If a man receives an eight year sentence for robbery, how much time does he actually serve behind bars? It’s not eight years, for a start. It might not even be four years, although most criminals are told they will serve half their sentences before being released on licence. Some are released even earlier on …
Author archives: murdermap
Violence in Films and Computer Games: Guest Blog
Does the portrayal of violence in the media affect human behaviour? Should we be concerned about violence in computer games, books and film? These questions are being asked more often as games in particular grow ever more realistic. The US Supreme Court recently debated whether video games are worse than films and books because they …
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Beyond Reasonable Doubt
The cult film noir Detour has an unusual take on murder. The ‘hero’ is neither a hardened criminal or an innocent man fighting for justice. Instead the main character, hitchhiker Al Roberts, asks us to believe that he has accidentally become a double killer. Watching it was a bit like listening in court to a …
Murder Law
Reading the recent stories about plans to introduce US-style murder charges to the UK, it seems very few people understand how our system works. It began with Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, joining calls for the offence to be split into first and second degree murder – first degree for intentional killing and second degree …
‘One Punch Manslaughters’
It seems like a rare event, a freak occurrence – an innocent person is hit with a single punch and falls back on to the pavement, striking their head hard on the ground. Tragically they suffer a fractured skull and brain damage and die within a few days despite advanced medical treatment. That is exactly …