A number of jurisdictions world-wide have changed or are considering changing their homicide laws. Important changes have now been recommended for England and Wales, and these changes are an important focus in the book, which brings together leading experts from jurisdictions across the globe (England and Wales; France; Germany; Scotland; Australia; The United States of America; Canada; Singapore and Malaysia) to examine key aspects of the law of homicide. Key areas examined include the structure of the law of homicide and the meaning of fault elements. For example, the definition of murder, or its equivalent, is very different in France and Germany from the definition used in England and Wales. French law, like the law in a number of American states, ties the definition of murder to the presence or absence of premeditation, unlike the law in England and Wales. Unlike most other jurisdictions, German law makes the killer's motive, such as a sadistic sexual motive, relevant to whether or not he or she committed the worst kind of homicide. England and Wales is in a minority of English-speaking jurisdictions in that it does not employ the concept of 'wicked' recklessness, or of extreme indifference, as a fault element in homicide. Understanding these often subtle differences between the approaches of different jurisdictions to the definition of homicide is an essential aspect of the law reform process, and of legal study and scholarship in the criminal law. Every jurisdiction tries to learn from the experience of others, and this book seeks to make a contribution to that process, as well as providing a lively and informative resource for scholars and students.

This book critically examines the operation of the partial defence of provocation in a range of comparative international jurisdictions. Centrally concerned with conceptual questions of gender, justice and the role of denial in the criminal justice system, Fitz-Gibbon explores the divergent approaches taken to reforming the law of provocation.

This book examines the rapid development of the fundamental concept of a crime in international criminal law from a comparative law perspective. In this context, particular thought has been given to the catalyzing impact of the criminal law theory that has developed in major world legal systems upon the crystallization of the substantive part of international criminal law. This study offers a critical overview of international and domestic jurisprudence with regard to the construal of the concept of a crime (actus reus, mens rea, defences, modes of liability) and exposes roots of confusion in international criminal law through a comprehensive comparative analysis of substantive criminal laws in selected legal jurisdictions.

While H. V. Redfield was not the first person to note the elevated amount of interpersonal violence in Southern and border states, Homicide, North and South was the first book to investigate regional differences in murder systematically, by discussing counts and rates from different states and the two major regions side by side. It appears to be the first book to draw on newspaper clippings to document homicide rates quantitatively, and it certainly was the first work to do so in a systematic, comparative fashion. Redfield was the first person to use multiple data sources, both news clippings and (from those states that collected and published them) mortality or criminal statistics. Where possible, he compared such records with one another to establish their joint reliability.

This volume presents a leading contribution to the substantive arena relating to homicide in the criminal law. In broad terms, the ambit of homicide standardisations in extant law is contestable and opaque. This book provides a logical template to focus the debate. The overall concept addresses three specific elements within this arena, embracing an overarching synergy between them. This edifice engages in an examination of UK provisions, and in contrasting these provisions against alternative domestic jurisdictions as well as comparative contributions addressing a particularised research grid for content. The comparative chapters provide a wider background of how other legal systems treat a variety of specialised issues relating to homicide in the context of the criminal law. The debate in relation to homicide continues apace for academics, practitioners and within the criminal justice system. Having expert descriptions of the wider issues surrounding the particular discussion and of other legal systems’ approaches serves to stimulate and inform that debate. This collection will be a major source of reference for future discussion.

