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Changing Relationships Between Men and Women and the Decline in Intimate Partner Homicide (From Nature of Homicide: Trends and Changes - Proceedings of the 1996 Meeting of the Homicide Research Working Group, Santa Monica, California, P 70-79, 1996, Pamela K Lattimore and Cynthia A Nahabedian, eds.

NCJ Number
168575
Author(s)
R Rosenfeld
Date Published
1996
Length
10 pages
Annotation
The author examined the decline in intimate partner homicide using data on homicide incidents in St. Louis between 1968 and 1994.
Abstract
Intimate partner homicides were compared with other forms of homicide along several dimensions, including victim age and race, alcohol and drug involvement, firearm use, event location, presence of witnesses, and level and type of victim involvement in events leading to his or her death. Findings indicated black women were the victims of 41 marital homicides between 1968 and 1972. In contrast, just 6 marital homicides were recorded for black women between 1988 and 1992. In 1970, 16 percent of all homicides in St. Louis involved intimate partners; by 1990, this figure dropped to 8 percent. Although intimate partner homicide was the predominant form of homicide victimization among women in 1970, women were more likely to be killed by non-intimate acquaintances or strangers in 1992. Intimate partner homicides diverged in some important respects from homicides with different victim-offender relationships. Marital and nonmarital intimate partner homicides also differed from each other. Significant sex differences were observed with respect to gun use in intimate partner homicides. Men were much more likely than women to kill their partners with a gun. Men were also more likely than women to be victims in alcohol-related marital homicides. In over half of intimate partner homicides with male victims, the victim precipitated the conflict in which the killing occurred. Implications of the study findings for further research on violence between intimate partners are discussed. 12 references and 5 tables