La violencia de pareja relacionada con el femicidio-suicidio, describe el homicidio de una mujer por parte de su pareja íntima que luego se quita la vida. Estudios muestran que el femicidio – suicidio ocurre, principalmente, entre personas relacionadas íntimamente y se ve precipitado por discrepancias familiares. Este fenómeno es poco descrito en nuestro medio por lo que es imperante delimitar su estudio. Objetivo: Caracterizar el fenómeno femicidio-suicidio en los casos reportados en el Centro de Investigación de Ciencias Forenses de Manabí. Metodología: Se realizó un estudio descriptivo de conjunto, que incluyó todos los casos de femicidio y femicidio-suicidio reportados en el Centro de Investigación de Ciencias Forenses de Manabí entre los años 2014 y 2017. Resultados: Se incluyeron 32 casos de estudio, 25 femicidios y 7 casos de suicidio posterior al femicidio. En la victima el rango de edad más frecuente fue entre los 25 y 44 años (72%); el estado civil de la mayoría fue unión libre o solteras (60%), el 36% de ellas tenía un nivel de escolaridad bajo (primaria), la relación que mantenían con su agresor en el 58% fue de convivencia. En el victimario el rango de edad más frecuente fue entre los 25 y 44 años (86%); su estado civil fue soltero o unión libre en un (43%), y el nivel de instrucción predominante fue primaria (29%). El objeto lesivo más utilizado fue el arma blanca (40%), tanto para los femicidios como para los suicidios, la mayoría de los casos sucedieron en la vivienda familiar (60%). Las denuncias previas como factor de riesgo solo se presentaron en el 36% de los casos. Conclusiones: Las mujeres víctimas de femicidio se encontraban en edad fértil, con un nivel de escolaridad bajo y relaciones de tipo abierto con sus parejas. Los sujetos que cometieron suicidio seguido de femicidio mostraron características sociodemográficas similares a sus víctimas. La mayoría de víctimas no tuvieron antecedentes de denuncias previa
El femicidio es una figura innovadora que se incorporó al sistema penal ecuatoriano hace menos de diez años, pero creció considerablemente en el 2016, por ello se planteó el objetivo de analizar la incidencia de femicidio en Ecuador y provincia del Guayas. Se aplicó la metodología descriptiva, cuantitativa, bibliográfica, de campo, con uso de encuesta a 10 usuarios, cuyos resultados fueron los siguientes: Ecuador fue el país de mayor crecimiento del femicidio en 2016, con 162%, aumentando su participación en Latinoamérica de 3% (2015) a 8% (2016), donde Brasil y El Salvador participaron con las dos terceras partes de los casos de femicidio en la región latinoamericana. La región Litoral fue de mayor incidencia de femicidio en Ecuador, con más de la mitad de los casos en 2016, ocupando Guayas el primer lugar en ranking provincial de estos crímenes, con tercera parte a nivel nacional y dos terceras partes en litoral ecuatoriano; las causas de estos crímenes fueron sentimentales, participaron sus convivientes actuales y anteriores, resolviéndose menos del 15% de casos, evidenciando limitada celeridad asociada a la impunidad del delito.
El artículo aborda una de las manifestaciones más usuales y extremas de la violencia basada en género: el femicidio, considerado como una indiscutible trasgresión a las garantías fundamentales de las mujeres por su condición genérica. Justamente, en virtud de que dicha violación a los Derechos Humanos de las mujeres carece aún de reconocimiento social, producto de la invisibilización y naturalización de los comportamientos violentos hacia el género femenino; su estudio y difusión resultan necesarios con miras a un adecuado manejo atencional y preventivo del fenómeno. En este sentido, la siguiente reflexión analiza algunas aristas y retos que se vislumbran en América Central en torno a la realidad del femicidio y su abordaje integral en la región, identificándose un aumento considerable de casos, contrastado por respuestas judiciales y penitenciarias que requieren una mayor reflexión y ajuste en concordancia con la tipificación y sanción de este delito.
La presencia de un arma de fuego en situaciones de violencia íntima incrementa la probabilidad de la victimización fatal. No obstante, en Argentina ninguna investigación completa se ha hecho sobre las armas de fuego en femicidios. Este trabajo exploratorio indaga sobre el rol de las armas de fuego en la violencia íntima en general y los femicidios en particular para una evaluación de las medidas de prevención existentes. Propone a) revisar la literatura académica y la normativa existente sobre el femicidio en general, y en América Latina y en Argentina en particular; b) revelar la preocupación internacional sobre el uso de armas de fuego en los femicidios; c) analizar los datos estadísticos disponibles sobre violencia íntima y femicidios que involucran armas de fuego en la Argentina y d) reflexionar acerca de las iniciativas legislativas, las políticas y acciones sociales para mejorar las medidas preventivas que reduzcan el uso del medio más letal para la comisión de femicidios: las armas de fuego.
