Murder

by D'Cruze; Shani

• ISBN13: 9781843921707
• ISBN10: 1843921707
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-04-01
• Publisher: Willan

Summary

This book seeks to unravel the issues associated with the crime of murder, providing a highly accessible account of the subject for people coming to it for the first time. It uses detailed case studies as a way of exemplifying and exploring more general questions of socio-cultural responses to murder and their explanation.Historical perspectives are incorporated providing fascinating examples from the past and enabling readers to gain a vision of what has changed and what has remained the same within those socio-cultural responses to murder.The particular focus of this book is on what the authors call 'inter-personal murder', that is to say those acts of killing that involve intimates or acquaintances rather than those acts of killing that might result from road traffic accidents, political violence or the work of business corporations.Additionally the book also embraces questions of race and gender. Individual murders analysed include those of Ruth Ellis, Dennis Nielsen, Harold Shipman and Jamie Bulger.

Table of Contents

Preface and acknowledgements	ix
Cataloguing murder	1	(21)
Introduction	1	(2)
Defining murder	3	(3)
A word on quantitative and qualitative research	6	(2)
Sources of information on murder	8	(6)
Nature and extent of murder in England and Wales: a contemporary picture	14	(3)
Thinking about the victim	17	(4)
Conclusion: murders, murderers and social construction	21	(1)
Devils and demons: the social construction of murder and murderers	22	(24)
Introduction	22	(1)
Rendering them pathological	23	(1)
Understanding evil: symbolism or reality?	24	(1)
Ways of thinking about evil	25	(4)
Competing for the subject murderer	29	(3)
Criminology, criminological perspectives on murder and Harold Shipman	32	(1)
Psychiatry and crime: inside the subconscious mind	33	(1)
Psychology and crime: the search for individual differences	34	(2)
Sociology: outside the criminal mind	36	(1)
Feminism, serial killers and masculinity	37	(2)
Masculinity, femininity and the power of the law	39	(2)
Femininity, motherhood and murder	41	(2)
The 'reasonable man of law' and the subject of offender	43	(1)
Conclusion	44	(2)
Murderous women	46	(23)
Introduction	46	(1)
Women who kill: mad or bad?	47	(5)
Kate Webster	52	(6)
Ruth Ellis	58	(3)
Beverly Allitt	61	(6)
Conclusion	67	(2)
Murderous children	69	(34)
Introduction	69	(1)
Popular and criminological responses to the child who kills	70	(3)
'Being a child': constructing childhood	73	(3)
The killing of James Bulger	76	(3)
Evicting the murderous child	79	(4)
The history of child killing: George Burgess	83	(5)
Moral understanding: doli incapax and remorse	88	(4)
The female child who kills	92	(5)
Causes and explanations?	97	(3)
The importance of public amnesia	100	(2)
Conclusion	102	(1)
Murderous men: intimate and domestic killings	103	(22)
Introduction	103	(1)
Intimate murder and domestic violence	104	(2)
Intimate homicide, history and criminal justice	106	(4)
The lady in the lake	110	(3)
A young mum	113	(4)
The White House Farm murders	117	(7)
Conclusion	124	(1)
Murderous men: killing friends and acquaintances	125	(22)
Introduction: murderous men and their friends: instrumental or expressive violence?	125	(4)
A public profession of criminality: the Kray Twins	129	(7)
Lack of motive: Ley and Smith	136	(4)
'I seek company first': Dennis Nilsen	140	(6)
Conclusion	146	(1)
Rendering them pathological	147	(12)
Introduction	147	(1)
Sexuality and control	148	(2)
Physicality and emotion	150	(1)
Gender, ethnicity, age and class	151	(2)
Understanding transgression	153	(2)
The symbolic power of evil	155	(2)
Conclusion: murder, pathology and the law	157	(2)
References	159	(12)
Index	171