Murder is redrum backwards

MrDr's yogurt is a Culture of Death
or
vomiting bloody rum

How prevalent is murder in the world? If the tv is any indication, it happens all the time, and one might even say it defines reality for the rest of us, with crime shows like csi and law and order and the sopranos and monk and on and on (and ON). For some of us, it's ad nauseum.

Murder, defined, is the unlawful killing of a human being. You might be tempted to say meat is murder, and it is (unless you're eating carrion), but it's (usually) not human meat. Also, you might want to say (unnatural) abortions are murder, but they are often legally allowed. Finally, you might want to say capital punishment, casualties of war, or preventable death (such as starvation) is murder. Keep in mind, war is only unlawful for the other side.

What is murder, really? Legally speaking, murder can be first degree, second degree, or third degree. It can also be capital murder, and be confused with homicide or manslaughter, which can be negligent or nonnegligent.

MURDER, FIRST DEGREE - In order for someone to be found guilty of first degree murder the government must prove a)that the person killed another person; b)the person killed the other person with malice aforethought; and c)the killing was premeditated. To kill with malice aforethought means to kill either deliberately and intentionally or recklessly with extreme disregard for human life. Premeditation means with planning or deliberation. The amount of time needed for premeditation of a killing depends on the person and the circumstances. It must be long enough, after forming the intent to kill, for the killer to have been fully conscious of the intent and to have considered the killing.First-degree murder in California includes a killing that is "willful, deliberate, and premeditated," or that is committed in the perpetration, or in an attempt to perpetrate, certain felonies, including burglary, and not including the petty offense of shoplifting. Cal. Penal Code S 189.

MURDER, SECOND DEGREE - In order for someone to be found guilty of second degree murder the government must prove that the person killed another person; the person killed the other person with malice aforethought; and the killing was premeditated. Note that the elements are identical with those for 1st degree murder. The practical difference is the sentences are different. Which crime to charge is usually entirely up to the prosecutors discretion.

California doesn't have a third degree category.

In general, it's The unlawful killing of another human being without justification or excuse.
1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder
2.http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/murder

Capital murder is a murder for which the punishment must be death. The death penalty is permitted for federal crimes like murder, treason, and espionage. It is infrequently sought, and even less likely to be imposed. In most places that practice capital punishment today, the death penalty is reserved as punishment for premeditated murder, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. In some countries sexual crimes, such as rape, adultery and sodomy, carry the death penalty, as do religious crimes such as apostasy (the formal renunciation of one's religion). In many retentionist countries (countries that use the death penalty), drug trafficking is also a capital offense. In China human trafficking and serious cases of corruption are also punished by the death penalty. In militaries around the world courts-martial have imposed death sentences for offenses such as cowardice, desertion, insubordination, and mutiny.

Homicide is the broader category of a person killing a person, whether lawful or not, whether murder or manslaughter.
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/homicide

Manslaughter is:

MANSLAUGHTER - The unlawful killing of a human being without malice or premeditation, either express or implied; distinguished from murder, which requires malicious intent.The distinctions between manslaughter and murder, consists in the following: In the former, though the act which occasions the death be unlawful, or likely to be attended with bodily mischief, yet the malice, either express or implied, which is the very essence of murder, is presumed to be wanting in manslaughter.It also differs from murder in this, that there can be no accessories before the fact, there having been no time for premeditation. Manslaughter is voluntary, when it happens upon a sudden heat; or involuntary, when it takes place in the commission of some unlawful act. The cases of manslaughter may be classed as follows those which take place in consequence of: 1. Provocation. 2. Mutual combat. 3. Resistance to public officers, etc. 4. Killing in the prosecution of an unlawful or wanton act. 5. Killing in the prosecution of a lawful act, improperly performed, or performed without lawful authority. The provocation which reduces the killing from murder to manslaughter is an answer to the presumption of malice which the law raises in every case of homicide; it is therefore no answer when express malice is proved and to be available the provocation must have been reasonable and recent, for no words or slight provocation will be sufficient, and if the party has had time to cool, malice will be inferred. In cases of mutual combat, it is generally manslaughter only when one of the parties is killed. When death ensues from duelling the rule is different, and such killing is murder.The killing of an officer by resistance to him while acting under lawful authority is murder; but if the officer be acting under a void or illegal authority, or out of his jurisdiction, the killing is manslaughter, or excusable homicide, according to the circumstances of the case.Killing a person while doing an act of mere wantonness, is manslaughter as, if a person throws down stones in a coal-pit, by which a man is killed, although the offender was only a trespasser.When death ensues from the performance of a lawful act, it may, in consequence of the negligence of the offender, amount to manslaughter. For instance, if the death has been occasioned by negligent driving. Again, when death ensues, from the gross negligence of a medical or surgical practitioner, it is manslaughter.

