NCJ Number
84371
Date Published
1981
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This paper identifies U.S. and international data sources on female victims of homicide and then details female homicide victimization rates by age group, race, relationship to offender, and circumstance.
Abstract
Researchers have neglected female victimization in favor of female offenders, although there are far more female victims than offenders and more information is available on the victims. Homicide figures by sex of victim are available from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the World Health Organization of the United Nations, the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, and studies of individual jurisdictions. The discussion of these sources notes that all statistics depend on the definition of homicide as distinguished from murder or accidents. According to 1976 NCHS reports, the average female had 1 chance in 25,000 of being the victim of a homicide while the average male had 1 chance in 6,896. The NCHS female victimization rate apparently has not increased as rapidly as the male rate over the last three decades. Homicide victimization rates vary sharply by age of the victim. The peak age of victimization for U.S. and Candian males and females is 25-34, whereas Latin American countries have relatively high rates for the elderly and European countries have higher rates for the very young. Other studies have found significant variations in female victimization by race, with white females having the lowest risk of homicide victimization. Female victims are more likely to be killed by family or friends than males. This intrafamily characteristic is even more pronounced in homicides involving female offenders. FBI statistics indicate that few women are killed in felony crime situations. Tables and 13 references are included.