In relation with an internship I have to do for university, I need information about a quite unpleasant topic. The question is which is the most frequent kind of treatment (head injuries, strangling, etc.) leading to the victim’s death in intentional child homicide. I was googling around for a while searching for criminological surveys, if possible with percentages of cases, but without success so far. If any dopers know of statistics reagdring this issue, I’d be grateful for any help.
A related question - I found some statistics, but in order to interpret them correctly, I need to know what exactly the American legal system defines as “murder”:
If a person commits some serious crime, say battery or robbery, to another person, and as a result of this act the victim dies; the perpetrator did not want his victim to die, nor did he knew the victim could possibly die, but he could have realized his acts could be lethal - would that be considered “murder” in AMerican law? (It would not in German law, that’s why I’m asking).
There are degrees to murder and the specifics vary somewhat from state to state as ordinary murder isn’t a defined crime in federal law. First degree murder usually requires premeditation. Homicides that are not neccessarily intentional are usually classified as manslaughter.
What constitutes murder will vary from state to state, but the actions you describe could be characterized as murder in many (probably most) jurisdictions. At common law, murder can happen not only when the attacker intended to kill, but also when he intended to commit grievous bodily injury. Additionally, murder can be found when the person didn’t intend to inflict any injury at all, but recklessly ignored an unjustifiable risk to human life (called “depraved heart murder”), or a caused a death because the person was committing an inherently dangerous felony, like robbery (called “felony murder”). An intentional homicide mitigated by reasonable provocation is generally voluntary manslaughter, and a criminally negligent homicide that doesn’t rise to the level of depraved heart murder is generally involuntary manslaughter.
Many jurisdictions modify these rules by statute into first and second degree murder: premeditated murders and deaths occuring due to enumerated inherently dangerous felonies are generally first degree, and other intentional murders and and death due to other felonies are generally second degree.
All of this is very simplified for the sake of brevity and a general overview, mind you. A thorough discussion of murder in all fifty states and all federal circuits would probably overload the server.
That was all very helpful, both for the stuff I’m researching and simply interest-wise, regarding differences between several jurisdictions. Thanks!