So, back to my original point. How prevalent is murder? Actually, let's say there is no law, and therefore no parsing of distinction between legal murder and illegal murder, which can vary between state and country and territory and, presumably, culture. How many killings take place? In other words, how many people die before their time (despite the fatalism of the saying "I'll go when my number's up").

To go with the Police song, Murder by Numbers, here are some stats on Abortion, Capital punishment, War, and Medical causes of death (largely preventable):

Abortion: There are about 3,700 abortions every DAY in the US. That equates to 1.37M per year. Worldwide, there are approximately 46M per year. (Only 1% of all abortions occur because of rape or incest. 6% occurs because of potential health problems regarding either the mother or child. 93% of all abortions, performed in the US, are for social reasons).

Capital Punishment: In 2006, the U.S. executed 53 inmates. Factoid: As many as 10% of U.S. death-row inmates suffer from mental retardation. In part because of DNA, the pace of death row exonerations is quickening, and reports of sleeping lawyers, crooked cops and forced confessions have convinced even some long-time death penalty supporters to look at recalibrating the scales of justice to fix or even abandon the system. In any case, Worldwide, in 2006, executions are known to have been carried out in the following 25 countries: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, North Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Uganda, the United States of America, Vietnam, and Yemen. In that year also, 91% of all known executions took place in six countries: China (1010, at least; some sources say between 7500-8000), Iran (177), Pakistan (82), Iraq(65, at least), Sudan (65, at least), and U.S. (53). That puts the (official) tally at about 1600 (for 2006).

War: How many people are dying per year from war around the world? War is just stupid and illogical, in my opinion, and it should be totally outlawed, as should militaries (except maybe an international force to enforce the anti-war law). I don't know, but I found this:
1.http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstats.htm
and this:
2.http://www.openmarket.org/2007/09/10/poor-people-die-in-agony-because-of-war-on-drugs/
and this:
3.Wikipedia lists 30 current and ongoing wars, with Iraq and Afghanistan the most recent major (defined as 1k battlefield deaths/year) wars, both involving the U.S.

The wars, and the death counts, are: Iraq (151k since it started in '03), Afghanistan (17-27k since '01), Sri Lankan civil war (70k since '83), and Ogaden, Ethiopia (~1500 since '07) are the top four. The others, chronologically, are the 2nd Tuareg rebellion in Niger and Mali (56 since '07), The Mexican drug war (2700 since '06), Chad (~1400 since '05), Thailand (~2500 since '04), Waziristan Pakistan (~2600-7100 since '04), Darfur Sudan (200-400k since '03), Saudi Arabia (273 since '03), 2nd Chechen war in N. Caucasus (28-113k since '99), Somali civil war (300-400k since '88), 2nd Ugandan civil war (~12k since '87), Peru (~70k since '80), Laos (2-3k since '75), Phillippines (160k estimated since '69), Burma (7k+ since '48). The ones I omitted had no body counts. These were Balochistan Pakistan since '04, Algeria since '02, Nagaland India since '93, Nigeria since '92, Senegal since '90, Kashmir since '89, New Guinea (the Papua) since '84, Turkey since '84, Palestine-Israel since '67, and Columbia since '64.

Disease: Medically, people are dying from preventable diseases.
Tobacco: In the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2008, the World Health Organization finds that tobacco use already kills 5.4 million people a year and the epidemic is worsening, especially in the developing world where more than 80 percent of tobacco-caused deaths will occur in the coming decades. Unless urgent action is taken, one billion people will die worldwide from tobacco use this century. Tobacco use is so devastating to the human body that it is a risk factor for six of the eight leading causes of death in the world.

What are the leading causes of death? Well, in the U.S. it's different than the R.O.W. (rest of world). In 2004, for the U.S. leading causes of death, and their tolls, were as follows:
1.Heart disease: 652,486
2.Cancer: 553,888
3.Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 150,074
4.Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 121,987
5.Accidents (unintentional injuries): 112,012
6.Diabetes: 73,138
7.Alzheimer's disease: 65,965
8.Influenza/Pneumonia: 59,664
9.Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 42,480
10.Septicemia: 33,373
Source: Deaths: Final Data for 2004, Table C

However, these 10 causes of death deserve an inclusion of an 11th. (This list goes to eleven!) http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/01/02/medical-mistakes-part-three.aspx
This article, if however biased toward selling codliver oil, says doctors are the third leading cause of death in the U.S. (250k people/yr). Evidence from a few studies indicates that as many as 20% to 30% of patients receive inappropriate care. One study says an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 among them die each year as a result of medical errors. A Pravda headline says 'up to 90,000 patients die in US hospitals every year because of medical malpractice', and estimates about the same number for Russia.

