Some Crimes of Violence
Prof. Dr. Timur Demirbas*

1. Premeditated Murder
Premeditated murder is the oldest of crimes because people have killed each other since the very first existence of human beings.
McKnight et al have determined the following sociological characteristics as a result of the study conducted on 100 people convicted of murder and 28 convicted of inflicting injury. [1]:
a. In almost 50% of the incidents, murder takes place within the family.   

b. The age groups where premeditated murder is most often committed is generally between 30 and 35.

c. Murder rates increase in spring and autumn.  

d. Most murders take place in or around the residential area of the perpetrator or the victim.     

e. Generally, firearms are used in murders. 

f. Most of the perpetrators did not intend to run away after their act. 

Wolfgang alternatively put forth the relationship between murder and age and gender, and declared this as a common rule. According to this rule, the typical murderer is a person in their twenties and kills an older person. The post-adolescence period (in the twenties and early thirties) are considered to be the ages with the highest rate of premeditated murder rates, and despite some special cases, the incidence of murder is very low for ages below 14 and above 40. Although the relationship with murdering reason is very small, the results of the study are shown as below:

a. Crime is an observable and predictable behaviour besides the fact that it is not generally planned.

b. An increase in premeditated murder is observed in the summer, but there is no relationship between these rates and the seasons and months. 

c. There is a certain relationship between murder and the days of a week, and hours of the day. Murder rates increase on weekends, especially Saturday nights between 8 PM and 2 AM. 

d. Murders are usually committed as a result of anger, family quarrels, jealousy, money and robbery. 

e. In almost a quarter of incidents, a single action of the victim speeds up the murder.  

f. In cases where the perpetrator or the victim is female, the incident has a personal trait; there usually is a close and long-term relationship between the parties.  

g. The rate of suicide after the murder is six times higher in the UK than in the USA.

Wolfgang emphasized that rates of murder for members of the lower socio-economic groups are higher and links this to economical factors, that murders were usually committed outside the home, that the place of the incident changes according to the gender - for example while men usually get murdered and kill in the streets, women get murdered in the bedroom or the bathroom and kill in the kitchen, and they usually use poison or cutting tools as tools of murder[2].

According to the research conducted by the General Directorate of Security in 81 cities, the following list is given in order as for the reasons why Turkish people commit murder[3]:                      

1. Matters related to honour/virtue,

2. Grudge,

3. Debt/Business problems,

4. Sudden anger,

5. Alcohol effects,

6. Conflicts within the family,

7. Love affairs

8. Hostility between families,

9. Hostility between individuals.

Murders are sometimes committed as serial murders. The first known perpetrator of a serial murder was the Countess Elizabeth Bathory who lived in Wallachia (Romania) in 1560; this woman killed 650 young girls she called from villages and there was a blood bath for many years. The most famous perpetrator of serial murders is Jack the Ripper, whose real identity is unknown, who spread horror in the streets of London and is thought to have killed 14 women, six of which were prostitutes. The record breaker in serial murders is an Indian named Behram who strangled 931 people with a piece of white and yellow cloth in the Uttar Pradesh region between 1790 and 1840[4].                                                  

According to FDI experts specialised in serial murders, the following criteria must be available for a murderer to be accepted as a serial killer[5]:                                                                                                         

1.  Regular people who can continue with the daily life (for example, murders by a mentally ill person are not accepted as serial)              

2.  To have committed at least three (some say five) murders with the same method, weapon and similar ritual.                                             

3.  To have chosen the victims from people not known to the killer                                          

4.  Generally subject to rape or maltreatment in childhood                                                      

According to research carried out by the General Directorate of Security on hundreds of files collected from 81 cities about serial murders, the common characteristics of serial killers are as below[6]:          

1. They have innocent faces; they work in businesses and are accepted by society                       

2. The relatives or close friends of most serial killers claim “I never believe he has murdered someone”                                                                                

3. They have conservative characteristics                                                                               

4. They are heterosexual                                                                                                                

5. They like to keep belongings of the victims                                                                                 

6. They usually pick the victims among women, children and homosexuals            

The breadth of the actual scope of intentional murders is a matter to be discussed by criminology. It is hard to determine the number of real crimes from such research. Therefore, it is difficult to come up with accurate estimations. The international variability of comparative numbers on intentional murders is high. In the last 25 years, intentional murders have increased by 33% in Germany and by 60% in the USA. According to a comparison of frequency values obtained from police records on murders, murders are eight times more frequent in the USA than in Germany. In Japan, the number of murders recorded by the police halved between 1957 (2,625) and 1989 (1308), with 90% of those convicted of muder coming from the lower social classes. These findings put forth the acceptance of a “sub-culture of violence” in the socialization and cultural conflict ground[7].                                                                                                                  In the UK, 40% of those arrested on suspicion of murder committed suicide after committing the murder. The results of an earlier study in Germany are interesting[8].

 
 Suicide after Murder and Act
 
Year
 Number of Murders
 Suicides of Perpetrators
 Rate
 
1927
 322
 113
 35.1
 
1928
 298
 111
 37.2
 
1929
 260
 91
 35.0
 
1930
 295
 97
 32.9
 
1931
 316
 95
 30.1
 

In the areas covered by the civilian police in Turkey (most of the country), a total of 1,691 murders were committed in 1997, with the perpetrator known in 1,465 of these cases, and 226 having an unknown perpetrator. In 1998, there were 1,693 murders, of which 1,472 were committed by known perpetrators and 221 by unknown perpetrators[9].

 *Prof. Dr. Timur Demirbas, Criminology, Seckin Publishing, 2nd Edition, Ankara 2005, pg. 212

[1]     Icli, 128.

[2]     Icli, 129 vd.

[3]     Hurriyet (Newspaper), 2.3.2001.

[4]     Hurriyet Sunday (Newspaper), 18.2.2001.

[5]     Hurriyet (Newspaper), 2.3.2001.

[6]     Hurriyet (Newspaper), 2.3.2001.

[7]     Kaiser, 421 vd.

[8]     Hentig, II, 375.

[9]     Public Security Incidents, 5.