Excellent, well-researched piece over at Not Saussure on murder rates and the death penalty. Most definitely worth reading.
On a side note, I liked the intro to the essay: ‘It being almost Christmas, one’s thoughts naturally turn to homicide.’ [Emphasis mine]
December 19th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
I rememember from my days as a local journalist that most murders happened over bank holidays, so it doesn’t surprise me, all those expectations, too much booze, family rows, etc, etc.
December 21st, 2006 at 11:52 am
Ellee, you have it right: high expectations + booze + rows, a lethal cocktail if ever there was any.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:34 pm
Belated thanks for the link, Bel. I agree about the booze; I once worked for a housing association and we used to dread returning from bank holidays, because knew we’d return to no end requests for emergency rehousing, either because a couple had had a drunken fight or because neighbours had (particularly bad over August Bank Holiday, with everyone sitting in their gardens enjoying the weather and drinking beer, and then someone asks the next door neighbour to turn his music down).
I now work in the criminal justice system, where we deal with no end of perfectly normal young men who’ve gone for a night out with their mates, ended up getting into a drunken brawl over something pointless (and behaved completely out of character) and find themselves facing Section 18 GBH with intent.
What they don’t realise it that — particularly if they’re in the habit of carrying a knife ‘to defend myself’ that it’s frequently more by luck and the surgeon’s skill than by anything else that they’re not there on a murder charge.