L438 Criminology

1.1 Introduction

From the beginning of time, the ideal behaviour patterns have been described clearly for men and women both in varied societies and cultures. The socially structured gender norms have played a significant role in the construction of the character and gender instincts that adults live with and children grow up with. However, the differentiation in character is one thing that helps in the understanding of the violent behaviour of some men in contrast to others. The term masculinity and homicide has been defined clearly in the following few paragraphs to help understand the thought process of certain men who tend to cross the line (Wright, 2004).

1.2 Defining the Terms Masculinities and Homicide

Masculinity is often referred to as men in a society. It is a part of the gender identity and the degree to which a person sees it in himself is primarily defined as masculinity. Masculinity is more of a societal concept rather than a biological one. It is the society that has ingrained the differentiation of masculinity from the birth of a boy. While females are expected to be feminine, there have been many instances where the characteristics of masculinity have been identified among females as well. Masculinity and feminism is built in children not only through their parents, the relatives, friends and even educators over time (Burke & Stets, n.d.).

Homicide has often been regarded as one of the most serious crimes known to mankind today. Homicide has a very simple and straight definition that entails the presence of a dead person and the cause of death is another individual. However, the person involved would vary from the level of responsibility, involvement and motivation to cause the death of the person. For example, if a death is caused by an accident then the offender did not have a personal problem with the dead person but the same was caused due to negligent behavior on part of the person who caused the death. Sometimes, an individual might not kill the other person intentionally; however, the term homicide also includes these cases. Hence, any type of a death of a person that is caused by another individual is termed as Homicide (Smit, Jong and Bijleveld, 2012).

1.3 Statistics

According to Statistics, in homicide cases, it is majorly 95% men who are convicted round the globe. Although masculinity and violence is more associated with men in majority of the countries; however, experts do not consider calling men naturally violent from the beginning of their lives.  Number of homicides which has occurred in England and in Wales from 2014 to 2015 increased from 71 to 574.  It is a 14% rise which is fuelled by increasing crime rate using knife and guns as per the statistics. London and Manchester are as per statistics the two places where crime figures recorded by the justice department showcases an increase in knife crime by 9% and gun based crime at 4% (Guardian, 2017). There has been a significant increase in the number of violent crimes in the region as well. The statistics generated at the end of 2016. A 10% increase in robberies, 35% increase in public order offences and 12% increase in sexual offences has also been recorded. In England and Wales, the police stations have reported an increase of 21% reports of crimes that involved murder of some nature (Travis, 2017).

Domestic Violence cases are another important factor that involve masculinity and men’s violent nature. It is noted that the number of murders and manslaughters have risen considerably by 14% since 2015. The authorities have recorded over eleven deaths a week (Barrett, 2016). A brief overview of the number of crimes in the country are as follows that depict the violent nature of men and homicides in the country:

                                 

1.4 Masculinity and Child Homicide

A number of researchers have reported cases of Masculinity crisis in families where fathers have been reported of killing his own children. Men have also been recorded to be seen murdering the spouse and these are mostly single events. Such cases are termed as Family Annihilations. The age group estimated after a detailed study on the subject is 38.5 years age. Furthermore, most of the men were reported to be employed and chose the day of Sunday to carry out the murders in the month of august. An important case that was reported in 2013 was the slitting of throat of children by the man of the house who was 48 years old. He did so after splitting from his wife. Although the motivation factors, characteristics , age group etc may differ; however, they showcase the reflection of the crisis of masculinity in the country over time (Townsend, 2013).  

According to another study carried out recently, the crimes of male children against younger children are another important factor to be considered. These are often reported as constructions of masculinity that have been affecting the society largely. Many cases of lethal violence have been recorded by the police authorities of the country. For example, in the year 1993, two male children of 10 years of age each killed a two year old and they gained a worldwide attention due to the nature of the crime and the age of the children in question. The cause for this case has been recorded to be as loss of innocence of childhood and the role of environmental factors that have assisted in the overall moral development of male children in the society today (Gibbon, 2015).

According to a research carried out by Yarwood (2004), majority of the children killed are under the age of 5 to 6 and infants are considered as one of the most vulnerable when it comes to masculinity. Boys are considered to be much more risky in the involvement of homicides rather than girls. 66% fathers have been found to be responsible for child homicides and infants are seen to be vulnerable to physical assault as well.