Here's one quoted study's breakdown, for the U.S.:
12,000 (deaths): unnecessary surgery
7,000: medication errors in hospitals
20,000: other errors in hospitals
80,000: infections in hospitals
106,000: non-error, negative effects of drugs
These total to 225,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes. Iatrogenic means induced in a patient by a physician's activity, manner, or therapy. The word is used especially of a complication of treatment.

Here's the global mortality stats (including the U.S.): (I don't think the 6 of 8 stat is accurate any longer, though). The 9 leading causes of death, worldwide, are: 1)ischaemic heart disease (7,208m or 12.6% of total), 2)cerebrovascular disease, 3)lower respiratory infections, 4)HIV/AIDS, 5)chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 6) diarrheal disease, 7) TB, 8)malaria, and 9)cancer of the trachea, bronchii, or lungs. This website, with the chart, came out today, and it's no joke (happy april fool's by the way):
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0779147.html

But, back to murder, which got me started on this crazy gig, how many murders take place?
I found this list of highest ranking countries for acquittals:
1.http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_acq_percap-crime-acquitted-per-capita
and
2.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_murder_rate#2000s
You could get a rough answer to my question of the world's most recent murder rate by applying the percentages of each country to each country's population, but that would take some grueling doing. So I guess we're on our own. Plus, the graph of the top scoring nation's homicide rates comes with this caveat: DEFINITION: Total recorded intentional homicides, completed. Crime statistics are often better indicators of prevalence of law enforcement and willingness to report crime, than actual prevalence.

3.In the U.S., however, I found these statistics for the year 2004. "In 2004, there were 16,137 cases of murder or nonnegligent manslaughter in the United States. 62.6% of homicides were “cleared,” leaving a substantial portion of murder cases unresolved. Of course, they might not always get the right man, when they DO clear. In any case, the FBI’s official site says a crime is cleared when either an arrest is made or “elements beyond the control of law enforcement prevent the agency from arresting and formally charging the offender, by exceptional means.” We assume this refers to rare cases when, for example, suspects die before they can be charged. Because 37.4% of these cases went uncleared, around 6,035 people can be said to have "gotten away with murder” that year. Of course, this assumes each offender murdered only one person, which very likely isn’t true, but seeing as the cases are unsolved, this is a good guess.

In 2005, there were 16,912 murders in the U.S. This is ~20 times as many murders in the US in 2005 as there were US soldiers lost in the War in Iraq that year (846 in '05). Of course, there were 2,000 times as many Americans in America than there were in Iraq. So the death rate among soldiers in Iraq was therefore 100 times the murder rate among civilians.

The stats are all at: http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/

Okay, so this site has different numbers than what I just quoted. 2005 has 16,740 murders, for example. 2004 has 16,148. 2006 swung up to 17,034. 2003 had 16,528 murders. There were 16,229 in '02, 16,037 in '01, and 15,586 in 2000. I wonder if '01 includes the WTC. I would guess not. 2,996 people died that day, probably, from the attacks (not including the hijackers). I wonder how they were classified, if not murders.

The list of victims, by name, is at:
http://www.september11victims.com/september11victims/victims_list.htm

There's a joke going round on the internet, as of I don't know when, that says "There has been a monthly average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2112 deaths. That gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers. The fdr in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000 persons for the same period. Thus, you are 25% more likely to be shot and killed in the U.S. capital than in Iraq. Conclusion: the U.S. should pull out of Washington."

"One of the more interesting things I learned in this charming movie is that Canada has a violent crime rate almost twice that of the United States. I was rather startled so I started checking some statistics and it's basically correct. Canada's murder rate is lower than America's, but its total violent crime rate is damn near twice as high as ours. Fascinating."-some guy named Dean.

New Orleans is hell. "As the year comes to a bloody close, it seems that New Orleans is nearing the tipping point where it may become so violent that it is no longer livable at all. Certainly, the current murder rate is so high and the city's population so low (around 250,000, well below pre- Katrina population of about 500,000) that a significant chunk of the city is already simply being killed off." To read more, go to: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/nov/06/usa

Think global, act local.

Taxes amounting to just 1% of world GDP would raise over $400 billion per year. Such a sum would meet many urgent needs while placing a very modest burden on the world's richest consumers.