Range of Criminological Theories and Quantity of Homicides Incidents Paper Example

Introduction

Homicide is termed many people confuse with murder. These terms are used to draw attention that life has been lost which is true but the difference between them has remained unclear to many in the society. It is, for this reason, most people wonder why people who kill are charged with different crimes when taken to court (Daly & Wilson 2017). Homicide, when applied, refers to killing one individual by another. Homicide can be either legal or illegal. This is different from murder as murder refers to illegal killing. Murder is the type of homicide which is committed unjustifiably and by law, this is usually malice in which the killing is unjustified. This, therefore, leads to the conclusion that murder is component of homicide which falls on the illegal killing of a person by another (Daly 2017). To categorize homicide as murder there must be evidence to show there was either intend to kill or behavior which can be considered reckless hence the cause of killing and can the person responsible can be punished with murder charges for the lives lost. This paper, therefore, focuses on examining the different cases of homicide around the globe.

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This results to killings which can be executed without committing crimes. Various examples can briefly describe homicides which can be judged as either legal or illegal before the court of law. Troops in battle commit homicides and cannot be considered to have committed crime. The same case happens when people kill intruders. These two scenarios show how the topic of homicide is broad and the importance of its more in-depth understanding. Though before the eyes of many these can appear to murder cases it turns out to be different when the accused are taken to court for charges (Geberth 2016). Murder is a crime contrary to homicide and this is what most of the people don't know and get to wonder why the different outcome in court judgments for the people who commit murder. This shows homicide occurs in different forms in nature in the world which is the central theme to be addressed by this essay. The discuss therefore is centered on nature of homicides occurrence and their quantification in the world.

Criminal homicide

This type of homicide falls under the category of murder and can be sub-divided further to bring out the picture of different degrees of murder cases which unlock the confusion on why charge people differently for murdering by the judges. Murder is therefore subdivided into degrees. These include first-degree homicide, criminal homicide, second-degree homicide, and manslaughter. Manslaughter is further subdivided into voluntary and involuntary manslaughter (Zeoli Grady Pizarro and Melde 2015, p. 2035-2041).

First-degree murder involves those murder cases which were planned before committed and mostly targeting vulnerable people such as children among others. This is what is mostly referred to as predetermined killings which though don't mean the planning for the killing took weeks or days. Premeditation means there was designed plan to cause death before it happened and any case of murder which is categorized with these characteristics is grouped as first-degree murder. An example of first-degree murder cases is whereby thieves kill the security officer so that they can manage to get into premises and made away with properties which the security officer was guarding. The cases of first-degree murder occur when a person (s) commit killings to achieve the known or unknown missions which they can be considered beneficial to the perpetrators of the killings. Another example of the first degree is killing the witness involved in the case an effort to do away with the evidence which was considered crucial to convicting the accused person of committing a particular crime. When there is sufficient evidence that the accused murdered to conceal the evidence which the deceased held and could result in the conviction the accused is convicted with a first-degree murder charge.

Felony murder occurs when another killing occurs unintentionally while committing a severe intentional killing (Seibold 2017, p.8). This also can be considered as sub-component of first-degree murder but is treated as less severe murder case compared to murder caused directly by premeditation killing. There is very highly likely would of committing felony murder whenever there is premeditated killing and especially in cases which involves robbery with violence. An example of this kind of murder occurs when a thief, unfortunately, shoots and kills the person who was not the target while exchanging the shooting with security officers manning the premises so that can break in and made away with goods being guarded. When this thief happens to be lucky to kill the officers and escape when is caught and taken to court and evidence presented shall be charged with committing both first degree's murder and a felony at the same time. The felony murder case is for killing the person who was not the first target while a first degree is for killing the security officers in charge of the manning the owner's property. This would result in severe charges against the accused compared to the person who only committed felony alone. This is because the judge might interpret the two scenarios differently and depend on the country's constitution on the people committing such kind of combination may result in a different judgment. There are countries whereby when the person commits both felony and first-degree murder case get a death penalty while there are others whereby when the accused is convicted of the either get life sentence depending on the constitution.

