NCJ Number
228084
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 24 Issue: 7 Dated: October 2009 Pages: 463-470
Date Published
October 2009
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This study investigated whether the percentage of intimate partner homicides by beating, a hands-on homicide method, varied with the victim-offender relationship.
Abstract
Supporting most of the hypotheses and predictions, the results indicate that the killing methods in partner homicides were associated with the sex of the perpetrator and victim and the victim-offender relationship. Specifically, killing by beating occurred in a greater percentage of partner homicides in which a man was the perpetrator and his relationship with the victim was boyfriend or common-law husband. The lack of commitment in these relationships, relative to legal marriages, might lead to higher levels of men's jealousy resulting in greater rage that drives the perpetrator to kill his victim in a more violent manner, relative to men who kill their more-committed partners, such as legal wives. Drawing on both evolutionary and situational perspectives, this research study investigated intimate partner homicide with the goal of examining the effect of sex and relationship status/state on the use of personal weapon beatings as the killing method. The study begins with a review of the literature on sex differences in aggression and partner-killing to provide the rationale for the first hypothesis. Next, a review of the literature was conducted on homicide victim-offender relationships to provide the rationale for a second hypothesis. Three hypotheses were generated and a national-level database was used to identify the percentages of one type of violent partner-killings as a function of sex and relationship status/state. Table and references