En Chile se registran los femicidios desde 2008, desconociendo su evolución temporal, perfil de las víctimas/victimarios, factores asociados e impacto epidémico. Objetivo: Caracterizar los femicidios en Chile y su impacto epidémico entre 2008 a 2017. Material y Método: Estudio ecológico. Variables: Características de víctima/victimario y del asesinato. Fuentes: Ministerio de la Mujer y Equidad de Género, Red Chilena contra la violencia hacia las mujeres entre otras. Análisis: univariado y bivariado (SPSSv21.0), mapeo (ARGISv10.1) e índice epidémico (Microsoft Excel). Resultados: Se registraron 468 femicidios. La tasa nacional fue de 7×106 de mujeres entre 14 a 90 años, aumentó entre 2008-2010, luego disminuye y vuelve a aumentar el 2014. La tasa más alta es de la región de Aysén (33×106) y la más baja de Tarapacá (3×10). La media de edad de las víctimas fue de 37 años, la del femicida fue de 45,9 años. El 40% apuñaló a su víctima, suicidándose el 29,9%. El 33% de los meses fue epidémico, con un ligero descenso en 2016 y aumenta en 2017. Conclusiones: Víctimas y victimarios eran jóvenes, aunque incluyen adolescentes y adultas(os) mayores, con relaciones estables e hijos(as) en común. Los femicidios han descendido, pero aumentaron en los últimos años, confirmado por el índice epidémico subyacente. Palabras claves: Violencia doméstica, violencia basada en el género, violencia del compañero íntimo, resultado fatal.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a highly prevalent phenomenon worldwide and is considered a severe violation of human rights. Intimate partner homicide (IPH) and attempted intimate partner homicide (AIPH) although less frequent have a severe direct or indirect impact on victims. Despite the vast literature on IPV and IPH, there is still scarce research on AIPH. Thus, this study aimed to analyze whether perpetrators of IPV, IPH, and AIPH differ from each other, as well as to identify the factors that predict violence in intimacy. For those purposes, we performed a comparative analysis between 50 male individuals convicted of IPH, 27 convicted of AIPH, and 168 convicted of IPV from Portugal. The data were collected using an interview and a set of psychological measures. Results revealed that, although IPV, IPH, and AIPH perpetrators’ share some characteristics, significant differences were found between them. IPV perpetrators were more prone to perpetrate violent behaviors against an intimate partner or ex-partner than IPH or AIPH offenders. The use of weapons and separation from the victim increases the probability of committing IPH or AIPH. Being divorced, having no children, and committing other crimes than domestic violence are predictors of AIPH. These results have some practical implications, in terms of both risk prediction and risk management. Accurate and comprehensive tools should be included as a routine in the primary care services, as well as in the child care services and in victim support services. Prevention and intervention efforts must be comprehensive, involving work with perpetrators and victims.
Intimate partner violence during adolescence is widespread, and consequencescan be severe. Intimate partner homicide (IPH) is the most extreme form of intimate partnerviolence, but literature on IPH has almost exclusively focused on adults. OBJECTIVES To determine the proportion of adolescent homicides that is perpetrated byintimate partners and to describe the victim, perpetrator, and incident characteristics ofthese IPHs. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTSAnalysis of quantitative and qualitative surveillancedata from the National Violent Death Reporting System from 2003 to 2016. Data represent32 states that contributed to the system for 1 year or longer. There were 8048 homicides ofvictims aged 11 to 24 years with a known relationship between the victim and perpetrator. Forpersons aged 11 to 18 years, there were 2188 homicides. Analysis began September 2018. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURESAn incident was identified as an IPH if the relationshipbetween the perpetrator and victim was coded as spouse, ex-spouse, girlfriend or boyfriend,ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend, or girlfriend or boyfriend (unspecified current or former).Variables of interest included demographic characteristics (age, sex, race/ethnicity) for thevictim and perpetrator, relationship status at time of death, homicide-suicide, homicidemethod, firearm type, and location of homicide. Contextual categories were created from thequalitative narratives.RESULTSOf adolescent homicides, 150 (6.9%) were classified as IPH. A total of 135 victims(90%) were female (mean [SD] age, 16.8 [1.3] years). Overall, 102 perpetrators (77.9%) were18 years and older (mean [SD] age, 20.6 [5.0] years), and 94 (62.7%) were current intimatepartners of the victim. Firearms, specifically handguns, were the most common mechanismof injury. Compared with IPHs of young adults aged 19 to 24 years, perpetrators of adolescentvictims were younger and less likely to be a current intimate partner. The most commoncategories of adolescent IPH homicides were broken/desired relationship or jealousy and analtercation followed by reckless firearm behavior and pregnancy related. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Adolescents, particularly girls, in dating relationships mayface risk of homicide, especially in circumstances of a breakup or jealousy and whenperpetrators have access to firearms. Understanding homicide in early dating relationshipscan inform prevention and intervention efforts tailored to adolescents.
El conocimiento de las características de los distintos tipos de feminicidios puede contribuir en la mejora de las estrategias de prevención en el ámbito de la violencia contra la mujer. Con base en el análisis de 307 sentencias en España por feminicidios, consumados o intentados, se estudiaron las diferencias entre 146 feminicidios precedidos (FI-SE) y 161 no precedidos por la separación de la pareja (FI-NOSE). Los resultados muestran que los autores de FI-SE ejercen más tipos de violencia, son más celosos y experimentan más fuentes de estrés en el año que precede al crimen. El acoso incrementa cuatro veces la probabilidad de que ocurra el FI-SE, mientras que la discusión entre la pareja sin que conste violencia previa decrece la probabilidad de que acontezca el FI-SE. Sin embargo, los que cometen el FI-NOSE tienen un mayor historial de depresión y trastornos psicóticos. Se describen las implicaciones teóricas y prácticas.
It has been argued that individuals who engage in spouse abuse increase their vio-lence toward their partners, which can culminate in the death of either the as-saulter or the victim. The aim of this review is to identify risk factors that determinewhether an abusive relationship will end in eventual death. An extensive search re-vealed 22 empirical research studies on risk factors for spousal homicide. The cir-cumstances of spousal homicide are described and salient risk factors arehighlighted. In the United Kingdom, 37% of all women were murdered by theircurrent or former intimate partner compared to 6% of men. The most commoncause of an intimate partner’s death in England and Wales was being attacked witha sharp implement or being strangled. By contrast, the most common cause in theUnited States for spousal homicide was being shot. Nine major risk factors arefound that may help predict the probability of a partner homicide and prevent fu-ture victims.
Background:Violence is a large concern for mental health professionals: 90% of physicians and nurses workingin mental health areas have been subject to violence from patients. Approximately 80% of violent acts frompatients are directed toward nurses.Objective:The purpose of this integrative literature review was to identify violence risk–assessment screeningtools that could be used in acute care mental health settings.Design:The Stetler model of evidence-based practice guided the literature search, in which 8 violence risk–as-sessment tools were identified, 4 of which were used for further examination.Results:The Brøset Violence Checklist and Violence Risk Screening-10 provided the best assessment for violencein the acute care mental health setting.Conclusions:Using a violence risk assessment screening tool helps identify patients at risk for violence allowingfor quick intervention to prevent violent episodes.
