Homicide is when a person kills another person, whether intentional or not. It is always a crime, and there are different degrees of severity. Some homicides are justified, such as in self-defense. Others are unintentional, such as in car accidents. Others are planned and deliberate, such as murder.
The most serious type of homicide is murder, which is when a person intentionally causes someone else’s death. The degree of intent is what separates it from other types of homicide, such as manslaughter. Intent is what elevates a killing to the level of murder, and it is what makes it different from other kinds of crimes like robbery or vehicle deaths.
It is not always easy to distinguish between a suicide and a homicide, especially when the victim dies from an accident. Evidence, such as a fatal entrance wound in the head or a lack of a gunshot mark on the body can help. However, a criminal defense attorney can argue that they had no intention of killing the victim and were in the “heat of the moment.”
There are two main sources for homicide data: the CDC’s mortality rate reports and the FBI’s crime data. Both have slightly different definitions and methodologies, but they allow for direct comparisons between countries. The table below shows homicide rates in the first six months of 2025 compared to the same period last year, before the pandemic began. The vast majority of offenses have fallen, though domestic violence and drug offenses have remained even.
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