Will to Kill, The: Making Sense of Senseless Murder

by Fox, James Alan; Levin, Jack; Quinet, Kenna D

• ISBN13: 9780205418800
• ISBN10: 0205418805
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-01-01
• Publisher: Allyn & Bacon

Summary

Written by world renowned experts, this supplemental text employs the general notion of power and control as a central and unifying thesis for understanding why people kill. This brief yet comprehensive and student-friendly book presents a classification of homicide theories, examining the will to kill from various perspectives.

Author Biography

James Alan Fox is The Lipman Family Professor of Criminal Justice, at Northeastern University in Boston Jack Levin is The Brudnick Professor of Sociology and Criminology, at Northeastern University in Boston

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
About the Authors	xiii
The Lure and the Law of Homicide	1	(12)
Fascination with Murder	1	(2)
Homicide Law	3	(1)
Murder	4	(1)
Manslaughter	5	(2)
Defenses to Criminal Homicide	7	(2)
Homicide Law in Practice	9	(4)
Explaining Murder	13	(26)
The Devil Made Me Do It	13	(1)
Back to the Classics	14	(1)
Using Science to Explain Violence	15	(1)
Biology Then and Now	16	(3)
Psychological Causes of Violence	19	(5)
The Social Sources of Murder	24	(1)
Strain, Frustration, and Murder	25	(3)
Cultural Deviance	28	(1)
Learning to Kill	29	(2)
Self-Control, Social Control, and Murder	31	(1)
A Word of Caution about Cause	32	(7)
The Killers and Their Victims	39	(22)
Race Differences	43	(3)
Gender Differences	46	(3)
Age Differences	49	(4)
Differences by Location	53	(8)
Intimate and Family Murder	61	(16)
Killing for Profit	62	(1)
Obsession and Jealousy	63	(1)
Power, Control, and Abuse	64	(5)
Family Annihilation	69	(1)
Infanticide	70	(3)
Killing for Love?	73	(4)
The Coming and Going of the Young Superpredators	77	(16)
The Epidemic of Youth Homicide	77	(5)
Explaining the 1990s Decline	82	(4)
Selling Evil	86	(3)
Looking Ahead	89	(4)
Well-Schooled in Murder	93	(12)
Blaming Parents	93	(1)
Copycat Shootings	94	(2)
Explaining School Massacres	96	(2)
Responses to School Shootings	98	(4)
Healthy and Safe Schools	102	(3)
Serial Killers	105	(14)
A Profile of Serial Killers	107	(4)
The Murdering Mind	111	(3)
Childhood Origins	114	(3)
Victim Selection	117	(2)
Medical Murder	119	(12)
Counting Medical Murders	120	(1)
Motives and Types of Medical Murderers	121	(5)
Administrative Facilitators	126	(1)
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy	127	(1)
Prevention and Intervention	128	(3)
Rampage	131	(12)
Methodical and Selective	131	(3)
Losses and Frustrations	134	(2)
Profile of the Workplace Avenger	136	(4)
Murderous Customers and Clients	140	(3)
Hate Homicides	143	(10)
Characteristics of Hate Murders	143	(3)
Types of Hate Homicide	146	(3)
Organized Hate Groups	149	(1)
Current State of Hate Crime Laws	150	(3)
Murderous Terror	153	(10)
Hate Homicide and Domestic Terrorism	153	(1)
International Terrorism	154	(1)
Homegrown Terrorism	155	(2)
Left-Wing vs. Right-Wing Terrorists	157	(3)
The Impact of Murderous Terror	160	(3)
Cult Killings	163	(12)
Dangerous Cults	164	(1)
The Appeal of Cults	165	(1)
Charismatic Leaders and Their Followers	166	(2)
Needs Filled by Cults	168	(2)
Normal People in Abnormal Situations	170	(1)
Suicide or Homicide?	171	(4)
Catching Killers	175	(18)
Science of the Lambs	176	(3)
Clearance Rates	179	(4)
VICAP and Profiling	183	(4)
Sightings and Visions	187	(2)
Working a Homicide in the Media Spotlight	189	(4)
Getting Away with Murder, or Not	193	(22)
The Insanity Defense	193	(6)
Justice for Juveniles	199	(4)
Capital Punishment	203	(7)
Epidemic Thinking and Over-Response	210	(5)
Suggested Readings	215	(2)
A Note about Data Sources	217	(2)
Index	219