Homicide (Latin homicidium, homo human being + caedere to cut, kill) refers to the act of killing another human being. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English. Homicide is not always an illegal act.

Criminal homicide

Criminal homicide, a malum in se crime, occurs when a person purposely, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently causes the death of another. Murder and manslaughter are both examples of criminal homicide. Every legal system contains some form of prohibition or regulation of criminal homicide.

Homicidal crimes in some criminal jurisdictions include:

• Murder (in English law)
• Felony murder
• Capital murder
• Manslaughter (in English law)
• Voluntary manslaughter
• Involuntary manslaughter
• Intoxicating manslaughter
• Death by dangerous driving
• Reckless manslaughter
• Corporate manslaughter
• Culpable homicide (in Scots law)
• Negligent homicide
• Criminally negligent homicide

Many forms of homicide have their own term based on the person(s) being killed:

• Mariticide: killing of one's husband
• Uxoricide: killing of one's wife
• Parricide: killing of either or both of one's parents, or of a close person who acts in a similar role:
• Matricide: killing of one's mother
• Patricide: killing of one's father
• Filicide: killing of one's child
• Infanticide: killing of an infant
• Fratricide: killing of one's brother; in a military context, killing of a comrade
• Sororicide: killing of one's sister
• Regicide: killing of a monarch
• Genocide: killing of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group

Non-criminal homicide

Main: Justifiable homicide

Homicides do not always involve a crime. Sometimes the law allows homicide by allowing certain defenses to criminal charges. One of the most recognized is self defense, which provides that a person is entitled to commit homicide to protect his or her own life from a deadly attack.

Some defenses include:

• Self-defense (theory)
• Insanity defense
• Duress

State-sanctioned homicide

Homicides may also be non-criminal when conducted with the sanction of the state. The most obvious example is capital punishment, in which the state determines that a person should die. Homicides committed in action during war are usually not subject to criminal prosecution either.

References

See also

• Suicide - Killing of oneself
• Murder book - A homicide case file