Explaining the Decline in Intimate Partner Homicide: The Effects of Changing Domesticity, Women's Status, and Domestic Violence Resources

• NCJ Number: 178473
• Journal: Homicide Studies Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Dated: August 1999 Pages: 187-214
• Author(s): Laura Dugan; Daniel S. Nagin; Richard Rosenfeld
• Date Published: August 1999
• Length: 28 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Earlier versions of this article were presented at the 1997 meeting of the American Society of Criminology, the Law and Society 1997 Annual Meeting, and the 5th International Family Violence Research Conference.

Annotation

This article explains the two-decade decline in the intimate partner homicide rate in the United States in terms of three factors that reduce exposure to violent relationships: shifts in marriage, divorce, and other factors associated with declining domesticity; the improved economic status of women; and increases in the availability of domestic violence services.

Abstract

The authors' explanation for the decline in intimate partner homicide is based on a theory of exposure reduction that helps to account for the especially pronounced decline in the rate at which married women kill their husbands. Women are much more likely than men to kill out of a perceived need or desire to protect themselves or their children from a violent or abusive partner. Factors that reduce exposure to violent relationships and provide protective alternatives to violence, therefore, should be more closely associated with variation in the rate at which women kill their partners than the rate at which men kill their partners. The exposure reduction theory is tested with data from a panel of 29 large U.S. cities for the years 1976 to 1992. The homicide data are from the Supplementary Homicide Reports. The dependent variables are the male and female intimate partner homicide victimization rates per 100,000 population, calculated separately for married and unmarried intimate partners. The domestic violence service information was compiled from six editions of national domestic violence service directories. The impact of domesticity on change in intimate partner homicide rates is estimated with measures of the rate of marriage and divorce for each city and time period. Two measures of the economic status of women are incorporated in the analysis: relative educational attainment and gender differences in earnings. Also included in the model are dummy variables for each city and period in the panel. The results of the analysis are generally supportive of the exposure reduction theory. The authors consider the importance of the results for subsequent research on intimate partner homicide and call for further evaluation of the efficacy of legal responses to domestic violence. 1 figure, 4 tables, 11 notes, and 65 references