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Contract killing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Hired Assassins (Ernest Meissonier, 1852)

Contract killing, sometimes known as murder-for-hire, refers to the act in which one party employs another party to murder a targeted person via an illegal agreement that involves some form of compensation, monetary or otherwise.[1][2] An act of contract killing is known colloquially as a hit, and the person performing the killing (i.e. the contract killer or "contractor") is known as the hitman[3] or (as borrowed from Spanish) "sicario".[4]

Statistics

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Contract killings generally make up a small percentage of murders. For example, they accounted for about 6% of all murders in Scotland from 1993 to 2002.[5] Despite the popular attention in the media, the act of contract killing received very little attention in the academic literature.[6][7][8]

With contract killing, there is a party that sees contract killing as the only solution, searches for and recruits a hitman through personal networks or by approaching a professional, and then makes concrete agreements about method and payment.[6]

A study by the Australian Institute of Criminology of 162 contract murders and attempted contract murders in Australia between 1989 and 2002 indicated that the most common reason for murder-for-hire was insurance policy payouts. The study also found that payments varied from $5,000 to $30,000 per killing, with an average of $15,000, and that the most commonly used weapons were firearms. Contract killings accounted for 2% of murders in Australia during that period.[9]

To mitigate risk for the individual seeking a hitman, and signal legitimacy, vendors emphasize privacy and anonymity while claiming ties to established organizations like the military or mafia.[10]

A paper by Calhoun (2010) argues that legal execution and killing in war are not morally different from many acts called “murder,” especially considering the understanding of the third party of what they are doing. Calhoun states that common distinction between legal and illegal killing has no real moral basis.[11]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Shanty, Frank; Mishra, Patit Paban (September 24, 2007). Organized Crime: From Trafficking to Terrorism [2 volumes]. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-1-59884-102-2.
  2. ↑ Roddy, Ariel L.; Holt, Thomas J. (2022). "An Assessment of Hitmen and Contracted Violence Providers Operating Online". Deviant Behavior. 43 (2): 139–151. doi:10.1080/01639625.2020.1787763.
  3. ↑ "Hit man Definition & Meaning | Britannica Dictionary".
  4. ↑ "SICARIO definition in American English | Collins English Dictionary". February 13, 2020.
  5. ↑ "Homicide in Scotland, 2002". Government of Scotland.
  6. 1 2 De Korte, Laura R.; Kleemans, Edward R. (2022). "Contract killings: A crime script analysis". Trends in Organized Crime. 25: 130–143. doi:10.1007/s12117-021-09411-4.
  7. ↑ Cameron, Samuel (2014). "Killing for Money and the Economic Theory of Crime". Review of Social Economy. 72: 28–41. doi:10.1080/00346764.2013.845336.
  8. ↑ https://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12126Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
  9. ↑ "Lovers top contract killing hit list". CNN. February 5, 2004.
  10. ↑ Roddy, A. L., & Holt, T. J. (2022). An assessment of hitmen and contracted violence providers operating online. Deviant Behavior, 43(2), 139-151.
  11. ↑ Calhoun, L. (2002). "The Phenomenology of Paid Killing". The International Journal of Human Rights. 6: 1–18. doi:10.1080/714003752.
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