The Role of Gender in Intimate Homicide

Abstract

This report is an analysis of homicide in situations where the victim and the offender have been involved in a relationship of sexual intimacy. It draws upon qualitative analysis of 121 case studies of homicide prepared from the files of the Office of the Coroner of Victoria for the years 1985 and 1986. Of these, just over half (51%) involved victims and offenders linked by some form of intimate relationship, while just under one-third (31%) were in a sexual relationship. Gender emerged as a major feature of lethal violence in such situations of sexual intimacy. Possessiveness was a feature of male violence toward their female partners. When the women were younger, this was most often accompanied by jealousy and a history of violence, while with older women the homicide most often arose out of the deep depression of the male which led him to commit suicide, with the partner's homicide being part of the suicide plan. Women did not kill their male partners out of jealousy, but instead in most cases were protecting themselves from the earlier violence of the male.