Partner Homicide in Context

Abstract

The authors used a combination of medical examiner data and police interviews to develop profiles of all partner homicides that occurred in North Carolina in a single year. This methodology allowed us to investigate gender differences that might shape the context for male and female homicide perpetration and victimization. Five themes emerged: (a) The context for partner homicides is often chronic women battering, (b) leaving an abusive partner and remaining are both dangerous options, (c) protective measures for battered women are inadequate, (d) domestic violence is not necessarily private violence, and (e) alcohol and firearms often accompany homicide. These themes suggested: Partner homicides emanated almost uniformly from a history of male-perpetrated aggression; analysis of partner homicide should not be detached from the daily life created and sustained by battering; and a gender analysis of partner homicide focuses on the context of gender-based power imbalances rather than on frequency or severity of injury.