Definition of Premeditated Crime
Miscellanea / / July 04, 2021
By Javier Navarro, on Feb. 2019
When one person kills another, a homicide. This action constitutes a criminal act that must be submitted to the action of the Justice. If he crime Committed is carried out in a planned and voluntary manner, such action is legally valued as a premeditated crime.
Originally, the word crime did not refer to a murder
The terms crime, homicide, and murder are commonly used synonymously. However, in their etymological sense they are different words. Crime comes from the Latin crime and it refers to any criminal action (in this sense, the verb incriminate means to accuse someone of a crime). The word homicide comes from the Latin homicidium and is formed with the prefix homo, which is the same as man, plus the root cid which in turn derives from the verb caedere, which means to kill.
Regarding the term murder, it comes from murderer and this in turn from the Arabic word hashsh ashin, which literally means "who consumes hashish" (during the crusades the murderers were members of a sect linked to
tradition Muslim and were known for their crimes against Christians under the influence of hashish).Consideration of premeditated crime aggravates legal responsibility
When an action is carried out after an analysis of its possible consequences, the Author of it you are fully aware of what you are doing. If the act carried out consists of killing someone, this logically acquires a greater relevance, since it is not the same to kill a person involuntarily than to do it intentionally.
The idea of ​​premeditation establishes the border between homicide and murder
In the field of right criminal it is pertinent to establish a clear difference between what is a homicide and what is a murder. Thus, a murder occurs when the action that caused the death of someone has been carried out in a deliberately, so there has been a previous analysis of the situation and finally the crime.
On the other hand, in homicide there is no voluntary and reflexive action, but rather the death of a person occurs accidentally (for example, by a imprudence or for a conduct irresponsible).
Premeditation in crime depends on three requirements
For the murder to be legally considered premeditated, certain requirements must be met. First of all, there has to be a long time lag between the decision to kill someone and the final execution.
Second, there must be a prior reflection on the action to be taken.
Finally, the criminal's state of mind at the time of killing someone must be assessed, since it is not the same to act coldly and consciously as to do it impulsively.
The qualification of treachery in a crime
With some frequency in the media communication they talk about crime with premeditation and treachery. In this sense, whoever kills someone with treachery is doing it treacherously and taking advantage of the defenselessness of their victim.
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