A little book published by the late Mr. Redfield, a very painstaking and trustworthy writer, in 1880, entitled "Homicide North and South," tells a really awful story on this point, and one, too, which has never to my knowledge been denied or successfully disputed. He collected his statistics very carefully, taking them from official records in the States in which such records are kept, and as to the others, from the local newspapers. He reached the astounding conclusion that there had been 40,000 homicides in the Southern States since the war. In the year 1878 there were, he says, in the States of South Carolina, Texas, and Kentucky 734 homicides. He selected these States for examination and comparison, because in them the sources of information on this matter were unusually good. In Texas there were in that year more homicides than in the ten States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Minnesota, with an aggregate population of 17,000,000 nearly. In Kentucky, with a population of 1,500,000, there were in that year more homicides than in the eight Northern States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota, with an aggregate population of nearly 10,000,000. In South Carolina, with a population of 800,000, there were in the same year more, homicides than in the eight Northern States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Michigan, and Minnesota, with an aggregate population of 6,000,000. Of course, a large proportion of these occurred in brawls among drunken men in bar rooms and the like, but a very large proportion of them also followed on business, or social or family quarrels such as the most sober or discreet man might, in spite of himself, be involved in. Some of them give rise to vendettas, in which whole families arc gradually slaughtered. A large number of the victims are relatives, brothers, brothers-in-law, occasionally even fathers or sons of the murderers. In Kentucky, with a population of a million and a half, there were in 1878, 219 homicides; in Yorkshire, with a population of 2,500,000, largely manufacturing, the average annual number of homicides is thirty-three. This comparison will, perhaps, bring the state of things in the South more clearly before the mind of the English reader, than illustrations drawn from the Northern States in this country. One reason why homicide continues so prevalent in the South in spite of the absence of large cities, is undoubtedly the refusal of Southern juries from the earliest time to treat killing in fight as criminal. From this has arisen a curious reversal of the rule of the common law, which made malice prepense necessary to constitute murder. In the South, the prisoner charged with murder, instead of trying to show that there was no malice in the killing, does all he can to show that there was-that is, that the killing was the result of a previous quarrel. As a natural consequence of this, there has grown up in the South a feeling that killing a man after giving him notice that you would "shoot him on sight" is always justifiable. If you came on him unawares and shot him down, even if he were unarmed, the notice would generally hold you harmless in the eyes of a Southern jury, who would treat his death as a result of his own want of vigilance. Whole families have been exterminated in this way in the course of a feud without any interference from the law, and there is hardly a village or town which does not contain a surviving actor in many bloody frays. -The Contemporary Review, Volume 44 [1883]

This book provides a leading point of reference in the field of partial defences to murder and with respect to the mental condition defences of loss of control and diminished responsibility in general. The work includes contributions from leading specialists from different jurisdictions. Divided into two parts, the first provides an analysis from the perspective of the UK, looking at particular concerns such as domestic violence, revenge and mixed motive killings, mistaken beliefs. The second part presents a comparative and international view to provide a wider background of how alternative systems treat issues of human frailty short of full insanity (loss of control, diminished responsibility) in the context of the criminal law.

What makes murder, murder? How should we understand the difference between intentional and reckless killing? Should offenders be punished differently according to the perceived severity of their crime and when should they be excused? These questions are the topic of intense debate within legal circles and beyond in the UK, the US, and the rest of world. Jeremy Horder's role as the Law Commissioner for England and Wales on criminal law has given him unique insight into these questions and the debates surrounding them. Here he analyses the recent political and legal reform movements, offering a political history of homicide law reform from the 19th century to the modern era. Using homicide as a starting point, Horder raises deeper questions of who is and should be responsible for making and changing the law. What role should there be for expert bodies, judges, and politicians? What role should there be for the general public? These questions invoke strong emotional responses. Horder argues that comprehensive research into, and a degree of difference to, public opinion on the scope of homicide is essential to the reform process. It is essential principally as a means of conferring true legitimacy on homicide reform in a democracy. Elite or expert opinion alone will never authentically secure such legitimacy. Offering an insider's view into the processes of achieving law reform, Horder expresses criticism of a system that excludes the vast majority of people from consultation on reform of the laws that govern them.

This book offers a scholarly introduction to comparative criminal justice. It examines and reflects on the ways different countries and jurisdictions deal with the main stages in the criminal justice process, from policing, to systems of trial, to sentencing, and punishment. This popular bestseller has been fully updated and expanded for the fourth edition. This textbook provides the reader with: a comparative perspective on criminal justice and its main components a knowledge of methodology for comparative research and analysis a discussion of global trends such as the global drop in crime, the punitive turn, penal populism, privatization, international policing and international criminal tribunals an understanding of the emerging concepts in comparative criminal justice, such as security, surveillance, crimmigration and penal exceptionalism a global and historical consideration of the death penalty and international criminal justice increased attention to environmental crime, genocide and policy brutality. The new edition has been fully updated to keep abreast with this growing field of study and research, to include a broader coverage of judicial decision makers; a new chapter on the death penalty in comparative perspective; and further coverage of key topics such as global policing and electronic monitoring, and new insights into measuring and understanding crime and punishment globally. In this book, lists of further reading, study questions and boxed case studies help bring comparative criminal justice alive for students and instructors alike. This book is perfect reading for advanced undergraduates and postgraduates taking courses in comparative criminal justice and those who are engaged in the study of global responses to crime.