The “prison bubble” phenomenon (Petersilia, 2011) is not exclusive to the U.S. In many ways, it also applies to the significant increase in the number of people incarcerated during the last 25 years in Europe. Many Western European countries, especially the U.K., France, and Spain, have been witness to a trend similar to that seen in the U.S., though admittedly not on the same scale (Aebi et al., 2014). It has been well documented that the presence of a large prison population pushes up the rates of recidivism (Petersilia, 2003; Zara & Farrington, 2016). In this chapter, we will examine the issue of prison recidivism in Catalonia, briefly summarize the studies of recidivism carried out in recent years, and present a new instrument for assessing the risk of recidivism, the RisCanvi or “Risk Change” protocol, which has made an important con-tribution to the management and rehabilitation of offenders in the Catalan prison system. The RisCanvi was designed to assess the risk of violence in prisons in Catalonia and, since 2009, it has been the main tool both for preventing prison violence and for managing rehabilitation and recidivism. It has been empirically tested and its metric parameters are similar to those of other recidivism risk assessment tools like the Level of Service Inventory–Revised (LSI-R) and Post-Conviction Risk Assessment (PCRA) (see Desmarais & Singh, 2013).
Instrumentos específicos de evaluación de riesgo de violencia o de letalidad en las relaciones íntimas. Diversos estudios dan cuenta de su validez, confiabilidad y efectividad predictiva.
Discurso en ceremonia de entrega del August Vollmer Award, reconocimiento otorgado a individuos que destacan en la vida académica o profesional por contribuciones a la justicia, o al tratamiento y prevención de la conducta criminal o delincuente (https://www.washington.edu/research/or/honors-and-awards/august-vollmer-award/)
The Danger Assessment (DA) is an instrument designed to assess the likelihoodof lethality or near lethality occurring in a case of intimate partner violence. Thisarticle describes the development, psychometric validation, and suggestions foruse of the DA. An 11-city study of intimate partner femicide used multivariateanalysis to test the predictive validity of the risk factors on the DA from intimatepartner femicide cases (N =310) compared with 324 abused women in the samecities (controls). The results were used to revise the DA (four items added; one“double-barreled” item divided into two), and the calculated weights (adjustedodds ratios) used to develop a scoring algorithm with levels of risk. These lev-els of risk were then tested with an independent sample of attempted femicides(N=194) with a final outcome of .90 of the cases included in the area under thereceiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.
Objectives.This 11-city study sought to identify risk factors for femicide in abusiverelationships.Methods.Proxies of 220 intimate partner femicide victims identified from police ormedical examiner records were interviewed, along with 343 abused control women.Results.Preincident risk factors associated in multivariate analyses with increasedrisk of intimate partner femicide included perpetrator’s access to a gun and previousthreat with a weapon, perpetrator’s stepchild in the home, and estrangement, espe-cially from a controlling partner. Never living together and prior domestic violence ar-rest were associated with lowered risks. Significant incident factors included the vic-tim having left for another partner and the perpetrator’s use of a gun. Other significantbivariate-level risks included stalking, forced sex, and abuse during pregnancy.
Conclusions. There are identifiable risk factors for intimate partner femicides. (Am JPublic Health.2003;93:1089–1097
Intimate partner homicide/attempted homicide are the most serious outcome of intimate partner violence. Thus, in this study, conducted in Portugal, we sought to compare perpetrators of severe violence with those who perpetrate less severe acts of violence as well as to identify predictors for severe violence. Sample was constituted by 50 men convicted for marital homicide or attempted homicide and 137 men convicted for domestic violence. Results show that although both perpetrators of severe and less severe violence share some characteristics, significant differences were found among them. The use of weapons, separation/break-up, and high socioeconomic status (SES) significantly increased the likelihood of a man to commit severe violence. Prior violence, aggression, and medium SES decreased significantly the probability of an individual to perpetrate severe violence. These findings reinforce the assumption that severe and less severe forms of violence can be discrete phenomena and underscore the importance of conducting accurate risk assessments.
Men’s lethal and nonlethal violence against an intimate female partner are compared.Various risk factors are examined to compare men’s lethal and nonlethal violenceagainst an intimate woman partner. Relative to abusers, men who kill are generallymore conventional with respect to childhood backgrounds, education, employment, andcriminal careers, are more likely to be possessive and jealous, and are more likely to beseparated from their partner at the time of the event. Men who kill are more likely tohave used violence against a previous partner, to have sexually assaulted and strangledthe victim, and to have used a weapon or instrument. However, they were less likely tohave been drunk at the time of the event and/or to have previously used violence againstthe woman they killed. Overall, the findings do not support the notion of a simple pro-gression from nonlethal to lethal violence and raise some dilemmas for the growingarea of risk assessment.
