The Will To Kill

Authored by renowned experts, this book reviews homicide laws, introduces theories purporting to explain murder, and presents up-to-date statistical data identifying homicide patterns and trends. It covers topics ranging from domestic and workplace homicide to cult and hate killings; murder committed by juveniles to serial slayings. Finally, it examines criminal justice responses to homicide, including the strategies and tactics employed to apprehend, prosecute, and punish killers. This edition also reflects recent legislative changes and Supreme Court decisions, includes new case examples, and contains extensively expanded discussions of family and school homicide.

“"The Will to Killoffers a good introduction to trends and types of murder in America. The text is affordable for students, and it is written in an engaging manner that is interesting for students to read. The text is solidly grounded in research, but written in a manner that is appealing to wider audience, really for any person curious to learn about homicide."”

"The Will to Kill offers a good introduction to trends and types of murder in America. The text is affordable for students, and it is written in an engaging manner that is interesting for students to read. The text is solidly grounded in research, but written in a manner that is appealing to wider audience, really for any person curious to learn about homicide." -- Minna Cirino
"The Will to Kill: Making Sense of Senseless Murder provides an overall well-rounded approach to the discussion of various types of homicide and the motivations behind them. Writing style is fluent and readable. This text uses numerous examples of killers which makes it both shocking and enjoyable for students to read." -- Emily Strohacker
"There are a number of texts available but I use The Will to Kill because of the breadth of subjects it covers and the positive feedback I have received from students…The breadth of topics covered is an important strength of the text. The use of interesting cases to illustrate points makes the text very enjoyable to read. The text includes a lot of the research on the topics in a way that still holds the readers interest." -- Clete Snell
"The Will to Kill: Making Sense of Senseless Murder is a comprehensive text which describes different types of homicides within a limited frame. There are numerous aspects of homicide and it is difficult to compose all these various aspects within one book. The Will to Kill: Making Sense of Senseless Murder has successfully completed this difficult task." -- Dr. Fatematul Jannat
"I selected this book because of the reputation of the authors and because the book does a good job of breaking homicide into meaningful portions without becoming too repetitive." -- Edward L. Powers
"Very easy to read and comprehend." -- Alecia Schmidt

James Alan Fox is the Lipman Family Professor of Criminology, Law, and Public Policy at Northeastern University. He has published 18 books, dozens of journal and magazine articles, as well as hundreds of freelance columns in newspapers around the country, primarily in the areas of multiple murder, youth crime, school and campus violence, workplace violence, and capital punishment. As a member of its Board of Contributors, his opinion column appears frequently in USAToday. Fox led the investigation of Seattle’s Capitol Hill mass shooting and was part of the task force investigating the serial murder of college students in Gainesville, Florida. He also served on President Clinton’s advisory committee on school shootings, and a Department of Education Expert Panel on Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free Schools. In addition, he has been retained as an expert witness/consultant in several mass shooting cases, including the recent massacres at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Fox is one of the principals in maintaining the Associated Press/USA Today/Northeastern University Mass Killing Database. Finally, he has received several awards and honors for his work, including the Hugo Adam Bedau Award for excellence in capital punishment scholarship.  Jack Levin is the Brudnick Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology at Northeastern University, where he codirects its Center on Violence and Conflict. He has authored or coauthored more than 30 books, most recently The Violence of Hate: Understanding Harmful Forms of Bias and Bigotry and The Allure of Premeditated Murder: Why Some People Plan to Kill. Levin has also published more than 250 articles and columns in professional journals, books, magazines, and newspapers, such as The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Dallas Morning News, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Science Monitor, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and USA Today.  Levin was honored by the Massachusetts Council for Advancement and Support of Education as its “Professor of the Year” and by the American Sociological Association for his contributions to the public understanding of sociology. He has also received awards from the Eastern Sociological Society, New England Sociological Association, Association of Clinical and Applied Sociology, and Society for the Study of Social Problems. Moreover, he has spoken to a wide variety of community, academic, and professional groups, including the White House Conference on Hate Crimes, the Department of Justice, OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (a membership of 59 countries), and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.Kenna Quinet is an associate professor of criminal justice in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). She is also a certified medico-legal death investigator and Deputy Coroner at the Marion County Coroner’s Office. Her research interests include homicide, missing persons, causes of death, unidentified and unclaimed dead. Quinet teaches homicide courses as well as an animal rights course at IUPUI and she has won more than 15 teaching awards. Since 1992 she has worked closely with law enforcement, provided more than 80 media interviews, does cold case homicide consultations and serves as an Indiana representative for NamUs, the national missing and unidentified persons system.

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