1.5 Manslaughter and the Types

Manslaughter is a type of homicide which means human beings killed unlawfully. It is a serious type of a felony. However, manslaughter is legally considered a less criminal act than a murder. There is a subtle difference in between the two. It is the state of mental condition in which the crime is caused leading to death. Often the fine difference between these two is found to be blurred. Both are judged under the context and background in which they are committed. Following are the various types of manslaughters and murders categorised below:-

Voluntary Type- A manslaughter of voluntary nature the intention of the defendant is to kill and only to kill. There is evidence that the defendant in this type of a mental approach has no compassion and is reckless to human life and it's worth. A common scenario in such a reckless approach is causation of serious injuries. Any individual committing a crime of such dangerous kind is found as a guilty for murder in the eyes of the law.

Homicides out of Heath-of-passion-In this type of manslaughter the defendant commits a homicide in the heat of the moment when they have been provoked substantially. Usually it is the victim who makes such a provocation. It is not a murder but a voluntary manslaughter where the importance or significance of such provocation is huge for the defendant. Hence, an average person can also perform a rash action without giving it any thought or logic (McCurley, 2015). There is a time gap which exists in between such provocation and the actual occurrence of the killing. This time can also be termed as a cooling period. If acted wisely the rate of homicide can be reduced if this cooling period is utilized.

An example scenario can be a person sitting at a bar where he is being taunted aggressively by another patron just because the football team you supported lost a game. The insults made by the patrol spread towards addressing the spouse of the to-be victim with insulting terms who is also present in the given scenario. The bouncer can ask the person to leave. Maddened by insult the patrol leads to bash the vehicle of the victim parked outside. Once the to-be victim notices this he enraged hits the patron with a baseball bat. Immediately a crime is committed just in a blow.  Here a strong provocation and some series of aggressive events lead to a mental state where the victim was enraged enough to answer it with a killer blow. 

Self Defense of Imperfect nature-This is a defense for any charges of homicide. It means if a person is convicted for any manslaughter or homicide, if justifiably one kills another for protection purposes. A killing for being justified and considered as a self defense there must be enough belief that only through force self protection can be achieved against the upcoming harm or danger. The dangerous force to be applied must appear as the most suitable response for the threat one faces.  Based on imperfect self defenses in many states a murder charge at times gets converted to voluntary manslaughter.  In such a case the defendant has the only belief that lethal force is necessary. However such a belief is no reasonable. 

An example scenario can be a man walking down a street. The man is searching for a store or business houses which can allow him use their restrooms and hence finds a sports goods store. The person peeps through the window to ask the man who is on the counter (Duval, 2014). The man at the same time is showing a gun to one of their customer. The man on the counter turns to the window and before anything else shoots the man who asked for using the restroom at the window. So, here the man had the belief that shooting was necessary. But it was an unreasonable belief.

Involuntary Manslaughter - Involuntary manslaughter can be based on any violation of any misdemeanor figure which was created for protection of people. The defendant has violated it in such a manner that is showed the disrespect made towards the protection of other people. An example scenario for an involuntary manslaughter can be a case where suppose there is a dog in the neighbor’s house and the man knows that the dog is dangerous. The backyard fence of the dog owner’s house is damaged and has not yet been repaired. If the dog runs into another man’s house and bites a child or kills a child, then the attack was not intentionally made by the dog owner. However it was a case of negligence.  Hence a violation has been made. This is a case of involuntary manslaughter where a person knows his behavior is reckless but does not takes care to fix it.

1.6 Infanticide

A very common situation for the England of 17^th century single women having unwanted pregnancy was to commit infanticides.  The economical struggle, trauma of pregnancy which was not legitimate many times forced women of the then century to kill their unwanted children (Pullin, 2017. The first legal provision focused against infanticide was the 1624 Infanticide Statute which prevents murder of children who has no information about their fathers. Infanticide is the incapability of the mental space of a person which forces them to commit such a grave crime. For a murder charge or a charge of manslaughter, infanticide is a defense partially constructed. It is a distinctive offence of homicide majorly limited to women (Loughnan, 2012).In many societies present in this world female infanticide is practiced majorly. The preference of a son over a girl child is deep rooted in the mindset of many societies in many continents of the world. These are matrilineal societies. Such societies decide on the gender of the child to a serious degree because of associated material gains such as inheritance passing over to the next generation, economic support of parents in the future and death ritual performance restrictions. Technological innovations such as invention of ultrasonography techniques helped people to determine sex beforehand. However the intentional infant killing was replaced by fetus killing based on gender selection.  This became a serious problem in the world.

