• Crimes of passion are also known as "heat of passion" crimes.Legal Law Justice image by Stacey Alexander from Fotolia.com
  
  Historically, as the University of California's Berkeley Law notes, defendants who have used the crime of passion plea, known in legal circles as the provocation defense, have been able to reduce first and second degree murder charges down to manslaughter, which typically comes with little to no jail time. This makes crimes of passion extremely controversial, as the line between justifiable and punishable murder becomes blurred.
  
  

Adultery-Related Crimes

• One of the most infamous crimes of passion scenarios starts with a husband or wife discovering a spouse committing adulterous acts with another person. The husband, enraged by what he has witnessed, reaches for the nearest weapon or object, and presumably before he is able to contemplate his actions, murders his wife or her lover, or both. Defendants in these scenarios will typically say that they were so enraged by the events enfolding in front of them that they succumbed to temporary insanity and were unable to control their behavior.
  
  

Combat- or Assault-Related Crimes

• Another example of a crime of passion is the combat- or assault-related crime. In this particular scenario, two parties are engaged in mutual combat: an aggressor, who begins the assault, and a defendant, who fights off his attacker. The defendant, however, in the heat of the moment, may use excessive force and severely injure or even murder his opponent. Defendants in these scenarios will typically claim the murder was an unintentional and unfortunate occurrence, and was strictly the result of self-defense.
  
  

Bitter Disagreements

• Arguing over sensitive topics, such as relationships, sexuality and legal issues, can also result in crimes of passion scenarios. Overblown and excessively aggressive arguments are often predecessors to violence, particularly domestic violence. Similar to the adultery-related crimes of passion, defenders in these scenarios may try to reduce their sentencing by pleading that the murder or other violent act in question was the result of a temporary, uncontrollable state of rage. The New York Daily News notes that in 2010, a man stabbed and killed his estranged wife in Georgia during an argument concerning the custody of their children.
  
  

Revenge/Retaliation

• While some may think of revenge and retaliation murders as premeditated crimes, some revenge scenarios can also be sudden, and are the result of unexpected provocations or encounters. Berkeley Law gives the examples of a husband unexpectedly bumping into the rapist of his wife, or a father unexpectedly encountering the murderer of his child. In both instances, a defendant who commits a violent act against, or murders, such a person may claim that he was suddenly and uncontrollably enraged by the emotionally charged situation, and was not responsible for his actions.