Objectives.We revised the Danger Assessment to predict reassault in abusivefemale same-sex relationships.Methods.Weused focus groups and interviews to evaluate the assessmenttool and identify new risk factors and telephone interviews at baseline and at 1-month follow-up to evaluate the revised assessment.Results.The new assessment tool comprised 8 original and 10 new items. Pre-dictors included increase in physical violence (relative risk ratio [RRR] = 1.95; 95%confidence interval [CI] = 0.84, 4.54), constant jealousy or possessiveness of abuser(RRR = 4.07; 95% CI = 0.61, 27.00), cohabitation (RRR = 1.96; 95% CI = 0.54, 7.12),threats or use of gun by abuser (RRR = 1.93; 95% CI = 0.79, 4.75), alcoholism orproblem drinking of abuser (RRR = 1.47; 95% CI = 0.79, 2.71), illegal drug use orabuse of prescription medications by abuser (RRR = 1.33; 95% CI = 0.72, 2.46),stalking by abuser (RRR = 1.39; 95% CI = 0.70, 2.76), failure of individuals to takevictim seriously when she sought help (RRR = 1.66; 95% CI = 0.90, 3.05), victim’sfear of reinforcing negative stereotypes (RRR = 1.42; 95% CI = 0.73, 2.77), and se-crecy of abuse (RRR = 1.72; 95% CI = 0.74, 3.99). Both unweighted (P<.005) andweighted (P<.004) versions of the revised assessment were significant predictorsof reassault.Conclusions.The revised Danger Assessment accurately assesses risk of re-assault in abusive female relationships. (Am J Public Health.2008;98:1021–1027.doi:10.2105/AJPH.2007.117770)
La manifestación más extrema de violencia es el homicidio, que inquieta más cuando se produce en las relaciones de pareja, donde la mujer tiene seis veces más riesgo de morir. Aunque España presenta una tasa de homicidios de mujeres inferior a las medias europea y mundial y cuenta con políticas para reducir esta violencia, se siguen registrando homicidios. Para evitar más muertes es necesario estudiar el fenómeno a fondo. Desde 1990 se han creado en distintos países equipos de revisión de homicidios en el entorno familiar, que los analizan de manera multidisciplinar, especialmente los de mujeres, para determinar factores comunes y qué cambios sería necesario implementar para evitar futuras muertes violentas. Se revisan las características de los equipos internacionales y se describe el origen, composición y operativa del Equipo Nacional de Revisión Pormenorizada de Homicidios en el contexto de la Violencia de Género (EHVdG) de España.
La presente investigación titulada “Feminicidio en internos del Establecimiento Penitenciario de Arequipa”, tiene el objetivo de determinar el Perfil de Personalidad de los internos que han cometido el delito de Feminicidio, evaluando las características de la personalidad de los sujetos, así como los Esquemas Desadaptativos de los mismos y el análisis del mundo subjetivo. El paradigma mixto es el aplicable a esta investigación, se encuentra dividida en dos fases, la primera fase utiliza el diseño de investigación transeccional correlacional, utilizando un tipo de muestreo no probabilístico y fue analizado con la prueba no paramétrica de la Chi Cuadrada. La segunda fase estuvo conformada por el paradigma cualitativo biográfico, aplicada a 10 internos utilizando un tipo de muestreo de casos confirmatorios y fue analizado mediante el proceso de codificación. Como resultados se obtuvo que los sujetos que cometieron el delito de Feminicidio presentan características de su personalidad que se particularizan por la inhibición de impulsos negativos y positivos, así como las condiciones familiares, personales y del delito mismo.
This study partially replicates and expands on a previous study that showed women’s perceptions of risk to be a strong predictor of reassault among batterers. The current study employed a larger and multisite sample, a longer follow-up period of 15 months, and multiple outcomes including “repeated reassault” (n = 499). According to the multinomial logistic regressions, women’s perceptions of risk improved prediction with risk factors (ROC area under the curve improved by .04 and sensitivity of repeated reassault increased 12 percentage points). In comparison to simulated risk instruments, women’s perceptions by themselves were better predictors than the K-SID, similar in predictive ability to the SARA, and almost as strong as the DAS. The best prediction of repeated reassault was obtained using risk markers, including women’s perceptions (ROC AUC = .83; 70% sensitivity) or by using the DAS and women’s perceptions together (ROC AUC = .73; 64% sensitivity).
An actuarial tool, the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA), predicts recidivism using only variables readily obtained by frontline police officers. Correctional settings permit more comprehensive assessments. In a subset of ODARA construction and cross-validation cases, 303 men with a police record for wife assault and a correctional system file, the VRAG, SARA, Danger Assessment, and DVSI also predicted recidivism, but the Hare Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R) best improved prediction of recidivism, occurrence, frequency, severity, injury, and charges. In 346 new cases, ODARA and PCL-R independently predicted recidivism. An algorithm was derived for a combined instrument, the Domestic Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (DVRAG), and an experience table is presented (N = 649). Results indicated the importance of antisociality in wife assault.
An actuarial assessment to predict male-to-female marital violence was constructed from a pool of potential predictors in a sample of 589 offenders identified in police records and followed up for an average of almost 5 years. Archival information in several domains (offender characteristics, domestic violence history, nondomestic criminal history, relationship characteristics, victim characteristics, index offense) and recidivism were subjected to setwise and stepwise logistic regression. The resulting 13-item scale, the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA), showed a large effect size in predicting new assaults against legal or common-law wives or ex-wives (Cohen’s d = 1.1, relative operating characteristic area = .77) and was associated with number and severity of new assaults and time until recidivism. Cross-validation and comparisons with other instruments are also reported. (APA PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
El artículo no posee resumen.
La forma más alarmante de violencia de pareja es el homicidio. La evaluación del riesgo en agresores de pareja es algo habitual en contextos policiales y penitenciarios con el objetivo de prevenir la reincidencia y los desenlaces mortales. El objetivo del estudio fue analizar si los hombres que matan a su pareja (homicidio de pareja – HP) presentan factores de riesgo diferentes a los de aquellos que matan a una mujer con la que no mantienen relación de pareja (no homicidio de pareja – no-HP). Se describen las características delictivas de 30 homicidios de pareja consumados o intentados que han recibido sentencia en Cataluña (España) entre 2004 y 2009. Además, se compararon los factores de riesgo en los 21 HP consumados y una muestra de 20 no-HP utilizando el RisCanvi, un instrumento actuarial utilizado en las prisiones de Cataluña en la gestión de los internos. Los resultados solo mostraron diferencias en el rol delictivo y en temeridad, más prevalentes en los no-HP, en consonancia con la investigación que señala que los HP son similares a otros homicidas. Se discute la implicación de estos resultados en la valoración y gestión del riesgo en estos casos de violencia de pareja.
La tesis no tiene resumen.
