NCJ Number
177937
Journal
Homicide Studies Volume: 3 Issue: 2 Dated: May 1999 Pages: 107-128
Date Published
1999
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This study examined how the rates and circumstances of homicides against women differed among rural, urban, and intermediate counties in North Carolina.
Abstract
Homicide data were obtained from computerized files maintained by the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Cases were classified regardless of motivation or legal outcomes, ensuring that those not pursued by the criminal justice system were included. Cases for the study were females, age 15 and older, who died as a result of homicide in North Carolina from 1988 to 1993. Each homicide victim was treated as a separate case for this study. The study identified a nonlinear pattern, with the intermediate counties having the highest female homicide rate, followed by the urban and then the rural counties. Additional findings suggest that a greater proportion of rural female victims are killed by intimate partners and that the effects of urban-rural status are eclipsed by race and, to a lesser extent, by age. The findings of this study support a theoretical model that suggests there are characteristics associated with rural areas that may exacerbate the risks rural women face of dying as a result of intimate homicide. These characteristics may be related to the physical isolation of rural women, a condition that may both increase their vulnerability to victimization as well as pose barriers to accessing services. One distinctive pattern to emerge was found for white victims who lived in intermediate counties, a group more likely than those living in urban or rural counties to die from firearm injuries. It is possible that the perpetrators of these homicides are a population with economic access or cultural tradition that makes gun ownership more prevalent, a factor that has been associated with higher risks of homicide in the home. 6