Murder is the illegal killing of one human being by another. Murder is distinguished from other forms of homicide by the elements of intent and the lack of justification. All jurisdictions, ancient and modern, consider it a most serious crime and impose a severe penalty for its commission.
Sometimes murder is used to describe what is really a homicide. While the two terms are similar they are not synonymous. Although all murders are homicides, only intentional homicides are murders. Also, police will often call their investigation into a murder a homicide investigation in order not to prejudice any findings of the investigation, possible charges that could be laid, or any conviction of an offender. However, the crime will normally be identified as a murder once there is sufficient evidence to indicate that a murder is the more likely crime than any other.
An estimated 520,000 people were murdered in 2000. Two-fifths of them were young people between the ages of 10 and 29 who were killed by other young people.
There are an estimated 55,000 murders in Brazil every year, about 30,000 murders committed annually in Russia, more than 25,000 murders in Colombia (in 2005, murders went down to 15,000), approximately 20,000 murders each year in South Africa, at least 15,000 murders in Mexico, approximately 14,000 murders in the United States (666,160 murders from 1960 to 1996), roughly 11,000 murders in Venezuela, around 6,000 murders in El Salvador, approximately 1,600 murders in Jamaica, approximately 1000 murders in France, about 500 murders per year in Canada, and over 200 murders in Chile.
The term murder may also be applied more colloquially, especially to describe an activity that was difficult, dangerous or unpleasant, or a particularly bad artistic or sporting performance.