Types of Intimate Partner Homicides Committed by Women: Self-Defense, Proxy/Retaliation, and Sexual Proprietariness

• NCJ Number: 240885
• Journal: Homicide Studies Volume: 16 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2012 Pages: 359-379
• Author(s): Joanne Belknap; Dora-Lee Larson; Margaret L. Abrams; Christine Garcia; Kelly Anderson-Block
• Date Published: November 2012
• Length: 21 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Margo Wilson and Martin Daly began scientific work to explain intimate partner homicides (IPHs).

Abstract

Margo Wilson and Martin Daly began scientific work to explain intimate partner homicides (IPHs). Key to their work was women's increased risk of IPH victimization relative to men. In the 1990s, many U.S. jurisdictions implemented Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committees (DVFRCs) to improve responses to potentially lethal abuse. The authors report findings from 117 closed heterosexual IPH cases collected by the Denver Metro DVFRC 1991-2009. As expected, IPHs perpetrated by women against men are frequently motivated by self-defense. Although Wilson and Daly's "sexual proprietariness" is primarily characteristic of men killing women, the authors found it applicable to some women killing male mates. Abstract published by arrangement with Sage Journals.