NCJ Number
177159
Journal
Homicide Studies Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Dated: February 1999 Pages: 30-46
Date Published
1999
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article explores the homicidal behavior of women against intimate partners, using a modification of Black's self-help perspective.
Abstract
The article incorporates race, gender and social class as predictors of low social status. Low social status leads to decreased access to formal social control, which in turn leads some women to resort to lethal violence as a form of criminal conflict resolution in the perceived absence of available legal remedies. Conversely, low social status serves to inhibit homicidal behavior in most women, through greater fear of retribution and involvement in fewer conflicts related to honor. This may account for the wide disparity in the amount of lethal violence committed by men and women. The self-help perspective has broader application, encompassing many kinds of financially motivated homicide by women and men. The article limits the scope to female homicide because of the need for such an explanation and because it is particularly well suited for the task, given the depressing effect of gender on social status. Table, references