Editing Homicide (section)

== By state actors ==

Homicides committed by [[State (polity)|state actors]] may be considered lawful or unlawful according to:
* [[Municipal law]]
* [[International law]] to which the state has agreed to via treaty
* [[Peremptory norm]]s which are ''de facto '' enforced as obligatory on all states, such as prohibitions against [[genocide]], [[piracy]] and [[slavery]]

Types of state killings include:
* [[Capital punishment]], where a judicial system of a state authorizes the death penalty as punishments for certain crime, though many countries have [[Capital punishment by country|abolished it completely]]
* Lawful killings during [[war]], such as the killing of [[enemy combatant]]s
* Lawful use of [[deadly force]] by [[security forces]] (such as [[law enforcement officer]]s or [[military personnel]]) to maintain public safety in emergency situations
* [[Extrajudicial killing]]s, where state actors kill people (typically individuals or small groups) without judicial court proceedings
* [[War crime]]s that involve killing (war crimes not authorized by the state may also be committed by individuals who are then subject to domestic [[military justice]])
* Widespread, systematic killing of a particular group of people by the state, which depending on the target, could be called genocide, [[politicide]] or [[classicide]]. In some cases these events may also meet the definition of a [[crime against humanity]].

The term [[mass killing]] has been proposed by [[Genocide studies|genocide scholars]] as a concept to define certain large-scale killings of [[non-combatant]]s by state actors. Some medium- and large-scale mass killings by state actors have been termed [[massacre]]s, though not all such killings have been so named. The term "[[democide]]" was coined by American political scientist [[Rudolph Rummel]] to describe "murder by government" in general, which included both extrajudicial killings and widespread systematic acts of homicide. Killings committed by state actors might be called "murder" or "mass murder" in general usage, especially if seen by the commentator as unethical, but the domestic legal definitions of murder, manslaughter, etc., usually exclude killings carried out by lawful government action.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Esteban|first1=Joan Maria|last2=Morelli|first2=Massimo|last3=Rohner|first3=Dominic|date=October 2015|title=Strategic Mass Killings|location=Chicago, Illinois|publisher=University of Chicago Press|journal=Journal of Political Economy|volume=123|issue=5|pages=1087–1132|doi=10.1086/682584|s2cid=154859371}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Schaak|first=Beth|year=2007|chapter=The Crime of Political Genocide: Repairing the Genocide Convention's Blind Spot|editor-last1=Campbell|editor-first1=Tom|editor-last2=Lattimer|editor-first2=Mark|title=Genocide and Human Rights|edition=1st eBook|location=London, England|publisher=Routledge|pages=140–173|doi=10.4324/9781351157568|isbn=978-1-351-15756-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Schabas|first=William A.|year=2009|title=Genocide in International Law: The Crime of Crimes|edition=2nd hardcover|location=Cambridge, England|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-71900-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Sémelin|first=Jacques|collaboration=Hoffman, Stanley|year=2007|chapter=The Political Uses of Massacre and Genocide|title=Purify and Destroy: The Political Uses of Massacre and Genocide|series=The CERI Series in Comparative Politics and International Studies|translator-last=Schoch|translator-first=Cynthia|location=New York City, New York|publisher=Columbia University Press|pages=310–361|isbn=978-0-231-14282-3}}</ref>

