bbc: what shit headline this is 'homicide vs domestic killing'

[redcandlelight]

London homicides fall but domestic killings rise

They’re not saying that domestic killings aren’t homicides though; they’re clearly saying that they’re a small subset.
It’s like saying “total road deaths down but deaths of cyclists have increased”.

Its almost as if they're desperatly trying to avoid saying men killing women is skyrocketting compaired to murders generally, which are decreasing.

I guess it would kind of mess up the privillaged women comit horrendous crimes naritive they've been pushing.

@dyslek

Its almost as if they're desperatly trying to avoid saying men killing women is skyrocketting compaired to murders generally, which are decreasing.

I guess it would kind of mess up the privillaged women comit horrendous crimes naritive they've been pushing.

that's exactly my thought.

Actually the increase isn’t in men killing adult women, from the data given it’s in people (they don’t give the split by sex, but I think there was at least one horrendous case involving a very ill and desperate mother) killing children - if I’m reading it right the overall domestic killings are up by 4 and the child killings within that figure are up by 5.
I wonder why they didn’t lead on that interpretation? (Genuine question - I really don’t know, maybe they think it would be sensationalist)

And the Refuge spokeswoman was very clear on who’s bearing the brunt of domestic deaths.

Actually scrub that, the overall domestic killings are up by 6 not 5, so mostly but not entirely driven by the increase in child killings. I can’t do sums at this time in the morning.

Yeah, it is a shit headline - the phrasing implies that homicide and domestic killings are entirely separate things. And people tend to read 'homicide' as murder, which leads to the unfortunate side effect of the headline suggesting domestic killings aren't murder.

The article itself is clearer, but the headline alone isn't great.

Homicide vs femicide vs filicide.

These are useful terms when used appropriately.

They are, but they're not as widely known as they could be. Many people have grasped homicide=murder from American TV, but have no conception of the finer distinctions.

I agree.
But the overtones of "killing, but cosy" of "domestic" make me wish the word would fall into disuse as far as crimes are concerned.

@TyroTerf

They are, but they're not as widely known as they could be. Many people have grasped homicide=murder from American TV, but have no conception of the finer distinctions.

Those terms aren't widely used. I don't agree the headline is diminishing it or hiding it.

"Femicide" would not cover murders of children, some by their mothers. "Filicide" is far too obscure

@TyroTerf

Yeah, it is a shit headline - the phrasing implies that homicide and domestic killings are entirely separate things. And people tend to read 'homicide' as murder, which leads to the unfortunate side effect of the headline suggesting domestic killings aren't murder.

The article itself is clearer, but the headline alone isn't great.

And people tend to read 'homicide' as murder, which leads to the unfortunate side effect of the headline suggesting domestic killings aren't murder

Really? I think that's a bit of a stretch.

Homicide IMHO is an American term. They should be using the word "murder" to describe those crimes.

They can’t use “murder” because in a lot of cases it hasn’t yet been determined whether these killings are murder, manslaughter, accident or self-defence.

Homicide or killing are the only appropriate terms - the BBC made the choice not to use the same word twice in the same headline but that’s left them with a situation in which they’re using different terms which might have different implications

If they stuck the word 'overall' at the start it would be fine, because it would be understood as:

Overall murders down, but domestic murders up.

I note Barracker's comments re: "domestic" but wonder what other word could be used to mean 'within the home', given it's a headline and they're all about the brevity.

Yes that would be clearer Tyro, though you’d need to pick either “homicide” or “killing” instead of murder.

Aye, and neither's perfect, given one can be killed without anyone else being involved and not everyone knows what homicide means. But at least the addition of 'overall' makes it clear the latter deaths are a subset of the former.

I see what you mean OP. I do think it's unfortunate framing.