Objetivo: Quantificar e tipificar os feminicídios ocorridos no município de Porto Alegre entre 2006 e 2010. Métodos: Estudo transversal que identifica as características sociodemográficas das vítimas e dos agressores e as circunstâncias de mortes femininas por agressão obtidas em inquéritos policiais na cidade de Porto Alegre. As análises estatísticas foram realizadas por meio do software SPSS, versão 20.0, utilizando o teste χ2 e considerando significativo p<0,05. Resultados: Dos 89 inquéritos analisados, 64 mortes (72%) foram categorizadas como feminicídios. A maioria das vítimas era jovem, com baixa escolaridade e exercia ocupações pouco valorizadas socialmente. Elas tinham histórico de violências perpetradas por parceiro íntimo e um quarto delas havia registrado boletim de ocorrência policial. Conclusão: Esses dados indicam a magnitude desse crime e a necessidade de identificar situações de risco e prevenir desfechos letais.
Homicide in intimate relationships is one of the most prevalent causes of death for women worldwide. This meta-analysis aims to identify and integrate, through analytical and statistical methodologies, the risk factors associated with intimate partner homicide. The research was performed in different databases and led to the inclusion of 28 empirical articles in this meta-analysis. Only quantitative papers with a comparison group (non-fatal perpetrators, other homicides, intimate partner homicide followed by suicide) were considered for this meta-analysis. The results showed that the risk factors related to abusive couple dynamics (threatening the victim with a weapon, any kind of threatening, death threats, bottlenecks, stalking and controlling behaviours, abuse during pregnancy and physical violence) are associated with a higher probability of intimate partner homicide. Further studies should provide more clarification of the factors associated with this phenomenon to improve the efficiency of the criminal investigation of intimate partner homicides, making crime repression and the protection of victims more effective.
To describe the odds of femicide (homicide of females) for women abused during pregnancy. METHODS: A ten-city case-control design was used with attempted and completed femicides as cases (n = 437) and randomly identified abused women living in the same metropolitan area as controls (n = 384). The attempted and completed femicide cases were identified from police and medical examiner records. Interviews of attempted femicide victims and a proxy for the femicide victim were compared with data from abused controls, identified via random digit dialing in the same ten cities. RESULTS: Abuse during pregnancy was reported by 7.8% of the abused controls, 25.8% of the attempted femicides, and 22.7% of the completed femicides. Five percent of the femicide victims were murdered while pregnant. After adjusting for significant demographic factors, such as age, ethnicity, education, and relationship status, the risk of becoming an attempted/completed femicide victim was three-fold higher (adjusted odds ratio 3.08, 95% adjusted confidence interval 1.86, 5.10) for women abused during pregnancy. Black women had more than a three-fold increase in risk (adjusted odds ratio 3.6, 95% adjusted confidence interval 2.4, 5.5) as compared with white women. Compared with women not abused during pregnancy, controls and attempted/completed femicide victims abused during pregnancy reported significantly higher levels of violence. CONCLUSION: Femicide is an important, but often unreported, cause of maternal mortality. This is the first report of a definite link between abuse during pregnancy and attempted/completed femicide. This research documents the immediate need for universal abuse assessment of all pregnant women. © 2002 by The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive problem in the United States. IPV is oftenrepetitive and may escalate; in a small number of cases, IPV leads to homicide. This articlepresents an evidence-based practice (EBP) model for risk-informed social work interventionwith survivors and perpetrators of IPV. The EBP model combines the best available researchevidence, practitioner expertise, and client self-determination to determine the most appro-priate intervention. IPV risk assessment instruments provide the best available evidence offuture reassault, severe reassault, or homicide. Practitioners who implement IPV risk assess-ment can use their expertise to adjust risk scores and to suggest risk mitigation strategies fortheir clients. Examples of risk-informed social work practice include the safe removal offirearms, safety planning around separation, and mitigating the negative consequences ofstrangulation and sexual violence. Clients ultimately use their self-determination to decidewhich risk reduction strategies to implement. An EBP model can be used by social workersin all areas of practice to provide risk-informed social work interventions.
Despite the growing population of immigrant women in the United States and their greatervulnerability to intimate partner violence (IPV), there are no culturally competent instru-ments to assess the risk of homicide and future violence among abused immigrant women.The current study modifies the Danger Assessment (DA), a risk assessment instrumentaimed at identifying victims of IPV who are at risk for lethal violence by an intimate or ex-intimate partner, for use with immigrant women. A secondary analysis was conducted with148 immigrant women who participated in a longitudinal risk assessment study. The20 original DA items and an additional 12 risk items were tested using relative risk ratios fortheir association with any or severe IPV at a follow-up interview. Predictive validity wastested with the receiver operating characteristic curve. Results indicate support for a revisedDanger Assessment for Immigrant Women (DA-I) consisting of 26 items. The DA-I pre-dicts any and severe IPV at a nine-month follow-up significantly better than the originalDA and women’s predictions of risk. The DA-I is a culturally competent risk assessmentthat can be used to assess the risk of reassault and severe IPV to assist immigrant womenwith safety planning.
Police officers have a unique opportunity to administer risk assessment at the scene of intimate partner violence (IPV) incidents. This article examines the predictive validity of two IPV risk assessments developed for administration by front line police officers and intended to inform collaborative interventions between the criminal justice and social service systems. The Lethality Screen and the Danger Assessment for Law Enforcement (DA-LE) are short forms of the Danger Assessment and, although similar, function differently and have different uses. The higher specificity of the DA-LE makes it appropriate for informing interventions focused on offender accountability. The high sensitivity of the Lethality Screen casts a wide net to educate and offer advocacy services to victim-survivors of IPV. Using technology to integrate IPV risk assessment within an evidence based practice framework may inform targeted collaborative interventions that reduce future IPV and femicide.
One-third of women are victimized by intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetime;when women are killed, they are often murdered by a previously abusive intimate part-ner. Risk-informed collaborative interventions, such as domestic violence high risk teams(DVHRTs), use IPV risk assessment to identify and intervene in high-risk IPV cases. Thisstudy reports on the development and testing of the Danger Assessment for Law Enforce-ment (DA-LE), an IPV risk assessment intended for use with DVHRTs. Data were col-lected through structured telephone interviews from service-seeking survivors of IPV attwo time points approximately seven to eight months apart. One sample (n=570) wasused to develop the DA-LE and another (n=389) was used to test the predictive validity ofthe instrument using the receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (AUC).TheDA-LE predicted near fatal IPV on follow-up with similar or better accuracy than most val-idated IPV risk assessment instruments (AUC=0.6864–0.7516).There were no significantdifferences in predictive validity based on survivor/offender race or ethnicity. The DA-LE has the potential to identify high-risk police-involved IPV cases. Risk-informed col-laborative interventions may enhance outcomes for survivors of IPV by holding offendersaccountable, increasing help seeking, and reducing future assaults.
