The killing of a human being by another. Some homicide may be considered lawful, as when a convicted offender is executed by the state, or excusable, as in self-defence.
Unlawful homicide is treated by almost all legal systems as a crime of extreme gravity.
Homicide is often categorized into different types, which attract different punishments. In civil law systems, all unlawful killings are usually classified as homicide, but there may be different penalties, according to the circumstances of the crime. The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology 2. Oxford University Press 3. A Dictionary of Law, Oxford University Press 4.