Murder

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This article is about the crime. For other uses, see Murder (disambiguation).
"Murderer" and "Double murder" redirect here. For the film, see Double Murder. For other uses,
see Murderer (disambiguation).
For broader coverage of this topic, see Homicide.

The assassination of Agamemnon, an illustration from Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church,
1897.

Criminal law

Elements

 Actus reus
 Mens rea
 Causation
 Concurrence

Scope of criminal liability

 Complicity
 Corporate
 Vicarious

Severity of offense

 Felony
 Infraction (also called violation)
 Misdemeanor

Inchoate offenses

 Attempt
 Conspiracy
 Incitement
  Solicitation

Offence against the person

 Assassination
 Assault
 Battery
 Child abuse
 Criminal negligence
 Defamation
 False imprisonment
 Harassment
 Home invasion
 Homicide
 Intimidation
 Kidnapping
 Manslaughter (corporate)
 Mayhem
 Murder
o corporate
 Negligent homicide
 Invasion of privacy
 Robbery
 Torture

Sexual offences

 Adultery
 Bigamy
 Fornication
 Incest
 Indecent exposure
 Masturbation
 Obscenity
 Prostitution
 Rape
 Sexual assault
 Sodomy

Crimes against property

  Arson
 Blackmail
 Bribery
 Burglary
 Embezzlement
 Extortion
 False pretenses
 Forgery
 Fraud
 Gambling
 Intellectual property violation
 Larceny
 Payola
 Pickpocketing
 Possessing stolen property
 Robbery
 Smuggling
 Tax evasion
 Theft

Crimes against justice

 Compounding
 Malfeasance in office
 Miscarriage of justice
 Misprision
 Obstruction
 Perjury
 Perverting the course of justice

Crimes against the public

 Apostasy
 Begging
 Censorship violation
 Dueling
 Miscegenation
 Illegal consumption (such as prohibition of drugs, alcohol,
and smoking)
 Terrorism
 Crimes against animals

 Cruelty to animals
 Wildlife smuggling
 Bestiality

Crimes against the state

 Lèse-majesté
 Treason

Defences to liability

 Automatism
 Consent
 Defence of property
 Diminished responsibility
 Duress
 Entrapment
 Ignorantia juris non excusat
 Infancy
 Insanity
 Justification
 Mistake (of law)
 Necessity
 Provocation
 Self-defence

Other common-law areas

 Contracts
 Evidence
 Property
 Torts
 Wills, trusts and estates

Portals

 Criminal justice
 Law

 v
 t
 e
 Part of a series on

Homicide

Murder

Note: Varies by jurisdiction

 Assassination
 Child murder
 Consensual homicide
 Contract killing
 Crime of passion
 Depraved-heart murder
 Execution-style murder
 Felony murder rule
 Feticide
 Honor killing
 Human cannibalism
 Human sacrifice
o Child sacrifice
 Internet homicide
 Lonely hearts killer
 Lust murder
 Lynching
 Mass murder
 Mass shooting
 Mass stabbing
 Misdemeanor murder
 Murder–suicide
 Poisoning
 Proxy murder
 Pseudocommando
 Serial killer
 Spree killer
 Thrill killing
 Torture murder
 Vehicle-ramming attack
 Manslaughter

 In English law
 Voluntary manslaughter
 Negligent homicide
 Vehicular homicide

Non-criminal homicide

Note: Varies by jurisdiction

 Assisted suicide
 Capital punishment
 Euthanasia
 Feticide
 Justifiable homicide
 War

By victim or victims

 Suicide

Family

 Avunculicide (Nepoticide)
 Familicide
 Mariticide
 Uxoricide
 Prolicide
o Filicide
o Infanticide
o Neonaticide
 Siblicide
o Fratricide
o Sororicide
 Parricide
o Matricide
o Patricide

Other

 Blood libel
 Capital punishment
 Crucifixion
  Democide
 Friendly fire
 Gendercide
 Genocide
 Omnicide
 Regicide
 Stoning
 Tyrannicide
 War crime

 v
 t
 e

Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the
unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought.[1][2][3] This state of mind may, depending
upon the jurisdiction, distinguish murder from other forms of unlawful homicide, such
as manslaughter. Manslaughter is a killing committed in the absence of malice, brought about by
reasonable provocation, or diminished capacity. Involuntary manslaughter, where it is recognized, is
a killing that lacks all but the most attenuated guilty intent, recklessness.
Most societies consider murder to be an extremely serious crime, and thus believe that the person
charged should receive harsh punishments for the purposes of retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation,
or incapacitation. In most countries, a person convicted of murder generally faces a long-term prison
sentence, possibly a life sentence; and in a few, the death penalty may be imposed.[4]

Contents

 1Etymology
 2Use of the term
 3Definition
o 3.1Degrees of murder
o 3.2Common law
o 3.3Exclusions
 3.3.1General
 3.3.2Specific to certain countries
o 3.4Victim
o 3.5Mitigating circumstances
 3.5.1Insanity
 3.5.2Postpartum depression
 3.5.3Unintentional
 3.5.4Diminished capacity
o 3.6Aggravating circumstances
o 3.7Felony murder rule
o 3.8Year-and-a-day rule
 4Murder and natural selection
 5Historical and religious attitudes
 6Incidence
o 6.1Murder rates by country
o 6.2History of murder rates
 7Investigation
 8See also
o 8.1Lists related to murder
o 8.2Topics related to murder
o 8.3Murder laws by country
 9References
 10Bibliography
 11External links

Etymology[edit]
The modern English word "murder" descends from the Proto-Indo-European "mrtró" which meant "to
die".[5] The Middle English mordre is a noun from Anglo-Saxon morðor and Old French murdre.
Middle English mordre is a verb from Anglo-Saxon myrdrian and the Middle English noun.[6]

Use of the term[edit]

In many countries, in news reports, out of concern for being accused of defamation,[7] journalists are
generally careful not to identify a suspect as a murderer until the suspect is convicted of homicide.
After arrest, for example, journalists may instead write that the person was "arrested on suspicion of
murder",[8] or, after a prosecutor files charges, as an "accused murderer".[9]

Definition[edit]
The eighteenth-century English jurist William Blackstone (citing Edward Coke), in his Commentaries
on the Laws of England set out the common law definition of murder, which by this definition occurs
when a person, of sound memory and discretion, unlawfully kills any reasonable creature in being
and under the king's peace, with malice aforethought, either express or implied.[10]