CC100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Culpable Homicide, Indictable Offence, The Human Instinct
Chapter 9: Violent Crimes
Introduction to Violent Crime
● Violent crime is a general category of crime that includes homicide, attempted murder,
robbery, assault, and other mostly indictable offences that involve the physical violation
(e.g. death or injury) of a person → either through threat or realized violence
Sources of Violence
● “Causes”
○ Abusive families, competing cultural values, the availability of firearms, gang
motivation, human instinct, personality traits, regional values, substance abuse
Violent Crime in Canada (overview):
● Generally speaking, crime rates in Canada have been on a continual decrease, we are
at levels equivalent to 1974 to 75
● Severity of crime dropping as well
● 1.5 murders for 100,000 people (good)
● Toronto murders about 60 a year, Chicago about 500-600 murders per year
Why is Violence so “Popular”?
● TV shows, increase in interest in crime (sept 11 influence?)
Criminology and Violence
● Headlines designed to encourage us to buy newspapers
● Criminology as a discipline has the role to be critical of all knowledge about crime
● Criminology provides a “sober” review of facts and figures
○ Considering alternative reasons
○ Time and geographically-oriented explanations
○ Critical discussion of societal concepts
■ E.g. Jeff Ferrell’s study of graffiti
● Aboriginal gang culture in Winnipeg video
Homicide
● Homicide is the act of causing the death of another person, whether directly or indirectly,
by an unlawful act or by negligence
○ Culpable homicide is a criminal offence, while non-culpable homicide is not
● Homicide, or murder, is a popular criminological topic of study:
○ Introduces a number of different approaches
■ Multiple murder, gangs, intimate partner violence, etc
○ Provides a “reliable” set of statistics
■ Most murders are reported compared to other crimes
■ High clearance rate and resources devoted
○ An interesting “baseline” model of crime
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
■ Think about Durkheim, Marx → looking at murder rate of indicator of how
well society is doing
● Debates on what murder is: shooting someone / hitting someone with your car
Canadian Criminal Code
● S.231(2): Murder is first degree murder when it is planned and deliberate
○ Includes: (3) contracted murder; (4) murder of a police officer; (5) hijacking,
sexual assault or kidnapping; (6) criminal harassment; (6.01) terrorist activity;
(6.1) criminal organization; (6.2) intimidation
● S.232 (1): Culpable homicide that otherwise would be murder may be reduced to
manslaughter if the person who committed it did so in the heat of passion caused by
sudden provocation
● Second is when you don’t really plan it out (against innocent person)
● S.241(1): Everyone is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a
term of not more than 14 years who, whether suicide ensues or not,
○ a) counsels a person to die by suicide or abets a person in dying by suicide; or
○ b) aids a person to die by suicide
Homicide in Canada
● Approx 5-600 murders annually
● ⅓ with firearms, knives
● Approx 82% committed by acquaintance/family member
● Most victims male (70%), aged 18-39 (50%)
● Approx ¼ of victims indigenous; ⅓ of perpetrators
● Homicide rates, trends, and patterns
● Why do people kill?
○ The willful killing of one person by another can occur under a wide range of
circumstances - during an episode of domestic violence, in times of war, as a
result of postpartum depression, because of temporary insanity, in response to
aggravating circumstances, as a hired killing, or for morally justifiable reasons
Criminological Perspectives
● Ecological perspectives
○ Certain areas are “disorganized”? (e.g. chicagoan, left realism)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Abusive families, competing cultural values, the availability of firearms, gang motivation, human instinct, personality traits, regional values, substance abuse. Generally speaking, crime rates in canada have been on a continual decrease, we are at levels equivalent to 1974 to 75. Toronto murders about 60 a year, chicago about 500-600 murders per year. Tv shows, increase in interest in crime (sept 11 influence?) Headlines designed to encourage us to buy newspapers. Criminology as a discipline has the role to be critical of all knowledge about crime. Criminology provides a sober review of facts and figures. Homicide is the act of causing the death of another person, whether directly or indirectly, by an unlawful act or by negligence. Culpable homicide is a criminal offence, while non-culpable homicide is not. Homicide, or murder, is a popular criminological topic of study: Multiple murder, gangs, intimate partner violence, etc. Most murders are reported compared to other crimes.
