Murder and Homicide in Pakistan

Description

In this book, murder is viewed in the cultural specificity of Pakistan.

The author shows how several peculiar factors – traditional safeguarding of the family relational system, land, historic notions of vengeance, baradari ties, the concept of honour etc. – are all related to the cause and effect of murder and homicide in Pakistan.

The author also examines the secular nature of the Pakistani penal code in a country which apparently derives its raison d’etre from the spirit of Islam. The study is based on a sample survey of convicted murderers in the New Central Jail, Multan, the largest federal institution in the country which houses convicts from all over the country.

The author carried out exhaustive interviews and supplemented these findings with published data on homicide over a large period of time. Finally, his conclusions are compared to those of other studies from different cultures. This is the first major study on this subject to be published anywhere and is an invaluable source of primary material for further research.

Author Biography

Mahfooz Kanwar, Ph.D., is Chairman of the Department of Behavioural Sciences, Mount Royal College, Calgary, Canada. He is the author of several books, including ‘Sociology of Criminal Behaviour’; ‘Beggary as a Social Problem: A Sociological Reference to Pakistan’; ‘Sociology of Religion: Changing Conceptions in the Structure of Islam’; etc. and has contributed to many international journals.