Aims: To assess the predictive validity of the DA-5 with the addition of a strangulation item in evaluating the risk of an intimate partner violence (IPV) victim being nearly killed by an intimate partner. Background: The DA-5 was developed as a short form of the Danger Assessment for use in healthcare settings, including emergency and urgent care settings. Analyzing data from a sample of IPV survivors who had called the police for domestic violence, the DA-5 was tested with and without an item on strangulation, a potentially fatal and medically damaging IPV tactic used commonly by dangerous abusers. Design: A heterogeneous sample of 1081 women recruited by police between 2009-2013 at the scene of a domestic violence call and interviewed by researchers at baseline; 619 (57.3%) were contacted and re-interviewed after an average of 7 months. Methods: The predictive validity of the DA-5 was assessed for the outcome of severe or near lethal IPV re-assault using sensitivity, specificity and ROC curve analysis techniques. Results: The original DA-5 was found to be accurate (AUC=.68), equally accurate with the strangulation item from the original DA substituted (AUC=.68) and slightly more accurate (but not a statistically significant difference) if multiple strangulation is assessed. Conclusion: We recommend that the DA-5 with the strangulation item be used for a quick assessment of homicide or near homicide risk among IPV survivors. A protocol for immediate referral and examination for further injury from a strangulation should be adopted for IPV survivors at high risk.
In a study to evaluate a collaborative police and social service intervention, researchers asked police officers to recruit intimate partner violence victims at the scene of domestic violence incidents. This article reviews the process of building successful partnerships with police departments as well as the strategies developed with collaborating police departments to create successful recruitment methods and enhance officer and department engagement with recruitment procedures. Ov er a period of 298 days, 800 v ictims were referred to the research study. Of these referrals, we were unable to contact 41.3%; of those contacted (n = 471), we conducted interviews with 67.73%.
This study examined the frequency, nature and proximity of service contacts among victims and perpetrators of intimate partner homicide in Victoria, Australia. A retrospective review was conducted of coroner’s records of 120 intimate partner homicides for the period 2000–2008. In 91(75.8 %) of the cases, one or both parties had contact with aservice in the 12 months preceding the homicide. The justice system was the most frequent point of contact among both parties, and the healthcare system was often the first and preferred point of contact for victims and perpetrators when seeking assistance individually. Overall, perpetrators were more likely to have contact with a service than victims, and the majority of all service contacts occurred within 1 month ofthe homicide. This paper outlines the prevention opportunitiesthat exist within the service system and highlights the impor-tance of interventions and treatments directed at perpetratorsof family violence.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) has profound and widespread health and economic implications at an individual, familial, and societal level. Violence risk assessment measures offer an evidence-informed approach to ascertain the degree of threat an abuser poses, transparent and defensible indicators for intervention and treatment decisions, and can be used to inform professionals, perpetrators, and victims alike regarding the nature and intensity of services required to help prevent IPV. This article summarizes the state of knowledge regarding risk assessment for IPV through a system-atic examination of all English publications from westernized nations from 1990 to 2011. Three search engines—PsychINFO, ScienceDirect, and Social Sciences Citation Index—identified 3,361 potentially relevant articles. After dropping duplicates and removing articles that did not explicitly examine risk assessment for IPV, 39 articles remained. Several themes emerged: (a) There is a relatively small body of empirical evidence evaluating risk assessment measures in the context of IPV; (b) continued advancements are needed in the methodological rigor of the research; (c) investigations should expand cross-alidation research to diverse samples (e.g., gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender [GLBT]; male victims/female perpetrators); and (d) an exciting development in IPV risk assessment research is evidence that risk assessments can serve to reduce risk levels (Belfrage et al., 2011). In terms of clinical implications, the review demonstrated considerable promise of several measures but generally reveals modest postdictive/predictive validity. Limited evidence for the superiority of IPV specific risk assessment measures over general violence risk assessment measures was revealed; however, this may largely be a reflection of study limitations. Given the challenges in comparing across studies and the heterogeneity of partner abusers, it seems premature to recommend one preferred assessment mea-sure/approach to clinicians.
To examine in-depth the lives of women whose partners attempted to kill them, and to identify patterns that may aid in the clinician’s ability to predict, prevent, or counsel about femicide or attempted femicide. DESIGN: Qualitative analysis of 30 in-depth interviews. SETTING: Six U.S. cities. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty women, aged 17–54 years, who survived an attempted homicide by an intimate partner. RESULTS: All but 2 of the participants had previously experienced physical violence, controlling behavior, or both from the partner who attempted to kill them. The intensity of the violence, control, and threats varied greatly, as did the number of risk factors measured by the Danger Assessment, defining a wide spectrum of prior abuse. Approximately half (14/30) of the participants did not recognize that their lives were in danger. Women often focused more on relationship problems involving money, alcohol, drugs, possessiveness, or infidelity, than on the risk to themselves from the violence. The majority of the attempts (22/30) happened around the time of a relationship change, but the relationship was often ending because of problems other than violence. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians should not be falsely reassured by a woman’s sense of safety, by the lack of a history of severe violence, or by the presence of few classic risk factors for homicide. Efforts to reduce femicide risk that are targeted only at those women seeking help for violence-related problems may miss potential victims.
Based on the analyzed cases in the research sample the author demonstrates that intimate partner homicides of women in Slovenia are distinctly gendered criminal offences and that Slovenia does not differ significantly in this respect from other countries. In Slovenia as well as in the majority of other countries almost half of homicides of women are committed by a former or current spouse or intimate partner. The analysis also shows that the basis of these acts are strong traditional or patriarchal attitudes of perpetrators on partner relationships and gender rolesand especially male feelings of the ownership of their female partners.