A pure example of a felony is whereby the thief can scare the homeowner who happens to die eventually out of the heart attack which is associated with the terrific horror went through. Another example is drivers who happen to hit the security guard with a vehicle carrying the stolen goods accidentally at the gate while escaping the premises where goods have been stolen while the fellow who is has killed in the clerk to access the goods in the vehicle carrying the goods will be charged with first-degree murder. The murder cases leading to the conclusion of a felony can sometimes be complexity regarding their interpretation and this requires scrutiny. This can be illustrated by a scenario whereby a robber is charged with felony murder for the death of his fellow robber. An example of this is whereby the two or more robbers attack cashier in effort to steal money but instead of robbers overwhelming the cashier manage to pull out gun and shoot some of the robbers dead and get control of the situation by calling security officers to assist in getting hold of the other robbers and take them to court. When these robbers are taken to court are charged with a felony because they participated in the mission which led to the killing of their colleagues. This is despite them being successful in killing the cashier to access the money or to steal the money without killing the cashier.

The worst thing with a felony is that the accused is punished as if was the actual perpetrator of the killing. This is the reason why in most cases the judgment shocks many people because they are charged for committing murder when they did not kill anyone. The convicted person is not a must to have knowledge that his colleague planned to kill someone or someone was harmed during the event which led to his conviction.

Second-degree murder includes all forms of the murder cases which were intentional but not premeditated. It also includes murder cases which resulted from conduct which is so reckless to claim the loss of human life. This means second-degree murder is not committed out of passion as is in the case in the first-degree murder case. This is killing caused by conduct which is dangerous and the offender shows less or no concern for human life. There are various examples which can be used to illustrate second-degree murder.

Take for a husband who comes home and finds a wife with someone known as John in bed. The following day this husband spot john in a nearby gathering while on patrol. This husband pulls out gun and fire at the gathering out of anger after remembering the incident during the previous day. Though this husband was provoked by setting his eyes on John presence in the gathering the intention was not to kill John and this shows the reason why just aimed at the gathering without targeting a particular person. This, unfortunately, results in the killing of another person instead of John who triggered the shooting through his past actions. In this case, the husband is gets convicted of the second-degree murder.

There seems to be confusion between the first-degree murder and second-degree murder and this is the reason the definition of second-degree murders various between the jurisdictions. Though there might be confusion second-degree murder shares common elements across all jurisdictions and these elements vary significantly from those of first-degree murder. This is regardless of having the criminal act of the two degrees of murder case being similar. The main difference though between the two cases is the mental state of the perpetrator at the time of committing the killing. This can be well illustrated by the husband example and that of a robber who shoots and kills the cashier. It is the anger which triggered the killing from the previous day and this clearly shows there were no intentions to kill but the reckless conduct which resulted in the death of the innocent soul. The robber killed the cashier out of passion because had planned to do whatever is in his ability to steal the money.

There are three various situations which can constitute second-degree murder. To begin with is killing which results from an act whose intentions are to cause serious bodily harm. Second is the act which proves that the perpetrator, by all means, demonstrated no concern to human life. Also is the killing which was not premeditated but there is evidence of "malice aforethought". An example is a situation in which there are disagreements between the two neighbors on the ownership of a piece of land. One of the neighbors decides to visit the other to have a discussion over the matter and during the moment of discussion one of the get angry and kills the other by pulling out the gun and shoot. In this situation, countries which charge murder cases depending on the degree would charge the neighbor who murders with the second degree of a murder case. This is an example of killing with "malice aforethought". This is because is the killing which occurs at the heat of the moment. The intent to cause serious harm which could result to second-degree murder would have occurred if instead of pulling out the gun and shoot would have grabbed a shovel and hit his fellow on the head to cause serious injury on him. Though they intended for this action was not mean to kill finally cause death which leads its categorization to fall under second-degree murder (Delisi 2017, pp.3-12). Referring to the same case of two neighbors, lack of human life concern would amount if this neighbor instead using the shovel would have pulled out the gun and fire at the crowd which was observing their discussion at a distance and it happens to kill someone in that crowd.

Using these examples and comparing them with those given for the first-degree murder cases, there is clear boundary which can be drawn on how this murder occurs which bring out the difference between the two degrees of murder. Though there exis...