social murder

Calque of German sozialer Mord, first attested in Friedrich Engels' Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England. Engels attributes the phrase to English workers' newspapers.

social murder (plural social murders)

1. (politics) The knowing causing of the inevitable premature death of members of an oppressed class by deliberately and structurally exposing them to potentially lethal conditions.
   • 1962 [1845], Friedrich Engels, “Resultate”, in Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England (Marx-Engels Werke), volume 2, page 325; English translation from “Results”, in Florence Kelley, transl., The Condition of the Working Class in England (Marx/Engels Collected Works), volume 4, translation of original in German, 1975, page 394:

     I have now to prove that society in England daily and hourly commits what the working-men's organs, with perfect correctness, characterise as social murder, […]

     [original: Ich werde nun zu beweisen haben, daß die Gesellschaft in England diesen von den englischen Arbeiterzeitungen mit vollem Rechte als solchen bezeichneten sozialen Mord täglich und stündlich begeht; […]]

Primarily used by leftist commentators who consider such deaths premeditated and not incidental, may be considered offensive by others.