Homicide is the killing of one person by another person. The study of homicide is an important part of criminology and is carried out by criminologists, especially those who specialize in homicide or lethal violence.
Homicide is not a single, uniform act. There are many different types of homicide, and criminologists use specific terms—often called legal or scholarly lingo—to describe who was killed and the relationship between the victim and the offender. Below are some common types of homicide studied by criminologists and homicide scholars.
- Uxoricide: the killing of a wife by her husband
- Mariticide: the killing of a husband by his wife
- Neonaticide: the killing of a newborn infant, usually within the first 24 hours of life
- Infanticide: the killing of an infant
- Parricide: the killing of a parent
- Double parricide: the killing of both parents
- Patricide: the killing of one’s father
- Matricide: the killing of one’s mother
- Sororicide: the killing of a sister
- Fratricide: the killing of a brother
- Regicide: the killing of a king, queen, or member of a royal family
- Femicide: the killing of a female (girl or woman) because of her gender
- Androcide: the killing of a male (boy or man) because of his gender
- Vigilante homicide: a killing carried out by individuals who take the law into their own hands and kill someone they believe has committed a crime
- Multicide: a homicide event involving multiple victims
Some jurisdictions use the term mass murder to describe a homicide event involving four or more victims. For example, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines mass murder as the killing of four or more people in a single incident.
Another form of multicide is serial murder. In the United States, a serial murderer is typically defined as someone who has killed four or more people, with a “cooling-off” period between the killings. This cooling-off period can last months or even years.
- Vaticide: the killing of a pope or a major religious prophet
- Genocide: the systematic killing of large numbers of people because of their race, ethnicity, religion, or nationality
- Eldercide (or geronticide, senilicide): the killing of an elderly person
- Grannicide: the killing of a grandparent by a grandchild
- Familicide is the killing of one’s entire family by a single offender.
These terms help criminologists better understand patterns of violence, relationships between offenders and victims, and the social causes and consequences of homicide.
I hope you have learned that homicide has many different categories, and that criminologists have assigned specific terms to describe each type.