One in five deaths caused in infants who are one year or of a lower age is related to homicide in UK. The infants in this scenario are often killed by the mother during the first week of their birth. If the time lapses mostly such infants are killed by a male. This can either be a father or a stepfather in the most usual cases. On the day a child is born in this scenario where it is unwanted the risk of its getting killed is highest on the very day. One in ten such children is killed within a month of their birth. Various studies and researches made from social service official records and from police records showcases that up to four years of age such children are maltreated and most of the times death occurs due to such harsh maltreatments. Moreover as per the police many such infanticides committed for children very young are not reported most of the times. Birth which takes place in secluded places has no associated birth certificates with it. In between the years 1970 to 1911 rate of infanticide doubles from a ratio of 4.3 to 9.5 for every 100,000 child aged below one year. This rate becomes stabilized in between years 1991 and 2000. The trend has been towards the lower end since this time. It was 7.2  for 100,000 children in the year 2013 (Child Trends, 2014).

Difficult it is to comprehend why people kill infants. Criminologists has been studying these acts to understand its background, social context of such acts and how using better ways these can be prevented. There can be social or individual reasons for the occurrences of infanticide like crimes. Infanticide, a special type of a homicide is where the circumstances of a mother get mitigated by the committing of a crime.  A distinctive category of offence exists in the legal jurisdictions of Australia, UK, Brazil, Germany, Columbia, India, Greece, Italy, Norway, Japan, Turkey, Philippine sand in Sweden.  A child less than a year can have numerous sensitivities associated with it. Such vulnerabilities can be premature birth, delays in development, disabilities and other complex medical issues. Substance abuse by parents can also be a reason for the occurrences of such conditions. Mental illness of parents, domestic violence and disability of the intellect can also because families get affected. Researchers has shown  infant killings by step fathers or fathers by getting affected with external substance usages like drugs and alcohols. In historic times infanticide was affected by social backgrounds such as selection of genders, eugenics or a social stigma. Mothers who commit infanticide are considered to be going through a lot of social pressures.

1.7 Legal Reforms

Homicide in UK constitutes of two offences of murder and manslaughter along with other offences such as infanticide or death caused by driving recklessly. In England and in Wales murder convicts are legally given a life sentence mandatorily. Recently legal reforms are being called for. Rules related to mandatory life sentencing, joint enterprise, proposals made based on degree of crime basing itself on the killer's intention and a wide number of cases where rather than intentional killing was reckless (Parliament UK, 2016). The government is making proposals to make some transformations in homicide laws and tin their murder constitution. Such proposals made and the revisions and modifications resulting from these proposals will become a legal reform. The changes and amendments made  in homicide law is significant because out of all the other criminal offences these homicide offences are the serious of all. This means, the convictions made can bring some severe constraints to the offenders liberal approach to homicide (Justice, 2011). Hence it can become the obligation of the State to protect life in better manners using such legal reforms.

Changes in law of homicides are also crucial as these legal offenses are arising from attempts made ambitiously by the Law commission for creating a new framework for homicide offenses by changing the conventional justification system for murder or manslaughter. General homicide offenses will be going for a three-tier system and changes will be made for defenses of partial nature and various law and rules in regards to complicity will also be changed. Government will not change everything all together. Rather some changes and modifications will be made.  However many are of the belief that such partial reforms can worsen scenarios and only a complete reform is recommended.The first degree murder will be limited to killings made unlawfully which has been done with the intention for killing only. The primary intent has been to cause someone a serious wound or injury. Killer here is completely aware that the seriousness of the behavior or action can cause serious injury and even death. A second degree murder also covers unlawful killings where the intention has been to cause a serious injury or out of fear or where the murderer knows that their behavior can cause death. Additionally every aspect of a first degree murder is covered by this. Manslaughter comes under these murderous acts. Unlawful killings intended to cause lethal injury and foreseen to be creating death even is covered under manslaughter.  Reforms are made for the complicity of such murders, responsibility diminished, infanticides, provocations.

The Law Commission in the report of 2006 has proposed that for general homicide offences a three tier system will be launched. A murder of first degree will go for life sentence compulsorily. A second degree murder will go for life sentence as per discretion. A manslaughter however will also go for a discretionary sentence for life.  The confinement of first degree murder will be towards killing made with complete clarity, coherence and intention. This will also include killing intended for creating lethal injury.

