Some people say, hopefully with a good dose of irony, that murder is a victimless crime. In a twisted sense, this is almost true; once murder has been committed, the victim no longer exists (not as a person at least, though as a corpse), and as long as the victim still exists, no murder has taken place. So why is it that we find the thought of murder abhorrent? Unlike rape or torture or even theft, in the case of murder, we're not around to suffer the consequences of the murder (assuming the murder wasn't preceded by other crimes), because we're just not around anymore. I think it was Mark Twain who said that, having not existed for millions of years prior to his birth, he surely wouldn't mind not existing after his death. So why is (unprovoked) murder one of the worst crimes there is, in almost all societies? Is it the fear of death? Is it because we don't want to witness others dying?

The remark that murder is a victimless crime, while surely ironic, hits home. As Alexander George remarked a while back on this site in response to a related question, "death is rather peculiar...in that it's a misfortune that eliminates from the world the subject of the misfortune." Alex went on to say that "once one's dead, not only does one cease to experience things, but one ceases to have interests too," which, he explained, makes the question of what harm is caused by death difficult to answer. Alex's response concludes where your question begins: "As one of my students once asked when we were discussing this in class: 'So murder is a victimless crime?'." The fact that the victim of a murder dies may make it difficult to say in what respect the victim's interests suffer in virtue of that victim's death, which complicates the question of who is harmed by murder. This question, however, is distinct from another question that you raise: "why is it that we find the thought of murder abhorrent?"...