[[Dartmouth College]] professor [[Benjamin Valentino]] outlines two major categories of mass killings: dispossessive mass killing and coercive mass killing. The first category includes four subcategories: communist, fascist, ethnic and territorial mass killings, while second category includes [[counterinsurgency]], [[Terrorism|terrorist]] and [[Imperialism|imperialist]] mass killings. Valentino included several prominent examples of dispossessive mass killing to include his arguments, including the [[Holodomor]], [[Great Leap Forward]] and [[Cambodian genocide]] for communist mass killings, the [[White Terror (Spain)|White Terror]], [[the Holocaust]] and [[Dirty War]] for fascist mass killings, the [[Armenian genocide|Armenian]] and [[Rwandan genocide]]s for ethnic mass killings and the [[American Indian Wars]] and [[Herero and Nama genocide]] for territorial mass killings. He also included examples of coercive mass killings, including counterinsurgency killings during the [[Algerian War]] and [[Soviet–Afghan War]], terrorist mass killings such as [[strategic bombing during World War II]] and the [[blockade of Biafra]], and [[German-occupied Europe|German]] and [[Japanese colonial empire|Japanese imperialism]] during [[World War II]] as examples of imperialist mass killings.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Valentino |first1=Benjamin |year=2004 |title=Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century |edition=hardback |location=Ithaca, New York |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-801-43965-0 |oclc=53013098}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bach-Lindsday |first1=Dylan |last2=Huth |first2=Paul |last3=Valentino |first3=Benjamin |date=May 2004 |title=Draining the Sea: Mass Killing and Guerrilla Warfare |journal=International Organization |location=Cambridge, England |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=375–407 |doi=10.1017/S0020818304582061 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |jstor=3877862 |s2cid=154296897}}</ref><ref>Mark Aarons (2007). "[https://books.google.com/books?id=dg0hWswKgTIC&pg=PA69 Justice Betrayed: Post-1945 Responses to Genocide] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216004518/https://books.google.com/books?id=dg0hWswKgTIC&lpg=PA80&pg=PA69 |date=16 December 2018 }}." In David A. Blumenthal and Timothy L. H. McCormack (eds). ''[http://www.brill.com/legacy-nuremberg-civilising-influence-or-institutionalised-vengeance The Legacy of Nuremberg: Civilising Influence or Institutionalised Vengeance? (International Humanitarian Law).] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105053952/http://www.brill.com/legacy-nuremberg-civilising-influence-or-institutionalised-vengeance |date=5 January 2016 }}'' [[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]]. {{ISBN|9004156917}} pp.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=dg0hWswKgTIC&pg=PA81 80–81] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170424002351/https://books.google.com/books?id=dg0hWswKgTIC&pg=PA81 |date=24 April 2017 }}.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bevins |first1=Vincent|authorlink=Vincent Bevins |title= [[The Jakarta Method|The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World]]|date=2020 |publisher= [[PublicAffairs]]|pages=238–243 |isbn= 978-1541742406}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=McSherry|first1=J. Patrice|author-link1= J. Patrice McSherry|editor1=Esparza, Marcia |editor2=Henry R. Huttenbach|editor3=Daniel Feierstein|title=State Violence and Genocide in Latin America: The Cold War Years (Critical Terrorism Studies)|chapter=Chapter 5: "Industrial repression" and Operation Condor in Latin America |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=acGNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA107 107]|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2011|isbn=978-0415664578|chapter-url=https://www.routledge.com/State-Violence-and-Genocide-in-Latin-America-The-Cold-War-Years/Esparza-Huttenbach-Feierstein/p/book/9780415496377}}</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/magazine/the-secrets-in-guatemalas-bones.html?_r=1 The Secrets in Guatemala's Bones] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180203002909/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/magazine/the-secrets-in-guatemalas-bones.html?_r=1 |date=3 February 2018 }}. ''[[The New York Times]].'' June 30, 2016.</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Maslin|first=Sarah Esther|date=December 13, 2016|title=Remembering El Mozote, the Worst Massacre in Modern Latin American History|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/remembering-el-mozote-the-worst-massacre-in-modern-latin-american-history/|work=[[The Nation]]|access-date=January 23, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921142205/https://www.thenation.com/article/remembering-el-mozote-the-worst-massacre-in-modern-latin-american-history/|archive-date=21 September 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Davis |first=Mike|date=2017 |title=Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World|publisher=Verso|page=[https://archive.org/details/latevictorianhol00dav_wbr/page/9 9]|isbn=978-1784786625|author-link=Mike Davis (scholar)|title-link=Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Hochschild|first=Adam|date=1999 |title=King Leopold's Ghost|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|isbn=978-0618001903|author-link=Adam Hochschild|title-link=King Leopold's Ghost}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/maos-great-leap-forward-killed-45-million-in-four-years-2081630.html |title=Mao's Great Leap Forward 'killed 45 million in four years' |last=Akbar |first=Arifa |date=17 September 2010 |access-date=20 September 2010 |location=London |work=The Independent |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101029150409/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/maos-great-leap-forward-killed-45-million-in-four-years-2081630.html |archive-date=29 October 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Horesh |first=Theo |date=April 30, 2017 |title=Is the Trump administration enabling genocide in Yemen? And will Americans ever pay attention? |url=https://www.salon.com/2017/04/30/is-the-trump-administration-enabling-genocide-in-yemen-and-will-americans-ever-pay-attention/ |work=Salon |access-date=October 27, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181027185823/https://www.salon.com/2017/04/30/is-the-trump-administration-enabling-genocide-in-yemen-and-will-americans-ever-pay-attention/ |archive-date=27 October 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=November 13, 2017 |title=Saudi Arabia Threatens Famine, Genocide in Yemen |url=https://therealnews.com/stories/aorkaby1113yemen |work=[[The Real News]] |access-date=October 27, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704124450/https://therealnews.com/stories/aorkaby1113yemen |archive-date=4 July 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Kristof|first=Nicholas|date=September 26, 2018|title=Be Outraged by America's Role in Yemen's Misery|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/opinion/yemen-united-states-united-nations.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=October 27, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181028062629/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/opinion/yemen-united-states-united-nations.html|archive-date=28 October 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>