1.8 Diminished Responsibility

Defendants having mental sickness or a severe case of mental disorder in the criminal justice system is handled in a manner which leaves a lot of scope inside it. Bringing any reforms to this aspect is a challenging task. Mostly because the crimes which such individuals commit are generally heinous in nature and most of the time excites public opinions due to their deviousness. Court however handles such cases in a different way than regular criminal cases of murder. In such circumstances passing a verdict where circumstances in manslaughter or a murder case is highlighted the concept of diminished responsibility is usually raised.  The defense considers this essentially to judge the probable reason for the occurrence of a murder.  

Diminished responsibility was a plea which was introduced in the then England and also all along the Commonwealth. There were restrictions which occurred in the defense of insanity and hence it was realized that although responsibility of a person does not get reduced due to some mental malfunctioning, yet a death sentence cannot be given. So with this diminished responsibility the scopes of protection and excuses in a death penalty became wider in cases where mental dysfunctioning were not so extreme that it can prove positive to the highest  mental tests. This concept is applicable only to murders. Also, this is not a total defense but a partial one. As per the old legislation of the Homicide Act 1957, conviction is given for manslaughter at relevant times where the offender suffers from a certain mental condition which dysfunctions the individual’s mental responsibility in regards to the actions committed in a killing event (InBrief, 2012).

It belongs to one of the various three criminal offense defenses which existed for murder. In the year 2009, in the Section 2 of the Homicide Act 1957 an amendment was made and the concept of diminished responsibility was introduced. It is a part of the various three different criminal law defenses and is distinctive from all the three. This only applies to murder (Nadkarni, 2014). The effect of this is to reduce the effects of liabilities in a crime of murder and not saves the defendant from the crime completely. Diminished Responsibility law is based on certain requirements. As it has been amendment by the Coroners and Justice Act, there are three such requirement which must be fulfilled by defendant for succeeding in the defense of a diminished responsibility. Following are these three requirements:-

• An abnormality must be present in the mental functioning of the defendant.
• Such a mental condition or abnormality must have a scientific and recognized medical connection and an understanding of it must be clear.
• The mind’s abnormality must also be such that evidently impairs the mental responsibility of the defendant.

Diminished Responsibility Justifications:-

In the legal world, the law of diminished responsibility defense has gone through many criticisms. Some claim that in a jurisdiction such as defense has no place where death penalty has been abolished. It is only where a death penalty for a murder is compulsory where such a defense of diminished responsibility is applicable in spite of a situation where death penalty has been abolished.

The defense of diminished responsibility also acts as a constraint to the sentencing discretions of the judge where the judge is limited for respecting the verdicts made by the jury. This applies in cases where reduction of responsibility and sentences occur and it remains applicable despite mental reasonability is removed from the questions of the defense.

The defense of diminished responsibility is in agreement with other psychiatric or sociological evidences.Some of these can be unlawful killings carried out by a defendant suffering from any kind of mental disorders or is handicapped a time which has blurred their overall mental reasoning and thinking and making judgments (Fitzgerald, 2012). These leads to a situation where there remains no control on emotions as well as actions and hence it acts as a legal excuse which has been justified with the help of a scientific understanding regarding the functioning of the human mind.

In some circumstances where there are cases controversial in nature in relation to personality disorder condition or psychopathy on which a case is relying on, then there is some moral sense which the defense applies on the case. Such cases of psychopathy or personality disorder area childhood exposure to experiences on which there was no control. Hence it was found that it’s not justified to hold these defendant totally responsible for their actions.

1.9 Loss of Control

Introduced by Section 54 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, the loss of control defense was implemented in the year October 2010. Before the establishment of this defense law, all the killings which were committed were governed under the defense of provocation. This law s also known as a partial defense because this aids in reducing liabilities for manslaughter or murder offences committed.  However, the intention of the loss of control defense is not to abolish the murder liability of the defendant completely. This is not a general form of defense and it only is applicable for murder offences.  This was introduced as a reaction to the various concerns of the court in regards to the provocation defense. There were problems associated with the defense of provocation and appealing courts considered these. The interpretations of the defense of provocation application as stated in the Section 3 of the Homicide Act 1957 were not being consistent in the courts.  The provocation defense focused itself on the basis of gender biasness (Elawresources, 2010).  Offences of murder created by male defendants basically by loss of temper were in much focus in this. It focused less of killings made by women defendants in domestic violence where killing occurs out of a serious violence or fear. There were controversies as what was the extent to which such legislations can address murder offences.

