crime of passion

plural crimes of passion

1. criminologyA crime, typically a violent crime such as assault or murder, committed against a loved one because of sudden jealous rage or heartbreak rather than as a premeditated act.

   1 more example

   There was this boy I sent to the electric chair at Huntsville here a while back. My arrest and my testimony. He killed a fourteen-year-old girl. Papers said it was a crime of passion but he told me there wasn't any passion to it. Told me that he'd been planning to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember. Said that if they turned him out he'd do it again.

   2007, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men (motion picture), spoken by Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones)