Sociological Phenomenon

Historically among most peoples the murderer has been looked upon as perhaps the most dangerous member of society, certainly not rivaled by any other offender unless it be the traitor. As discussed by most criminologists, the murderer is one who kills a fellow member of his society not by accident or negligence but with purpose or to defend himself in connection with an attempt to commit another. crime, such as robbery, or to shield himself from accusation by a person whom he has offended or abused. Therefore the term “murder” is more restricted than the term “homicide.” That is the sense in which the term is used in this paper. Did the limits of this paper permit, it would be worth while to trace in some detail the attempts of the various schools of criminology to explain the murderer. That survey, however, will have to be forgone.’

My own study of murderers was part of a larger project—a study of a sample of 486 ?