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Felony Murder Doctrine

Assassination
Child murder
Consensual homicide
Contract killing
Felony murder
Honour killing
Human sacrifice
Lust murder
Lynching
Mass murder
Murder-suicide
Proxy murder
Ritual murder
Serial killer
Spree killer
Torture murder

Manslaughter

in English law
Negligent homicide
Vehicular homicide

Non-criminal homicide

Justifiable homicide
Capital punishment

Other types of homicide

Avunculicide
Deicide
Democide
Familicide
Femicide
Filicide
Fratricide
Gendercide
Genocide
Infanticide
Mariticide
Matricide
Neonaticide
Parricide
Patricide
Regicide
Sororicide
Suicide
Tyrannicide
Uxoricide
Vivicide

"Homicide" status disputed

Abortion
Feticide
Prolicide

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The felony murder rule is a legal doctrine current in some common law countries that broadens the crime of murder in two ways. First, when a victim dies accidentally or without specific intent in the course of an applicable felony, it increases what might have been manslaughter (or even a simple tort) to murder. Second, it makes any participant in such a felony criminally responsible for any deaths that occur during or in furtherance of that felony. While there is some debate about the original scope of the rule, modern interpretations typically require that the felony be an obviously dangerous one, or one committed in an obviously dangerous manner. For this reason, the felony murder rule is often justified by its supporters as a means of deterring dangerous felonies.

According to most commentators, the common law rule dates to the twelfth century and took its modern form in the eighteenth century[citation needed]. Because the rule requires no intent to kill, or even to do bodily harm, it has been criticized as unjust[citation needed]. Accordingly, it was abolished in the United Kingdom in 1957 by the Homicide Act of 1957. In some jurisdictions (such as Victoria, Australia), the common law felony-murder rule has been abolished but replaced by a similar statutory provision. [1]

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