The Will to Kill : Making Sense of Senseless Murder

This brief but comprehensive book explores power and control as a central and unifying thesis for understanding why people kill. Each chapter explores different sub-types of homicide and the circumstances in which people kill each other. The authors concentrate on the extraordinary and seemingly inexplicable cases with the belief that the lessons learned from examining senseless and outrageous murders can be extrapolated to more ordinary homicides as well.

World-renowned experts Fox, Levin, and Quinet explore the general theory of power and control as a central and unifying thesis for understanding why people kill.

Each chapter explores a different sub-type of homicide and the circumstances in which people kill each other. Case studies in each chapter use recent well-known examples that are relevant to public policy. The authors discuss how politicians use high-profile cases to change the criminal law or to secure funding for programs and policies to reduce violence, and how these high-profile cases shape public opinion about homicide.

The Will to Kill, Second Edition, includes three new chapters:

• Chapter 8, “Medical Murder,” examines homicides committed within health care settings.
• Chapter 11, “Murderous Terror,” includes the tragic events of September 11th, 2001 and discusses issues of homegrown forms of terrorism.
• Chapter 13, “Catching Killers,” reviews a wide variety of investigative approaches, especially DNA testing and behavioral profiling.