NCJ Number
213721
Journal
Journal of Offender Rehabilitation Volume: 41 Issue: 4 Dated: 2005 Pages: 83-98
Date Published
2005
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This study examined the prevalence of women as offenders in intimate-partner homicides in Houston, TX, between 1985 and 1999, using a measure known as the spousal sex ratio of killing (SROK); the race/ethnicity of the offenders was determined as well as the legal status of the relationship.
Abstract
Over the study's 15 years, women composed 40 percent of the offenders in domestic homicides. Both victims and offenders in these cases were disproportionately Black. Black women were equally or more likely than Black men to be the perpetrators of intimate-partner homicides. Within the small number of cases that involved Hispanic couples, women were significantly more likely to be the aggressors in the latter period of the study. For both Black and White perpetrators, women were more likely to be the perpetrators in nonmarital intimate-partner homicides. The findings suggest that treatment methods should take into account the features of racial/ethnic subcultures that research shows are related to intimate-partner homicides. The study analyzed secondary data from the murder logs of the Houston Police Department, and data from the U.S. Census Bureau were used to determine the proportion of women and men by race/ethnicity involved in intimate-partner homicides in relation to their representation in the general population. The SROK portion of the analysis analyzed the 917 of the 1,207 cases of intimate-partner homicide for which race/ethnicity and legal status of the relationship were known. 3 tables and 34 references