sudden passion are easily understood.
Everyone has been overwhelmed by rage, where reason and judgment and all
acquired restraints are entirely submerged. The primitive man with his
primitive emotion reasserts himself. It is mainly accident or the lack
of some particular circumstance that prevents a murder. Of course some
people are overwhelmed more easily than others. Some natures are less
stable, some nervous systems less perfect, and the built up barriers are
weaker. The whole result of stimuli is determined by the strength of the
feeling acting upon the machine. Such a person is not ordinarily
dangerous to the community. The act itself would generally assure that
it could never happen again. Some killings, however, are more
deliberate. They are preceded by a settled hatred which preys upon the
mind and fights against the preventive influences that training and
habit have formed. Under a certain combination of circumstances these
restrictions are swept aside and the emotions have their way.

There are, of course, certain broad classifications of homicides. A
considerable number, perhaps more than any other, come through the
commission of robbery, burglary and larceny. In the midst of the act the
offender is caught, and kills in an effort to escape. These murders fall
under the heading of property crimes; the cause is the same, and the
rules governing them are the same. The second group, with respect to
numbers, grows from the relations of men and women. Wives kill husbands
and husbands kill wives; sweethearts kill each other. Jealousy and
revenge are commonly mixed with sex life and sex association. Many
socialists have argued that under an equal distribution of property,
where women were freed from fear of want, these crimes would disappear.
But this argument does not take human nature into account. Jealousy is
inevitably associated with sex relations. The close contact of men and
women over long periods of time inevitably causes friction and
misunderstanding. These conditions often grow chronic, and in marriage
are aggravated by the necessity of close association regardless of the
real feelings that may exist. Certain claims are made by husbands and
by wives, which are probably inherent in the relationship; sometimes
they flow from habit and custom, but, from whatever cause, such claims
are so exacting that either the husband or wife finds them hard to meet.

Because of the fact that the feelings of men and women