homicide / Manslaughter (Involuntary) International Journal of Justice Studies Retrieved July 2, 2007.

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