Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/assassins

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Contract killing

Form of murder

Contract killing
Summary

Form of murder

''The Hired Assassins'' ([[Ernest Meissonier]], 1852)

Contract killing, sometimes known as murder-for-hire, is a form of murder or assassination in which one party employs another party to extrajudicially kill a targeted person or people via an illegal agreement that involves some form of compensation, monetary or otherwise. An act of contract killing is also known colloquially as a hit, and the person performing the killing (i.e. the contract killer or "contractor") is known as the hitman or (as borrowed from Spanish) sicario.

Organized crime gangs and syndicates sometimes employ dedicated members or associates as contractors (each known as an enforcer) to perform targeted assassination, lynching, maiming or other acts of violence, typically for purposes such as turf war, feud, extortion or as a form of political violence to terrorize dissidents or to demoralize other groups.

Statistics

Contract killings generally make up a small percentage of murders. For example, they accounted for about 6% of all murders in Scotland from 1993 to 2002.

A study by the Australian Institute of Criminology of 162 contract murders and attempted contract murders in Australia between 1989 and 2002 indicated that the most common reason for murder-for-hire was insurance policy payouts. The study also found that payments varied from $5,000 to $30,000 per killing, with an average of $15,000, and that the most commonly used weapons were firearms. Contract killings accounted for 2% of murders in Australia during that period.

Contract killers may share similarities with serial killers, such as detached financial and emotional incentives, but are not classified as such due to the differing objectives of their crimes. Nevertheless, there are occasionally individuals that are labelled as both contract killers and serial killers.

References

References

  1. (2008). "Organized Crime: From Trafficking to Terrorism". ABC-CLIO.
  2. (2022). "An Assessment of Hitmen and Contracted Violence Providers Operating Online". Deviant Behavior.
  3. "Hit man Definition & Meaning | Britannica Dictionary".
  4. "Homicide in Scotland, 2002". Government of Scotland.
  5. (February 5, 2004). "Lovers top contract killing hit list". CNN.
  6. Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi. (2013). "The Economics of Crime". Business Expert Press.
  7. (2015). "Serial Killers and the Phenomenon of Serial Murder: A Student Textbook". Waterside Press - Drew University.
  8. (2017). "Blood Money: The Method and Madness of Assassins". ABC-CLIO.
  9. (2009). "Serial Murder". SAGE.
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

assassins speech-crimes killings-by-type contract-killers criminal-occupations temporary-employment gangland-warfare-tactics organized-crime-activity murder
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Contract killing — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report