The term “Homicide” refers to the killing of a person by another human being. The killing may be willful or culpable, and can be classified as murder (first degree or second degree), manslaughter, justifiable homicide, assassination, killing in war, or euthanasia, among other things. The occurrence of homicide depends on many factors, including sociocultural and environmental ones. Incidence varies by country, but also within the same country by region, city, and time period.
For example, the crime trend brief on this page explores some possible explanations for the rapid increase in homicide during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and its subsequent decline. It suggests that the increase might have been a response to the police shooting of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which spurred a wave of social justice protests. However, cell phone data shows that homicide rates had already begun to rise in mid-April of 2020, long before the shooting. Furthermore, the additional increases during the 2-week period around Memorial Day and the 2 weeks leading up to July 4 were less than 40 murders above the pre-existing trend.
Criminology and criminal justice studies often focus on willful homicide, which is divided into two legal categories: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter. However, epidemiology and public health do not operate with these legal distinctions, and consider all homicides as violent deaths.