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doterobcn t1_iyai6vp wrote

Homicide is the killing of one person by another. This is a broad term that includes both legal and illegal killings. For example, a soldier may kill another soldier in battle, but that is not a crime.

The distinction between an illegal and legal killing is, therefore, the difference between murder and manslaughter.

Murder is a homicide that is the illegal killing of another person

Manslaughter is a homicide that is the unintentional killing of another person

This article has more details.

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Nub0fAllNubs t1_iyaij3a wrote

Yes, I agree but it is not about that. From what I hear homicide is not a crime. Murder/manslaughter are crimes. Because once you commit homicide, it goes down into the subcategories. Is this true?

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doterobcn t1_iyaiyzg wrote

It is about that. You are confusing the definition of a word, versus the legal charges.
Homicide is a word that means killing of another human being.
Similarly, parricide is killing a familiar (usually your parents), or regicide, and so on and so forth.
Those are words with a meaning in the dictionary.

And then you get into the category of what kind of crime.
If you commit homicide but you're a soldier in a war, it is not a crime, but if you commit homicide, voluntarily it is a murder, but it's still homicide.

You're mixing two things.

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Nub0fAllNubs t1_iyak90m wrote

I think I understand now. Homicide is the overall category but you don't get convicted for it. The other three are subcategories that you get convicted for

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CyreneDuVent t1_iyaitgw wrote

According to this site on the criminal code, culpable homicide is the crime, which can then be broken down into murder, manslaughter and infanticide, all of which fall under the crime of culpable homicide

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