Murder vs. Homcide: What’s the difference?
Your sitting there watching Fox News, and the news anchor says the cops are investigating a homicide in your neighborhood. Do you have a reason to worry and lock all the doors? I always thought that the word “homicide” was much more meanacing than the work “murder”. After all, all those cop shows have Homicide Task Forces chasing bad guys! It turns out that homicide, simply means one human being killed another human being. It doesn’t necessarily pass any judgement. For instance, a cop shooting and killing someone in self defense, would still be considered a homicide. Murder on the other hand denotes unlawful taking of a human life, coupled with premeditation. Manslaughter is taking a life without planning or premeditation, such as in a traffic accident.
Homocide seems more like a euphamism. Murder sounds cold blooded while homocide is more subtle and less manacing. Thats my take on it.
I think you got the difference perfectly right. The terms are relatively synonymous. However, the connotations are quite different.
I think Murder is about as bad as you can get. I agree that homicide actually sounds worse, but we’ve sort of become desensitized to the word murder. Interesting topic though - I hadn’t thought about it before.