The purpose of this study was to identify common and unique risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV) among young adults in relationships. Guided by two models of IPV, the same set of risk factors was used to examine outcomes of unidirectional (perpetration or victimization) and bidirectional (reciprocal) IPV separately for males and females. Methods: The sample included 10,187 young adults, ages 18-27, from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The respondents were drawn from Wave 3 and stated they had a romantic relationship during the time of the study. The risk factors were primarily related to violent socialization (e.g., childhood maltreatment, youth violence) and personal adjustment (e.g., alcohol use, depression). Results: Approximately 47% of the respondents experienced some form of IPV in romantic relationships, and the majority of respondents reported bidirectional violence. For males, childhood sexual abuse was associated with perpetration and bidirectional IPV, and childhood neglect was associated with bidirectional IPV. For females, childhood neglect was associated with all three IPV outcomes, and childhood physical abuse was associated with bidirectional IPV. Youth violence perpetration during adolescence increased the odds for all IPV outcomes among females, while low self-esteem increased the odds for all IPV outcomes among males. A history of suicide attempts predicted bidirectional IPV across genders. Being married and living with a partner predicted all three IPV outcomes for males and females. Conclusions: The results revealed more common risk factors for bidirectional IPV than unidirectional IPV and few common risk factors across genders. The results indicate that IPV prevention and intervention strategies should be tailored to the unique risk experiences of males and females rather than focus on a common factors approach. However, child abuse, youth violence, and suicide prevention efforts may reduce incidents of later IPV for males and females, and these strategies should continue to be an emphasis in practice and research. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.
La siguiente investigación tiene como objetivo analizar los factores psicosociales vinculados al delito de feminicidio, estudio realizado en los internos sentenciados del Establecimiento Penal de Tacna, varones, en el año 2016. La presente es una investigación de paradigma cualitativo, utilizándose el método fenomenológico, se hace uso de la técnica de la entrevista semiestructurada abierta y de la codificación como técnica de procesamiento. Se ha evaluado a un total de 4 actores sociales, utilizando muestreo de casos confirmatorios, que cumple los requisitos de inclusión y exclusión del presente estudio, llegando a la conclusión que efectivamente los factores psicosociales están vinculados al delito de feminicidio y es necesario que se suscite una educación basada en valores donde exista paciencia, comprensión hacia una resolución de problemas donde se logre mantener una familia unida preparada para proponerse metas y tener un futuro mejor.
Using a national-level US homicide database that includes more than 400,000 homicides committed from 1976-1994, I calculated rates of uxoricide (the murder of a woman by her romantic partner) by type of relationship (cohabiting or marital), ages of the partners, and age difference between partners. Women in cohabiting relationships are about nine times more likely to be killed by their partner than are women in marital relationships. Within marital relationships, the risk of uxori-cide decreases with a woman’s age. Within cohabiting relationships, in contrast, middle-aged women are at greatest risk of uxoricide. Paralleling the uxoricide victimization rates, uxoricide perpetra-tion rates are highest for young married men and for middle-aged cohabiting men. Uxoricide risk generally increases with greater age difference between partners. These findings provide the first national-level replication of uxoricide risk patterns reported for a national-level Canadian sample. Discussion highlights future research directions, including identifying why women in cohabiting relationships incur greater risk of uxoricide than do women in marital relationships.
Advancing towards modernization and urbanization, China is currently witnessing a soaring increase in intimate partner homicide (IPH). The present study sought to explore the characteristics of IPHs in China. Data from 979 judgments of this lethal serious crime were analyzed. In comparison with studies from other parts of the world, this study determined the characteristics of IPHs in China in terms of perpetrators, victims, incidents, and types of intimate relationships. Although the previous theoretical research has given reasonable explanations for IPHs, the relationship between perpetrator and victim is actually a neglected area in the study of IPHs. In this study, we found that the relationship between them played a leading role in understanding IPHs in China.
Intimate partner homicide (IPH) is a serious problem throughout the world. Research has identified the continued need toexamine risk factors for IPH to identify individuals who may be at a greater risk of IPH perpetration or victimization. In this study,we conducted a meta-analysis on risk factors for male IPH perpetration and female IPH victimization. This meta-analysis examinedresults from 17 studies, which included 148 effect sizes used in the analysis. Primary findings from this research suggest thestrongest risk factors for IPH were the perpetrator having direct access to a gun, perpetrator’s previous nonfatal strangulation,perpetrator’s previous rape of the victim, perpetrator’s previous threat with a weapon, the perpetrator’s demonstration ofcontrolling behaviors, and the perpetrator’s previous threats to harm the victim. Implications for law enforcement personnel,medical professionals, victim advocates, mental health professionals, and other professionals who may be in contact with potentialIPH perpetrators and victims are discussed.
Intimate partner homicide is an important contributor to homicide rates worldwide, disproportionally affecting women as victims. Still, major gaps exist in the measurement of intimate partner homicide, with many homicides not being identified as intimate partner homicides. This article provides an overview of the main issues in the collection and reporting on intimate partner homicide, focusing in particular on the data situation in Europe. Sources of homicide data – national and police statistics, court statistics and files, mortuary data and newspaper databases – face similar challenges, namely absence or missing information on the victim-offender relationship, and different categorizations of key parameters, such as definition of intimate partner homicide, and identification of reporting periods. This is concerning, as strong and reliable data on the incidence and contextual information of intimate partner homicide and femicide is important to advice effective prevention strategies.
