Contract killing
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Contract killing is a form of assassination in which one entity hires another entity to kill a target individual or group of people. It involves a tacit, but illegal agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to kill the target in exchange for some kind of remuneration, monetary or otherwise. The hiring entity may be a single person, a group of people, a company or any other kind of organization. The hired entity may also be one person, such as a hitman, or a group of people or an organization.
Contract killing is sometimes used to commit murder.[1] In the United States, the United Kingdom and many other countries, a contract to kill a person is void, meaning that it is not a contract under the law. Any contract to commit a crime or an indictable offense is not enforced or even recognized under the law. Furthermore, both the actual killer and the person who paid the killer can be found guilty of murder. In some jurisdictions with capital punishment, a contract killing may be a special circumstance that allows for a murder to be tried as a capital crime.
In wartime and in the case of a threat to a nation's security, the government may order private military contractors, defense contractors or government agencies to complete operations that involves assassination.
In the case of military operations, the government contracts other organizations many different reasons, such as for their specialty, for convenience or for added manpower.
In the criminal world, contract killing provides the hiring party with the advantage of not having to be directly involved in the killing, therefore making it more difficult to connect that party with the murder.
Throughout history and in many different parts of the world, contract killing has been associated with organized crime and also vendettas. For example, in recent U.S. history, the gang, Murder, Inc., which committed hundreds of murders in the thirties and forties on behalf of the National Crime Syndicate, is a well-known example of a contract killer.
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[edit] 2006 Scam
In December of 2006, e-mails involved in a scam began to circulate, claiming to be from a hitman that was hired to kill the message's recipient if they did not comply with the enclosed ransom demands. These illegal and fraudulent e-mails sometimes contained pieces of the recipient's personal information. In January 2007, persons claiming to be with the FBI in London circulated e-mails stating that the hitman from the prior e-mails had been apprehended by federal authorities.[2]
[edit] Statistics
A study by the Australian Institute of Criminology of 162 attempted or actual contract murders in Australia between 1989 and 2002 indicated that the most common reason for murder-for-hire was "the dissolution of an intimate relationship". The study also found that the average payment for a "hit" was A$12,700 and that the most commonly used weapons were firearms. Contract killings accounted for 2% of murders in Australia during that time period.[3] Contract killings make up a relatively similar percentage of all killings elsewhere. For example, they made up about 5% of all murders in Scotland from 1993 to 2002.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ The Independent:Businessman Wanted Killer to Spare Him Divorce Bill"
- ^ Federal Bureau of Investigation: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Press Room: E-mail Scam
- ^ CNN: CNN.com "Lovers Top Contract Killing Hit List (Feb. 5, 2004)
- ^ Government of Scotland: Homicides in Scotland between 1993 and 2002
[edit] References
- Payan, Tony (2006), The Three U.S.-Mexico Border Wars: Drugs, Immigration, and Homeland Security, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 027598818X.
[edit] External links
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