Jealousy as a Correlate of Intimate Partner Homicide-Suicide versus Homicide-Only Cases: National Violent Death Reporting System, 2015-2020

• NCJ Number: 308853
• Journal: Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior Volume: Online Dated: March 2024
• Author(s): Laura Johnson
• Date Published: March 2024
• Grant Number(s): 2016-MU-CX-K011
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)

Annotation

The authors present their research project comparing the correlation of jealousy to intimate partner homicide-suicide cases with cases of homicide only, providing details on their research methodology and findings.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to compare jealousy as a correlate of intimate partner homicide-suicide cases to homicide-only cases using data from the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), a state-based surveillance system maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Jealousy is categorized as jealous feelings or distress over a current or former intimate partner's relationship or suspected relationship with another person. NVDRS data from a 5-year period (2016–2020) was used to estimate frequencies and identify significant differences in jealousy and other sociodemographic, mental health, relationship, and incident-related correlates of intimate partner homicide-suicide compared to homicide-only cases. Cases were included if they involved an intimate partner single homicide, or a single homicide followed by suicide. The study sample included a total of 5,335 cases (intimate partner homicide-suicide n = 1,402; homicide-only n = 3,933). A significantly higher percentage of intimate partner homicide-suicide cases reported jealousy preceding the event (nine percent) compared to homicide-only cases (six percent). Compared with homicide-only cases, homicide-suicide cases had 3.5 greater odds of recording jealousy as a precipitating event. Findings suggest that intimate partner homicide-suicide cases are distinct from homicide-only cases both in terms of individual- and incident-level and situational factors, including the presence of jealousy. (Published Abstract Provided)