Greed, Revenge, Jealousy, Fear (self-defense), To facilitate a crime, To conceal a crime and good ol' fashion psychos.
Why do people murder other people?
- Thread starter Jersay
- Start date
There was a time in our history, and interestingly a time that covers most of it, when we freely murdered one another. Sport, conquest and cheap thrills. We don't do that now because of the rule of law. Those who murder today are merely replaying what their ancestors did before laws intervened.
History- the grand human tabloid - that records our exploits on the planet is merely an addendum to our time here. When we roamed the earth for hundreds of thousands of years we did so as bands of marauders who took what we wanted and did what we pleased. Retribution? Certainly. What we do know of early native history here once the Europeans began their great adventure in North America tells us a lot of what it would have been like for much of the millennia of human activity. Many of the tribes were ruthless raiders who quite enjoyed torturing and killing their competitors/enemies.
RE: Why do people murder
I don't think all Native tribes would describe war as a way of life...otherwise they probably would have been extinct long ago. There was war, but not all the time. Probably no more war than there was between the british & the french at that time. And because there was retribution, it wasn't really "freely" killing people as you described in your previous post.
Do you think war is not a way of life for Hamas & Hezbollah (or other terrorist organizations)?
I don't think all Native tribes would describe war as a way of life...otherwise they probably would have been extinct long ago. There was war, but not all the time. Probably no more war than there was between the british & the french at that time. And because there was retribution, it wasn't really "freely" killing people as you described in your previous post.
Do you think war is not a way of life for Hamas & Hezbollah (or other terrorist organizations)?
My original point was that man for most of his history has killed indiscriminately. Like wolves staking and enforcing territory, they punished any interlopers. And looking at the Iroquois of eastern Canada regular excursions and raids against nearby tribes was normal practice. Little value was attached to human life.
One of modern society's great accomplishments is law. Without law men are little different than beasts of the outback.
One of modern society's great accomplishments is law. Without law men are little different than beasts of the outback.
RE: Why do people murder
I doubt a lot of people who kill actually think a lot about what they're doing, if they consider it at all.
I doubt a lot of people who kill actually think a lot about what they're doing, if they consider it at all.
ordinary people
Something not mentioned here, which I think is a big reason that "ordinary" people kill is that they end up in a situation that they didn't forsee and see the only way out as doing something they might not normally do. For instance, the classic story of desperate single mother. Let's call her Jane. Jane is a widow living on a low wage as an accountant, struggling to get by when one of her kids gets sick. The sickness is something not covered under insurance, say leukemia, and she has no family to turn to. She raises money at her church and through local charities, but is not able to come up with what she needs to save her child, meanwhile the clock on her child's life is ticking. A co-worker suggests that she fudges some books and takes some money at her company where she is just a number anyway. It would be so easy. Could you blame her for committing a crime unnoticeable to her company to save her child? Meanwhile, she's confided what she's done to her boyfriend. Her child is saved, but now she finds out her boyfriend has been cheating on her and she leaves him. Now she sees a side of him that she never knew as he's threatened to tell her company what she did (sleazy guy, right?) Her options:
1) Go to prison, losing her kids.
2) Stay with a guy who would likely be a negative influence on her children.
3) Have her boyfriend shipped to Antarctica (how many eskimos does Jane know willing to kidnap a man to the great yonder, though?).
4) Eliminate the problem illegally.
Another fairly well-known statistic is that when people kill, they don't do it with the intention of getting caught. If Jane was desperate and not thinking clearly, she probably falls into this category. This coupled with the idea that she had already compromised herself by fudging the books, she could see it as another compromise for her children.
I'm not saying that any of it's justified, but there are a million stories like this about why an ordinary person would commit murder. Not to mention the twisted, deranged, mentally damaged and emotionally detached people of the world with their sociopathic reasons. Do you have the show 'Law & Order' in Canada? 'Criminal Intent' is a good one for understanding the mind of a killer during the act.
Something not mentioned here, which I think is a big reason that "ordinary" people kill is that they end up in a situation that they didn't forsee and see the only way out as doing something they might not normally do. For instance, the classic story of desperate single mother. Let's call her Jane. Jane is a widow living on a low wage as an accountant, struggling to get by when one of her kids gets sick. The sickness is something not covered under insurance, say leukemia, and she has no family to turn to. She raises money at her church and through local charities, but is not able to come up with what she needs to save her child, meanwhile the clock on her child's life is ticking. A co-worker suggests that she fudges some books and takes some money at her company where she is just a number anyway. It would be so easy. Could you blame her for committing a crime unnoticeable to her company to save her child? Meanwhile, she's confided what she's done to her boyfriend. Her child is saved, but now she finds out her boyfriend has been cheating on her and she leaves him. Now she sees a side of him that she never knew as he's threatened to tell her company what she did (sleazy guy, right?) Her options:
1) Go to prison, losing her kids.
2) Stay with a guy who would likely be a negative influence on her children.
3) Have her boyfriend shipped to Antarctica (how many eskimos does Jane know willing to kidnap a man to the great yonder, though?).
4) Eliminate the problem illegally.
Another fairly well-known statistic is that when people kill, they don't do it with the intention of getting caught. If Jane was desperate and not thinking clearly, she probably falls into this category. This coupled with the idea that she had already compromised herself by fudging the books, she could see it as another compromise for her children.
I'm not saying that any of it's justified, but there are a million stories like this about why an ordinary person would commit murder. Not to mention the twisted, deranged, mentally damaged and emotionally detached people of the world with their sociopathic reasons. Do you have the show 'Law & Order' in Canada? 'Criminal Intent' is a good one for understanding the mind of a killer during the act.
Wow I need to watch more TV.
I dont know anyone that was murdered. I cant say Ive ever really wanted to murder someone. But as so many here have said I think every murder has their own reasons. Passion, anger, greed, desperation, control, and on and on. Maybe its a fault in our DNA or something.
I dont know anyone that was murdered. I cant say Ive ever really wanted to murder someone. But as so many here have said I think every murder has their own reasons. Passion, anger, greed, desperation, control, and on and on. Maybe its a fault in our DNA or something.
Sorry about your friend. People kill for lots of reasons. The main one is because people are animals and in general are evil.
People kill for money, and power. People kill out of jelousy and rage. People kill others to keep from getting killed. People kill others because they think they are fighting for the right thing (ie wars), people kill to keep from getting put in jail ( sounds like what happened to your friend). People kill because they like it (these are what we call psycho's), People kill over objects, and people kill others who have brought harm to them in one way or another. There are millions more reasons people kill. The world sucks.
To me killing is killing. For me there is no difference in killing a person because of war or killing a person for money. I don't know how people do either.
Their was an interesting comment made on law and order last week that struck me odd. It was on Friday night about a guy who murdered another murderer. This man when into a school house and killed 8 students ( one of which was his daughter). The prosecuter said to the jury " Sure we were seeking the death penalty and this man claims he did it for us, but he didn't do it leagally the state would do it leagally".
That comment really got to me "legal murder" *shakes head*.