Despite the public perception that violent crime including murder is on the increase and the British obsession with murder, its rate in this country is low and has always been. What is it in British mass culture that produces both the obsession and the figures? Each chapter attempts to put into context the form of social relationship between killer and victim and give the annual and historical frequency of such crimes. The book uses cases drawn from court records, police interrogations, psychiatric interview and press reports, starting from records from 12th-century England going to the present day.