To think murdering your wife is not a ‘crime of passion’ ?

[cheminotte]

There’s a big issue with how domestic violence murders are reported by the press. Often the focus is on the murderer and how he ‘snapped’ , minimising the crime. Also victim blaming, as if getting murdered can ever be the victim’s fault.

Article here

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/08/husband-murdered-media-melanie-clark-domestic-violence-deaths

There’s a link to a petition in it to change the journalist’s code.

It's disgusting and all too common. Male violence is an epidemic.

It was a legal defence in many countries in the relatively recent past so has entered common parlance. Is legally meaningless in the U.K. now and a lazy journalistic habit, so yes, it should be dropped.

Thanks to everyone who is signing

Perpetrators are often viewed as 'nice' guys, but are often controlling or abusive.

Yep. And it’s no coincidence that the sentence ‘I’m a nice guy’ usually means ‘I’m bitter, controlling, and think I’m entitled to women.’

Here’s a link to the petition
act.welevelup.org/campaigns/54

As a paramedic both the domestic violence murders I've been to (one male on female, one female on male for balance!) have had a degree of premeditation, in one case driving to the location with the intention of killing, and waking away from the arguement into another room only to come back with a weapon and attack in the other. Both cases had long history of abuse/known to police.

Wasn't this a huge issue historically with the defence of provocation/loss of control in murder cases? Controlling men would 'snap' and kill their partners with their bare hands because they were bigger and stronger, so could physically do it. The defence was open to them as they could say they lost control after being provoked. Women who had been persistently abused would 'snap' as a result of that abuse and would go to the kitchen for a knife, but because the killing wasn't immediate (I think the language was that it needed to be a 'sudden loss of control' or something similar?) and the act of going to get a weapon was classed as premeditation they were given life sentences.

(Not saying that was necessarily what happened in your cases Cyw but what you said struck a chord)

This is all about the defence raised in court
The defendant will stand up and try show what a nice chap he is pushed to the limit by a demanding wife.
That is what reporters report.
It's down to prosecutors to show how he had been a violent control freak over years.
The press then pick up on the tale, which I found to be a cautionary one, that you could never trust what goes on behind closed doors

'' But most crimes of passion are actually a crime''

From a TV episode but its true! You can't sugar coat things like this. Still murder however you try and address it.

ALL

Totally agree OP, the standard comments from neighbours saying “he seemed like such a niceness guy, they were happy, something must have happened...” imply that she did something wrong that made him kill her.

I’m also uneasy about this new type of reporting when men murder women during sex, and it’s described as a sex game gone wrong. If a man has strangled or beaten a woman to death during sex, is it not more reasonable to assume he raped and murdered her, than to assume she was happily consenting to have the life almost chocked out of her or almost be beaten to death, and he just accidentally went too far?

*choked

In France journalists use “crime of passion” a lot, and I just HATE this expression. It minimizes a disgusting violent crime, and excuses the vile bully who committed it!

Ditto to “honour killing” There is nothing honorable about killing your daughter or sister because you disagree with her life choices!

The point is that journalists choose what they report and the angle. So it’s agreed how suicide is reported to avoid glamourising it.

11,000 signatures so far. Please keep signing!