The 4 differences between homicide and murder

Often, sadly, we see from the news that a murder or murder has been committed. Since both words are presented together on many occasions, it is common for us to believe that they mean the same thing and we think that they can be used interchangeably.

Both expressions have a lot to do with it, but what makes something a homicide or a murder varies a lot, and it also implies different legal consequences.

Next we will see the differences between homicide and murder, explaining a little how these two crimes are punished in the Spanish Penal Code.

• Related article: "Forensic Psychology: definition and functions of the forensic psychologist"

What are the differences between homicide and murder?

On many occasions we hear the words homicide and murder, thinking many times that they are synonyms, since they are related to the same act that is to have taken the life of another person.

Actually, we can say that the two are related and, in fact, all murders are homicides, but not all homicides are murders.

The difference between the two words is in the circumstances and the premeditation that might exist at the time of committing the act.

What is a homicide?

Legally, an act is considered only a homicide in the absence of premeditation. There may or may not have been intentionality, but it has appeared at the time of committing the act, that is, it had not been planned to kill the other person before but, because of a dispute, an accident or simply due to a security breach, a person has killed other.

In the Spanish Penal Code, homicide is regulated in article 138, being the first of the typified crimes.

In the event that the homicide was done with intent, we are talking about an intentional homicide, such as a fight domestic violence in which the murderer stabs his partner or an armed robbery in which the thief has fatally wounded his victim. On the other hand, if the death of someone has been committed as a result of recklessness, human accident or error, we speak of involuntary manslaughter or guilty and would be examples of this case the death of a patient due to medical negligence, a train accident because the driver got lost or a run over.

What is a murder?

Murder is considered a more serious form of committing a homicide given the circumstances in which it is carried out.

In the Spanish case, murder is regulated in article 139 of the Penal Code, contemplating three assumptions that justify the aggravation of the sentence and the distinction.

1. Treachery

It is considered that there is treachery when the crime is committed, a form or means are used to prevent the victim from being able to defend himself. Expressions of nocturnalness are considered as treacherous, that is, committing the crime at night taking advantage of the fact that the victim is asleep (sleeping people), or open space, which consists of taking the victim to a place where he cannot ask for help and that the attacker can benefit of it.

The idea of ​​defenseless people, such as newborn children, helpless elderly, people with disabilities, is also raised within the treachery.

When these types of people are killed, homicide is usually classified as murder in many cases, since it is understood that the perpetrator took advantage of the defenselessness of his victim. It should also be said that there are those who would consider that it would be a case of intentional homicide, assessing the possibility that there was premeditation or not.

• You may be interested in: "The 11 types of violence (and the different types of aggression)"

2. Cruelty

The cruelty is given when the victim's suffering was deliberately and inhumanly increased, causing a condition that is not necessary to cause his death.

Repeated stabbing could be considered cruelty, with the last stab being the one that hurts the victim. On the other hand, it would not be considered cruelty if the first stab was the one that caused the death since the rest of the stab wounds that could have been done, since the victim is already dead, suffers.

3. Price, reward, or promise concurrency

We say that there has been competition of price, reward or promise when the person who has committed the crime has done so with the intention of obtaining something in return, the economic motive being the most common.

These three assumptions are those that allow to clearly delimit what a simple homicide is, regardless of whether it is voluntary or involuntary, of a murder.

4. Qualification of penalties

So we can see from everything we've seen so far that the main difference between a homicide and a murder is that there has been premeditation and that at least one of the assumptions of a murder.

The differences between homicide and murder are also reflected in the qualification of penalties that can be received for having committed one of these two crimes. Taking into account that homicide "simply" is less serious in nature than murder, it makes sense see that the penalties for this first offense are softer and lighter, with differences also depending on the type of homicide.

In the Spanish context, homicide without premeditation carries penalties up to a maximum of 4 years in case that the crime has been recklessly committed to 15 years in case there has been intentionality. The penalties with which the perpetrator of the crime is punished vary greatly, since taking the life of another person is a serious act in which Many factors may have been involved, ranging from 1 to 4 years in the case of wrongful death and 10 to 15 years in the case of wrongful death. willful.

Murders, on the other hand, receive higher penalties based on the fact that they are premeditated, and therefore there is always a intentionality, together with the fact of wanting to take advantage of the disadvantages that the victim may have (nocturnal, clearing...). The penalties with which the murders are punished range from 15 to 20 years in prison, and can be raised up to 25 years in the event of two or more cases than those mentioned above.