• Majority of murder offenders employed, uneducated, from low econ. backgrounds

The most prominent motive for crimes in the Kelaniya Police Division - which is one of the top five most violent cities in the country - was verbal fights or arguments that occur as a result of sudden provocation where even though the majority of the murder offenders were employed, most were uneducated and from low economic backgrounds.

These findings were made in an article on the "Identification of reasons for culpable homicides and attempted murders: A case study for the Kelaniya Police Division" which was authored by H.L.A. Weerakoon and N.V. Chandrasekara (both attached to the Kelaniya University's Statistics and Computer Science Department) and published in the Sri Lankan Journal of Applied Statistics' 24th Volume's First Issue in July, 2023.

A crime is illegal conduct for which a person can be prosecuted under a country’s laws. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS), ”crime” is defined as a criminal transgression of the constraints on human behaviour. Every year, more than 400,000 people die from homicides and in some countries, it is one of the leading causes of death. The Penal Code, under Sections 293 and 294, describes homicides as a killing of a human being by another human being which could be either lawful or unlawful. Lawful homicides are where the accused had a valid reason to commit the crime and may include justifiable and excusable homicides whereas unlawful homicides are inflicted upon a person to cause death or serious injury. Unlawful homicides include murder, and culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Culpable homicide can be considered as the genus and murder would be the species. Further, attempted murder is considered a crime when a person acts purposefully, willfully, or carelessly with severe contempt for human life. Sections 300 and 301 of the Penal Code state the terms and conditions along with the punishments for attempted murder and there is a tight line between murder and attempted murder.

Concern on intent

The punishments meted out to criminals under the Penal Code heavily rely on proving the ”intent” to commit the crime. If illegal conduct (culpable homicide or attempted murder) was committed unintentionally, the sentence is often reduced to 10 to 20 years in jail, per the Penal Code (Amendment) Act, No. 32 of 1991. However, if the crime is pre-planned and the investigating officers have sufficient evidence to confirm the criminal’s culpability, such as in the case of a homicide, per the Penal Code (Amendment) Act, No. 32 of 1991, the perpetrator is sentenced to death or life imprisonment. Hence, it is evident that whether it is an intentional murder or an attempted murder, intention plays a crucial role in every crime.

Countries worldwide have created various classifications for different criminal offences from different perspectives. The ICCS has classified criminal offences into homogeneous categories aggregated at four different hierarchical levels for statistical feasibility. In Sri Lanka, criminal offences and homicides are classified based on the Penal Code. Murders and attempted murders have major detrimental consequences on the lives of the surviving family members, particularly children. Anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, aggressiveness, and despair are just a few of the significant psychological consequences that survivors face. The complex mix of factors that cause homicides includes sexual motives, family disputes, and organised gang related violence. Poverty, economic inequality, and the use of weapons and drugs act as catalysts for homicide rates in a country.

The Kelaniya City within the Kelaniya Police Division, is one of the top five violent cities in Sri Lanka, per Towards Data Science's "Analysis of Sri Lanka crimes: Part I – House breaking and theft" (2020). 

The data set employed in this study consists of 320 observations pertaining to culpable homicides and attempted murder incidents that have taken place between 2010 and 2020, spanning a 10-year period. The Grave Crime Information Books (GCIB) and the Grave Crime Registers (GCR) of each of the 12 Police Stations located in the Kelaniya Police Division were referred. The data were relevant to Wattala, Peliyagoda, Kandana, Ja-Ela, Ragama, Mahabage, Kiribathgoda, Kelaniya, Meegahawaththa, Sapugaskanda, Kadawatha, and the Biyagama Police Stations. The research was conducted considering the homicide and attempted murder cases that had taken place in the Kelaniya Police Division as the target population.

Verbal confrontations and arguments generally occurred as a result of high temper or sudden provocation. These cases are usually found to be unintentional. Therefore, the punishment could be 10 to 20 years. But, in the case of culpable homicide or attempted murder as a result of or for the purposes of revenge, financial matters, long term or private disputes, usually, the case could be sentenced to life imprisonment. 

The percentage of culpable homicides and attempted murders recorded from the Kelaniya Police Division’s 12 Police Stations are thus: Peliyagoda (49/15%), Kadawatha (38/12%), Wattala (34/11%), Kelaniya (27/8%), Kandana (26/8%), Ragama (25/8%), Sapugaskanda (25/8%), Kiribathoda (23/7%), Biyagama (22/7%), Meegahawatta (15/5%), Mahabage (9/3%), and Ja-Ela (8%). In the Gampaha District, almost all Police stations cover urbanised areas. Between 2010 and 2020, the Peliyagoda Police Station had the highest number of cases (15%), with 36 culpable homicides and 13 attempted murders, totaling 49. Within a 10-year period, the Meegahawatta Police Station has reported the lowest number of cases.

The collected data indicated the presence of six identifiable categories of reasons for culpable homicide or attempted murder, which include verbal fights or arguments, family disputes, purposes of revenge, financial matters, long term or private disputes, and love or lust.

Reason vs. result

A total of 21.3% of the incidents in the Kelaniya Police Division were recorded due to verbal confrontations or disagreements. Long term or private issues were the second most common reason, contributing to 20% of the total. Financial issues arose as a result of land related issues, robbery, and other causes, which accounted for the lowest percentage of cases which is 13.8% of all the instances. Family issues, revenge, and love or lust related issues all had a similar impact on attempted murder and culpable homicide, with 16.6%, 14.1%, and 16.6%, respectively.

Among the predictor variables, the weapon used, the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, the location of the incident, the number of accusers incorporated in the crime, the civil status of the perpetrator, the mental health status of the perpetrator, the gender of the victim and the civil status of the victim were statistically associated with the reason for culpable homicide or attempted murder at a 5% level of significance.

Among the findings from 320 observations, 58.75% of the attempted murders and culpable homicides have taken place from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and the majority of the cases have taken place in public places or on streets and roads (35.31%). Regarding the educational level of the offenders, more than half of them (60%) has only completed up to Grade Five, 10 or had never attended a school. Sharp or pointed weapons were the key armament used in committing attempted murders or culpable homicides in the Kelaniya Police Division which is around 46%. The assailant and perpetrator was an acquaintance or a stranger to the victim 67.19% of the time. This was quite the opposite to the research results of N. Jayathunga's "A sociological study of homicide in Sri Lanka: A case study in the Ratnapura Secretariat Division" as most of the crimes in that study was committed by people who had a close relationship to the victim. The motive was either a family disagreement or love or lust in situations where the perpetrator and the victim were intimate partners (15.94%). Most of the victims (17.5%) were above the age of 40 years, whereas the majority of the perpetrators were between the ages of 25 and 39 years. Married males have been the victims of culpable killings or attempted murders 41.88% of the time. Similarly, the vast majority of the criminals were also married males (50.63%). Surprisingly, around 81.56% of the criminals were employed and 79.06% of the perpetrators did not show any intoxication or illness at the time of the incident.

Understanding limitations

The reason for culpable homicide or an attempted murder cannot be solely concluded by the identified variables since a series of complex investigations take place until the intention is proved. Several other factors could be considered, and several other reasons for culpable and attempted murders could be figured out by further investigation.

Some of the limitations in this research are that the data related to crimes in this domain are maintained manually in each Police station. Therefore, collecting data was challenging as the required data had to be obtained only by reading each case separately from the GCIBs and GCRs in each Police station. The study would have been more accurate if the data were available for many other Police divisions in a systematic manner.