Editing Contract killing (section)

{{Short description|Form of murder}}
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{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2016}}
[[File:Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891) - The Hired Assassins (Les Bravi) - P327 - The Wallace Collection.jpg|thumb|''The Hired Assassins'' ([[Ernest Meissonier]], 1852)]]

'''Contract killing''' (also known as '''murder-for-hire''') is a form of [[murder]] or [[assassination]] in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people.<ref name="ShantyMishra2008">{{cite book|author1=Frank Shanty|author2=Patit Paban Mishra|title=Organized Crime: From Trafficking to Terrorism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-L8B8ydtHZ4C&pg=PA210|year=2008|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-337-7|page=210}}</ref> It involves an agreement which includes some form of compensation, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be a person, group, or organization. Contract killing has been associated with [[organized crime]], [[Conspiracy theory|government conspiracies]], [[dictatorship]]s and [[feud|vendetta]]s.

Contract killing provides the hiring party with the advantage of not having to carry out the actual killing, making it more difficult for [[law enforcement]] to connect the client with the murder. The likelihood that authorities will establish that party's guilt for the committed crime, especially due to lack of [[forensic evidence]] linked to the contracting party, makes the case more difficult to attribute to the hiring party. Contract killers may exhibit [[serial killer]] traits, but are generally not classified as such because of third-party killing objectives and detached financial and emotional incentives.<ref name="Madjd-Sadjadi2013">{{cite book|author=Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi|title=The Economics of Crime|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dd7XAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT162|year=2013|publisher=Business Expert Press|isbn=978-1-60649-583-4|page=162}}</ref>{{sfn|Holmes|Holmes|2009|p=7}}<ref name="WilsonYardley2015">{{cite book|author1=David Wilson|author2=Elizabeth Yardley|author3=Adam Lynes|title=Serial Killers and the Phenomenon of Serial Murder: A Student Textbook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iXg7CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA43|year=2015|publisher=Waterside Press - Drew University|isbn=978-1-909976-21-4|page=43}}</ref> Nevertheless, there are occasionally individuals that are labelled as both contract killers and serial killers.<ref name="WilsonYardley2015" /><ref>{{cite book|author1=R.J. Parker|author2=Scott Bonn|title=Blood Money: The Method and Madness of Assassins|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ib4pDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9|year=2017|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-987902-34-1|pages=9–10}}</ref><ref name="HolmesHolmes2009">{{cite book|first1=Ronald M. |last1=Holmes|first2=Stephen T. |last2=Holmes|title=Serial Murder|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ol24tui7vo8C&pg=PA140|year=2009|publisher=SAGE|isbn=978-1-4129-7442-4|page=140}}</ref>

A contract killer is colloquially known as a '''hitman'''.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/hit-man | title=Hit man Definition & Meaning &#124; Britannica Dictionary }}</ref>