Murder is the unlawful and intentional killing of a human being by another. The penalty for murder is often life imprisonment, or in jurisdictions with capital punishment, the death penalty. Legalized killing, such as genocide, can also constitute murder if it violates international law. It is generally viewed as one of the most atrocious crimes that can be committed, next to crimes against humanity.
As with most legal terms, the precise definition varies between jurisdictions. For example, in some parts of the United States anyone who commits a serious crime during which any person dies may be prosecuted for murder (see felony murder). Many jurisdictions recognize a distinction between murder which is premeditated, and manslaughter.
Murder demographicsDevelopment of murder rates over time in different countries is often used by both supporters and opponents of capital punishment and gun control. Using properly filtered data, it is possible to make the case for or against either of these issues. For example, one could look at murder rates in the United States from 1950 to 2000 [1] and notice that those rates went up sharply shortly after a moratorium on death sentences was effectively imposed in the late 1960s. This fact has been used to argue that capital punishment serves as a deterrent and, as such, it is morally justified. Capital punishment opponents frequently counter that the United States has much higher murder rates than Canada and European Union countries, although all those countries have abolished the death penalty. A difficulty with this argument is that there may be many factors other than capital punishment causing the differences in murder rates between different countries. Gun control advocates further point out that, unlike the United States, many European countries disallow gun ownership by private citizens. Overall, the global pattern is too complex and, on average, the influence of both these factors may not be significant.
Murder rate per 100 000 inhabitantsMurder occurrences vary wildly among different countries and societies. In the Western world, murder rates in most countries have declined significantly during the 20th century and are now between 1-4 cases per 100,000 people per year. Murder rates in Japan and Iceland are among the lowest in the world, around 0.5; the rate of the United States is among the highest among all developed countries, around 5.5 (2004, [2]), with rates in major cities sometimes over 50 per 100,000[3]. Developing countries often have rates of 10-100 murders per 100,000 people per year
As with most legal terms, the precise definition varies between jurisdictions. For example, in some parts of the United States anyone who commits a serious crime during which any person dies may be prosecuted for murder (see felony murder). Many jurisdictions recognize a distinction between murder which is premeditated, and manslaughter.
Murder demographicsDevelopment of murder rates over time in different countries is often used by both supporters and opponents of capital punishment and gun control. Using properly filtered data, it is possible to make the case for or against either of these issues. For example, one could look at murder rates in the United States from 1950 to 2000 [1] and notice that those rates went up sharply shortly after a moratorium on death sentences was effectively imposed in the late 1960s. This fact has been used to argue that capital punishment serves as a deterrent and, as such, it is morally justified. Capital punishment opponents frequently counter that the United States has much higher murder rates than Canada and European Union countries, although all those countries have abolished the death penalty. A difficulty with this argument is that there may be many factors other than capital punishment causing the differences in murder rates between different countries. Gun control advocates further point out that, unlike the United States, many European countries disallow gun ownership by private citizens. Overall, the global pattern is too complex and, on average, the influence of both these factors may not be significant.
Murder rate per 100 000 inhabitantsMurder occurrences vary wildly among different countries and societies. In the Western world, murder rates in most countries have declined significantly during the 20th century and are now between 1-4 cases per 100,000 people per year. Murder rates in Japan and Iceland are among the lowest in the world, around 0.5; the rate of the United States is among the highest among all developed countries, around 5.5 (2004, [2]), with rates in major cities sometimes over 50 per 100,000[3]. Developing countries often have rates of 10-100 murders per 100,000 people per year
