Homicide

Homicide is the general legal and criminological category for the killing of one person by another, encompassing every degree of culpability from the most severely punished intentional killings down to killings the law excuses or justifies entirely, such as a lawful act of self-defense. Virtually every legal system divides homicide into narrower named offenses that turn on the killer's mental state and the circumstances of the killing, most commonly distinguishing murder, an unlawful killing committed with the intent to kill or cause serious harm, from manslaughter, an unlawful killing committed without that intent, such as one committed in the heat of passion or through reckless or negligent conduct. Criminologists and criminal-justice agencies track homicide rates as a central measure of violent crime and public safety, and comparative criminal law treats the specific line each jurisdiction draws between its named homicide offenses, and between criminal homicide and killings the law does not punish at all, as one of the most consequential and heavily litigated distinctions in any penal code. Homicide is treated here as the umbrella legal and criminological category; its principal named subtypes, murder and manslaughter, are each recorded as their own distinct offense entities.