NCJ Number
219046
Journal
Trauma, Violence, & Abuse Volume: 8 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2007 Pages: 135-148
Date Published
April 2007
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This literature review examined femicide and suicide among pregnant women victimized by intimate partner violence.
Abstract
The results of this review show that one-third to two-thirds of the femicides of pregnant women in the United States were perpetrated by intimate partners of the women. Further, pregnant women composed 5 percent of intimate partner femicides in urban areas. Pregnancy while in an abusive intimate relationship is apparently a risk factor for severe intimate partner violence. Intimate partner femicide victims have often used health care services shortly before their deaths; however, the health care providers were not always aware of the violence in the women's lives, so they seldom received services that addressed their victimization. So little information exists on pregnancy-associated suicides in abusive intimate relationships that it was impossible to draw conclusions on this issue; however, a hospital-based study suggests that intimate partner violence may be a risk for attempted suicide during pregnancy. More research is needed on intimate partner pregnancy-associated femicide and suicide, so that evidence-based preventive and therapeutic intervention can be developed. Publications were reviewed if they were empirically-based, included information on women who were pregnant or recently pregnant, and were victims of femicide or attempted femicide and/or victims of suicide or attempted suicide. The publications also had to include some empirical information on intimate partner violence. More than 40,000 publications on suicide and more than 20,000 publications on homicide or femicide were identified; however, only nine of these publications met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Two of the studies concerned various aspects of one multicity study. Six of the publications were peer-reviewed journal articles, and three were published reports from various agencies/groups. 1 table and 24 references