NCJ Number
186224
Date Published
1999
Length
16 pages
Annotation
After reviewing trends in intimate partner homicide since the mid-1970's (when the first social changes were instituted), this chapter discusses some of the theories offered for change in partner homicide rates through time and for different motivations by gender.
Abstract
An overview of partner homicide discusses gender differences in homicide perpetration, links between physical abuse and threat and partner homicide, and cross-cultural and regional studies of partner homicide. This is followed by a review of temporal trends in homicide between intimates and an updated analysis of trends in partner homicide in the United States between 1980 and 1995. The latter analysis addresses intimate partner homicide by relationship type and gender, general trends in homicide by gender, gender differences in the perpetration of partner homicide, theories on motivations for partner homicide, and the prediction of homicide in couple relationships. The authors advise that despite a general decline in couple homicides during the last few years, the high rate of homicides between intimate partners in the United States compared with other westernized nations still calls for concerted preventive action. Rates of partner homicide, changes in offending over time, and motivations for these homicides reveal different patterns by gender, type of relationship, or both. The widening gap in homicide trends for men and women in intimate relationships during the past 16 years remains troubling, and the prevalence of lethal violence by boyfriends against current and former girlfriends shows that prevention efforts are not reaching a critical population of potential homicide offenders. 4 figures, 3 notes, and 60 references