CRIM10001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Partial Defence, Parricide, Filicide
15 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Semester 1, 2018 Sam Midler
CRIM10001 – Lecture 10a & 10b
Homicide
Legal definitions
• Homicide – the killing by whatever means of one human being by another
• Homicide can be lawful
o War, capital punishments, by police in proper pursuit of their duties
• Unlawful homicide can include
o Excusable murder (reasonable self-defence), manslaughter
• Context is important
• Manslaughter
o Voluntary – usually defined as partial defence to charge of murder and
includes:
▪ Provocation (abolished in Vic)
▪ defensive homicide in Vic
▪ Excessive self-defence
▪ Substantial impairment
▪ Infanticide
o Involuntary – usually defied y gross egligee ad iludes
▪ Culpable driving resulting in death
• Murder – when a person intentionally or recklessly kills another or intentionally or
recklessly inflicts severe injury on another person who dies as a result
o Offence that carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment
Australian homicide patterns
• Official reporting generally is highly valid and reliable (reporting criteria and
recording processes are stable) compared with many other offence categories
o Official data better reflects reality of patterns compared with other offences
• Polie lear hoiide ases at a higher rate → high rate of known offenders
• National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP)
o All cases resulting in a person being charged with murder or manslaughter
o All murder-suicides classed as murder by police
o All other deaths classed as homicides, despite whether offender is
apprehended
o Attempted murder is excluded, as are violent deaths by accidents and lawful
homicide
Australian homicide rates are declining (For some)
• Current incidence rate is lowest on record in past 25 years
o Fallen by 22%
• Child homicide has not fallen
Murder vs. manslaughter
• Proportion needs to be determined at point of conviction, as many manslaughter
offenders were originally charged with murder
• 1990-2005 – 243 convicted homicide offenders (Vic)
o 56% sentenced for murder (89% were men, 54% victims were men)
o 44% sentenced for manslaughter (85% men, 71% victims were men)
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