Future Definitions and Concepts of Murder

Abstract

Not surprisingly, the study confirms that murder remains an extremely diverse crime, not merely in its external characteristics, but also in the gravity of the cases that it encompasses. There is no simple description of the people who are convicted of murder, or of their victims or the surrounding circumstances. It would be convenient if categories of murder and murderers could be readily identified, but only superficial classification appears to be possible. It was relatively uncommon to find any statistical significance in the correlation between even two factors. Admittedly, there were some instances of cases bearing certain characteristics — for example, there were several murders committed by young men, many of whom were unemployed, who apparently killed for financial gain, and many of their victims were late-middle-aged or elderly people, killed in their own homes. But many other young male murderers committed very different offences and many of them had a job; many victims aged 50 or more were killed by older offenders, and for seemingly different reasons.