The loss of control defense was a new defense quite similar with the provocation defense in its requirements. But in regards to its restrictions in its applicability it differed the provocation defense largely. The Section 54(1) of the Homicide Act 1957 states that a defendant is not convicted with murder charges if the defendant commits a murder offence or participates in a murder offence made by other under the following three circumstances:-

The act and errors made by the defendant in killing someone or participating in a killing which is a result of loss of self control. Here two more factors are also considered. First of all such a situation is subjective to tests. Here, there is no need for the defendant to prove that the fear inside them was reasonable or unreasonable. It is the jury and the judge who needs to recognize the truthfulness of such fear of the defendant.  Secondly of all, any fear which is formed against a serious type of violence must be in regards to a defendant or any person which is identified to be causing such serious violence’s.  For an example, a defendant who is a mother can have a serious fear that the victim will be causing a violent murder or killing for her child here the defendant must be specifically knowing who that victim is (Leigh, 2013).

There is a trigger which is qualifying for the occurrence of a loss of self control situation. This is attributable to things said or things done or both. Such things which have been said or done have in such situations lead to a case where the defendant feels he or she has been wronged specifically.

An individual which is of similar age and sex of the defendant with an average tolerance levels and level of self resistance inside a similar circumstances would have reacted in a way which is similar to what way has been chosen by the defendant.

There occurs no need that the loss of self control has to be a sudden act. It means that the law of provocation transforms to become the requirements which are needed for a loss of control act to be a temporary or a sudden act.  The Law Commission made a recommendation that there is no need for a loss of control because this was the provocation defense law used against women.

Qualifying Trigger

As per the Section 54(1)(b) a qualifying trigger is needed. The Court has detected the various triggers in Section 55(3), (4) and (5). The first qualifying rigger is where there is a fear inside the defendant that there can be a serious violence to be taking place from the end of the victim. In fear an act of killing is being committed by the defendant thus it is a trigger which causes such a killing. Such a qualifying trigger has been established for protecting women who has stated that they fear violence from their partners who is abusive and can even kill them. As an explanation in such cases it is also claimed that such a fear inside the victim will not make them commit killings to general public in the future.  The differentiations in between provocation defense and public or private defense law are blurred by this.

The qualifying trigger when it is identified must be further analyzed whether it has led to a loss of self control situation. Such a loss of self control situation is not needed to be a sudden event under Section 54(2). For people who due to domestic violence for example engage into a killing act after a slow reaction of burning is caused can be stated to be not sudden event. Everything depends on the time gap prevalent in between a provocation and a killing. In such cases self defense fails often mainly may be due to the misappropriate of force. Various explanatory notes helped stating that the jury and judges can consider the delay which occurred in between the incident and the killing in deciding whether it is a matter of loss of self control or not. The new defense in this respect is not a radical act. The cases where there has been a cooling period involved or a period of time in between provocation and a killing this delay plays a role. For example suppose a defendant took out a gun from his home attic and before killing the victim he stopped to fill petrol in his car. Here a sudden loss of control is absence.  The jury needs a loss of control to consider this as it does not prove that the killing which occurred next is a planned or a grudge killing.

1.10 Conclusion:

Majority of the times in the world society, men has been the ones who has been involved in wars overwhelmingly or into all kinds of aggressions in between groups or in homicide cases. Most prominently in the world men mobilizes themselves into gangs, groups and thugs groups etc. These are evident from some ancient times in the world. As a result of these observations and studies clear distinctions can be made in between the crimes committed by both these sexes male and female. Cruelty, crime and cases of homicide is most prominently linked with masculinity.  Many theorists in the world tries to find out answers regarding why the male gender is much more aggressive than the women in the world. A prominent conclusion can be made that their anatomy itself is such that it can be blamed for its associations towards violence and aggressiveness.  Some believe that the social responsibility of men and women are different.  How men are educated and conditioned to perform their social duties are different from that of women and hence over the passages of time men even if it is a male child is encouraged words aggressiveness than a girl child. Impositing styles of behavior to the child also has a shift towards differentiating them as per gender (Furtuna, 2016). Usually it has been observed in the world that gun toys are bought for boy child while dolls are given to girl children.Owing to hormonal, anatomical, behavioral and evolutionary aspects the biological component of the male genders are more favorable for combats complemented by various social environments which add fuels to the fire.

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