Knives In Murder - Always Meant To Kill? New report shows that not all murders with knives are meant to be.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

This story was particularly interesting to me. I was reading this, and it actually taught me something new.

What it's about is knives and how when people are murdered by them, it could actually be a real accident. Why this theory was tested is beyond me, as I always assumed that if you kill someone, especially with a weapon, that you meant to do it. But is that true?

The scientists(forensic) went and made a fake body with skin and cartilage, and then tested knife stabs on it. What they ended up coming up with is that there are many, many different things that can determine how deep a cut goes, thereby changing how effective it is in killing you.

Among the biggest changes were based on your skin tension, the manufacturer of the knife, and the type of the knife. Along with this, they even found differences in multiples of the same exact knife. It turns out that although you may buy a 20 pack of one type, they may all be different!

My personal reaction to this is...Confusion. It is going to cause me to go back and wonder...When people in trial say they didn't mean to do it, are they really telling the truth? Obviously they did mean to cause harm, otherwise they would not have stabbed the victim, but did they really mean to take it that far?

Along with that, this is to you all: If you plan on stabbing someone to hurt them, keep in mind that the stab may *accidentally* be a fatal one.


(Note - the source is about stabbings in the UK, but it can be assumed that the same results would happen in the US as well. Or Canada. Or anywhere else for that matter. The science itself is solid.)

SOURCE:

https://jisc.ac.uk/website/legacy/intute

[DeM0nFiRe 0]

Actually, for a long time in the UD the weapon used has been used in determining the crime committed. A killing with a gun is more likely to be first degree murder (murder with intent and pre-planning) than a killing with a knife.

Edited December 26, 2008 by DeM0nFiRe (see edit history)

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Well a gun is a more "sure-fire" way to kill someone than a knife. What made the article here the most interesting to me is that it brings you to think before you take drastic actions.It's kind of like when you hit/push someone. If you are not careful when you do it, you can severely hurt and/or kill them. Such as someone at our school learned when a guy punched him in the face and he body-slammed the guy. He was then almost charged with "attempted murder" because the body-slamming has such a severe effect on the body.So more or less, if you plan on stabbing someone, keep in mind that although you may just be using it to get them away from you or whatever, it can affect you for the rest of your life.

[Echo_of_thunder 1]

Well a gun is a more "sure-fire" way to kill someone than a knife. What made the article here the most interesting to me is that it brings you to think before you take drastic actions.
It's kind of like when you hit/push someone. If you are not careful when you do it, you can severely hurt and/or kill them. Such as someone at our school learned when a guy punched him in the face and he body-slammed the guy. He was then almost charged with "attempted murder" because the body-slamming has such a severe effect on the body.

So more or less, if you plan on stabbing someone, keep in mind that although you may just be using it to get them away from you or whatever, it can affect you for the rest of your life.

the above sums it up nicely.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

the above sums it up nicely.

It's nice to see that someone understands where I was coming from when I posted it.

It's amazing how many times something happens and it's always the same excuse..."I didn't mean for it to go that far!"

Whether it be playing around and shooting a gun off at someone, pushing them out in a street and them getting hit by a car, or a million other things.

People need to pay more attention to what they are doing, and what kind of effects it can cause to not only themselves, but others as well.

For the record, the story posted above can also be related to cutting yourself(especially for those "emo" people). I have heard of a lot of people at school and otherwise that cut themselves to "let out the pain," and it makes me wonder how many of them end up dying from it.

To me, that would be one of the worst ways to die - by loss of blood.

[Ousk 0]

I know what you're saying but in court i think that they try to determine if it was premeditated and that murder was on a criminal mind. To be fair is not that outrageous to assume that in some cases they did not want to commit murder, i've seen crazier things happen. But a lot of people when mad just pick up a knife to scare someone or something and from there things go downhill, maybe they want to sort out these cases.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I know what you're saying but in court i think that they try to determine if it was premeditated and that murder was on a criminal mind. To be fair is not that outrageous to assume that in some cases they did not want to commit murder, i've seen crazier things happen. But a lot of people when mad just pick up a knife to scare someone or something and from there things go downhill, maybe they want to sort out these cases.

I still think it's hard to determine who did and who did not mean to kill and/or just hurt others. I mean...Think about it...They release all of this information to the public, more or less allowing people to learn what the courts are wanting to use as evidence, and how they will be determining whether you are guilty or not.

So any smart person(most criminals are not smart, but some are) would be able to easily work around the system by paying attention to all of the information. They can make things seem like an accident that aren't, and vice versa.

Really, there is no way to fully determine if someone meant to do something or not. The only person who knows the truth is the person who did it. All anyone else is able to do is guess.

[adriantc 0]

It's hard to imagine killing someone by accident with a knife. You have to apply some pressure in order to penetrate the skin. Even if it is easier to penetrate the skin "parallel to a direction of greater skin tension than when perpendicular" if you do apply the pressure then you do want to kill. It's easier to fall into a knife then killing somebody with it by mistake. Of course you can cut somebody by accident with a knife, but to kill somebody it is really hard.So I think that when people plead "no guilty" it's extremely probable that they lie. It's one thing to harm somebody with a knife by mistake and another to kill him. What excuse will he give? The victim fell into my knife? Knives don't kill people - people kill people!

[rpgsearcherz 5]

It's hard to imagine killing someone by accident with a knife. You have to apply some pressure in order to penetrate the skin. Even if it is easier to penetrate the skin "parallel to a direction of greater skin tension than when perpendicular" if you do apply the pressure then you do want to kill. It's easier to fall into a knife then killing somebody with it by mistake. Of course you can cut somebody by accident with a knife, but to kill somebody it is really hard.So I think that when people plead "no guilty" it's extremely probable that they lie. It's one thing to harm somebody with a knife by mistake and another to kill him. What excuse will he give? The victim fell into my knife? Knives don't kill people - people kill people!

The point is more geared towards wanting to harm someone. For example, someone is breaking into your car and you pull out a knife, glass shard, etc. to stab them with it, although not to kill, just to get them off of you. It's showing that although the pressure that you used wasn't "fatal," it can still have a fatal effect.

[networker 0]

The way I see it it's just common sense.The old saying goes,don't play with knifes.Unless you use common sense with one people can easilyget hurt. If someone hapens to die,somebody has toanswer to it.Such foolishness should at least,and probably will bringout a charge of manslaughter,still a heavycharge despite the "I didn't mean it" excuse.I mean, nobody ever means it do they?That';s no excuse whatsoever.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

The way I see it it's just common sense.The old saying goes,don't play with knifes.
Unless you use common sense with one people can easily
get hurt.
If someone hapens to die,somebody has to
answer to it.Such foolishness should at least,and probably will bring
out a charge of manslaughter,still a heavy
charge despite the "I didn't mean it" excuse.
I mean, nobody ever means it do they?
That';s no excuse whatsoever.

A charge of manslaughter is a lot better than "murder" though. With manslaughter you just get time in jail, rather than the death penalty or life in prison.

If you killed someone on purpose though, it changes to murder.