Intimate Partner Homicide: Using a 20-year national panel to identify patterns and prevalence
Creators: name: Roberts, Darryl W.
Publisher: name: Maryland Shared Open Access Repository
Year: 2009
Subjects: domestic homicide
domestic violence
intimate partner homicide
negative binomial
panel

description: Background and significance: Lethal violence, including homicide and suicide, takes  the lives of 45,000 Americans per year. Intimate partner ( IP) homicide is a type of  lethal violence that is classified as a form of homicide by policymakers, law  enforcement personnel, healthcare providers, and others. It accounts for only 7% of all  homicides, but nearly one- third of all homicides of women. The rates of all types of  lethal violence have decreased since 1985, but the distribution of IP homicide has gone  from nearly half male and half female victims to one- quarter male and three- quarters  female victims during that time. Because of the relationship shared between the  perpetrator and the victim, the nearly unlimited access the perpetrator has to the victim,  and the sociodemographic distinctions between IP homicide and non- intimate  homicide, the author hypothesizes that it is not a type of homicide per se, but instead a  separate entity deserving distinctively different approaches to prevent it.  Design and Methods: The primary aim of this study is to determine if IP homicide is a  type of homicide similar to non- intimate homicide in seasonal, regional, economic, and  sociodemographic distributions, if it is more like suicide in those distributions, or if it a  separate form of lethal violence with its own set of predictive criteria. The author of this  study examines a comprehensive database consisting of homicide data from the  Supplementary Homicide Reports, suicide data from the Mortality Multiple Cause of  Death Reports, as well as Census, firearm, alcohol, and religiosity data from a variety  of resources covering the entire United States from 1985- 2004. To create a panel for  evaluation, the author aggregated these data at the county level to create a dataset with  54,037 county months of observations.  Results: Intimate Partner Homicide does not correlate to regional, seasonal, economic,  and sociodemographic variables in the same way as non- intimate homicide or suicide.  Instead, IP Homicide does not vary with season or region of county. It does not  correlate with increases in population density nationally, but does in the Northeast and  the Midwest, where it has opposite correlations. Its only economic response is to  negatively correlate with unemployment. Further, it is higher in counties with higher  numbers of churchgoers. It also higher in counties with higher proportions of single-parent  households and with broader age gaps between male and female intimates. The  finding most important to policymakers is that since the passage of the Violence  Against Women Act, IP homicide incidence has significantly decreased, but that  decrease is disproportionately in favor of male victims.  Discussion and Policy Implications: The results of this study support the post that  Intimate Partner Homicide is a separate “ Current of Lethal Violence”, which many say  is the most preventable type of lethal violence. Since IP homicide is not like non-intimate  ( NI) homicide, it might not be amenable to the same prevention strategies  applied to NI homicide. Examples of these strategies include an increased police  presence in areas with higher IP homicide rates. Enhancements to the Violence Against  Women Act that focuses on women not capable of taking risks to protect themselves,  such as leaving the abuser, could prove very beneficial. These enhancements could  include interventions focusing on education of mental health and emergency  department healthcare providers, as well as improvements in law enforcement methods  used to stop intimate violence. An approach that recognizes that IP homicide is unlike  NI homicide; therefore, prevention should begin with recognition of the intimate dyad  and its effect on the persons within it. Some couples might not want to be separated, but  instead they might just want the violence to end.