NCJ Number
195812
Journal
International Criminal Justice Review Volume: 11 Dated: 2001 Pages: 34-57
Date Published
2001
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This article probes gender differences in homicide victimization disaggregated by the victim-offender relationship for a sample of homicides in both Finland and the United States.
Abstract
The author notes that previous research concerning homicide victimization shows that homicide rates are far higher in the United States when compared to Finland for both males and females. Additionally, the United States has a greater gender gap when it comes to homicide victimization; males are much more likely to be the victims of homicide in the United States than females. In order to further probe this gender gap, the authors question whether the difference in victimization between the genders is uniform across all types of homicides or if it varies by the victim-offender relationship. The authors hypothesized that the gender gap in stranger homicides would be generally equal across the two countries, but that the gap for intimate partner homicides will be higher in the United States. The authors further expected to find that Finland had a higher sex ratio of victimizations in homicides that involved friends or acquaintances. To test these hypotheses, the authors analyzed the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR) for the years 1988 and 1996. Since Finland does not have an annual national homicide database comparable to the SHR, the authors looked instead at a national police filing system for recording crimes in order to assess the homicide occurrences in Finland during 1988 and 1996. Results of statistical analyses of these data sets indicated that the gender gap in homicide victimization was not constant across all types of homicides. Of particular note was the difference in the gender gap for intimate partner homicide between the two countries. While females were at high risk for intimate partner homicide victimization in both Finland and the United States, males exhibited very low risk for this type of homicide in Finland when compared to males in the United States. The gender gap for homicides committed by friends or acquaintances showed the opposite pattern; the gender gap was larger in Finland than the United States. This means that males in Finland are at a very high risk of falling victim to friends or acquaintances. In conclusion, the authors wonder whether female independence in Finland serves to reduce females’ exposure to violent men while increasing such exposure among Finnish men. Tables, references