Criminal Charges

Criminal Charges

Scenario 1

According to this scenario, Ken is convicted of Barbie's murder since besides knowing that he is an HIV patient, he had sex with Barbie and other girls which put their lives in danger. As per the common law, murder is the intentional taking of another human life with premeditation or with extreme malice. This is the basis for the scenarios either real or imagined that come to mind when people are asked to describe the crime of murder. However, both criminologists and homicide investigators know that this type of murder is only one type of criminal homicide, and is one of the least common at that.

The word homicide originates from the Latin homicidium, composed of homo, meaning 'man', and cidium derived from the verb caedo, meaning 'to cut' or 'to kill'. Homicide is a complex phenomenon constituting 'a complex set of behaviors with distinct and varying aetiologies, clinical courses, and prognoses'. As it is true for suicide, each homicide is unique, defined by specific characteristics of the perpetrator, the victim and the circumstances. Despite the dynamic and interdisciplinary nature of homicidal behavior, most research in the area of homicide studies has been carried out with a criminological perspective. The complexity of the phenomenon makes it difficult to explain a homicide solely on the basis of a psychopathology, except in the cases where psychosis (usually paranoid) or brain pathology leading to aggression is involved. A dynamic approach to explain homicidal behavior, involving biological, psychiatric and socio-cultural factors is warranted (Spungen, 1997). Attempts have been made to classify homicides using various criteria, such as on the basis of the relationship between perpetrator and victim, like uxoricide (killing the spouse or consort), filicide (killing one's children), familicide (killing one's family members), siblicide (killing one's sibling) or fratricide (killing one's brother, which ...