Research on intimate partner violence (IPV) has led to the development of more than a dozen specialized risk assessment instruments. The present study evaluates the Danger Assessment (DA; Campbell, 1986; Campbell et al., 2003), which was designed to assess risk for lethal IPV based on victim information. We completed DA ratings for 100 male offenders convicted of IPV related crimes. Follow-up data on the presence of lethal or near-lethal IPV were obtained on average 5.19 years after assessment. Findings indicated that DA ratings varied as a function of the sources of information relied upon; ratings were lower when based on victim reports alone, compared with victim reports and other information. The DA also appeared to yield unrealistically high estimates of risk for lethal IPV. Although more than half of the sample achieved the highest DA ratings, none of the offenders was convicted of lethal or near-lethal IPV during the follow-up period. Findings call into question the utility of the DA.
Risk assessment tools are increasingly being used to guide decisions about supervision and treatment of domestic violence perpetrators. However, earlier review studies showed that the predictive validity of most of these tools is limited, and is reflected in small average effect sizes. The present study aimed to meta-analytically examine the predictive validity of domestic violence risk assessment tools, and to identify tool characteristics that positively moderate the predictive validity. A literature search yielded 50 independent studies (N = 68,855) examining the predictive validity of 39 different tools, of which 205 effect sizes could be extracted. Overall, a significant discriminative accuracy was found (AUC = 0.647), indicating a moderate predictive accuracy. Tools specifically developed for assessing the risk of domestic violence performed as well as risk predictions based on victim ratings and tools designed for predicting general/violent criminal recidivism. Actuarial instruments (AUC = 0.657) outperformed Structured Clinical Judgment (SCJ) tools (AUC = 0.580) in predicting domestic violence. The onset of domestic violence (AUC = 0.744) could be better predicted than recurrence of domestic violence (AUC = 0.643), which is a promising finding for early detection and prevention of domestic violence. Suggestions for the improvement of risk assessment strategies are presented.
Violence against women takes many forms and is much more pervasive, injurious, and lethal than official statistics report. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that far fewer than one percent of battered women are killed by their intimate male partners (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1998). The question then arises: Is there something about these relationships in which women are killed that distinguish them from the vast majority of non-lethal but nevertheless abusive intimate relation-ships? If these lethal relationships are discernibly different, can we use these distinguishing charac-teristics as a means of identifying and screening out other high risk domestic violence relationships with a view to preventing their escalation to lethal outcomes? The simple answer to both these questions is no. Research into domestic homi-cides typically reveals these to be crimes of cumulation in which men’s violence and women’s entrapment seem to intensify over time. The absolute distinction between lethal and non-lethal cases is a false dichotomy; rather there is a range or continuum of violence and entrapment that underpins abusive intimate relationships. Indeed, it would be far more appropriate and useful to employ the term » dangerousness » rather than » lethality » assessment. The research into the evaluation of lethality assessments in domestic violence cases is practi-cally non-existent. There is little research on how lethality or dangerousness assessment tools are used, what agencies do with the scores, and how battered women are affected by the instruments. In this article, I review lethality assessment tools and the pertinent research into domestic homi-cide. I then critique this information and suggest that these instruments are more useful as a means of identifying future dangerousness rather than precisely predicting lethal outcomes.
The findings of this study contribute to the discussion about the best method for predicting the recurrence of severe domestic violence. The findings are from a secondary data analysis comparing the accuracy of 177 domestic violence survivors’ predictions of reassault to risk factors supported by previous research. The survivors’ predictions were associated with recurrence of severe violence in a bivariate analysis. These predictions also added significantly to the accuracy of established risk factors in two multivariate equations predicting severe reassault within a 4-month period. Although not all of the survivors made accurate predictions, this research supports the use of survivors’ predictions as an important element that should be included in risk prediction.
A familicide is a multiple‐victim homicide incident in which the killer’s spouse and one or more children are slain. National archives of Canadian and British homicides, containing 109 familicide incidents, permit some elucidation of the characteristic and epidemiology of this crime. Familicides were almost exclusively perpetrated by men, unlike other spouse‐killings and other filicides. Half the familicidal men killed themselves as well, a much higher rate of suicide than among other uxoricidal or filicidal men. De facto unions were overrepresented, compared to their prevalence in the populations‐at‐large, but to a much lesser extent in familicides than in other uxoricides. Stepchildren were overrepresented as familicide victims, compared to their numbers in the populations‐at‐large, but to a much lesser extent than in other filicides; unlike killers of their genetic offspring, men who killed their stepchildren were rarely suicidal. An initial binary categorization of familicides as accusatory versus despondent is tentatively proposed. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. Copyright © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc., A Wiley Company.
Prior research has demonstrated a close relationship between patriarchy and female homicide victimization. This study examines this uxoricide-patriarchy connection in a non-Western society, Fiji. It is demonstrated that most cases of uxoricide among Fiji Indians emanate from husbands; attempts to enforce traditional sexual mores enshrined in a rigidly patriarchal society. The data suggest that rancorous confrontations between husbands and wives over allegations of marital infidelity were among the leading causes of spousal homicides committed by men.
This article addresses the current lack of research on uxoricides in non-Western societies by examining the phenomenon in Ghana, West Africa.
Analysis of data from the 60 husband—wife killings reported in a national daily newspaper reveals that jealousy and suspicion of infidelity overwhelmingly provided the basis for wife murders. The findings also indicate that assailants and victims were of low socioeconomic background and the murders predominantly occurred in the rural areas of the country. Posthomicidal suicide by the assailant occurred in about one fourth of the cases. Overall, the results demonstrate that the patterns of uxoricide in Ghana are congruous in many significant ways with those noted in Western industrialized societies. It is concluded that additional research in non-Western societies is warranted to contribute to the development of sound conclusions about and remedies for uxoricide.
This study added to the scant extant literature on lethal marital violence in non-Western societies through the analysis of seventy-two spousal killings that were reported in a Ghanaian daily newspaper during 1990–2005. The findings showed that husbands were five times more likely to kill a spouse as were wives and that sexual jealousy and suspicions of infidelity were the most common precipitating factor in uxoricides. Mariticides were fueled by anger towards a husband who planned to take an additional wife, or by an instrumental need to replace a husband with a new lover. Analysis of data further revealed a predominance of poor and working class victims and assailants. The crime often occurred in the common dwelling place of the couple or a jointly-owned farm, or in cases involving separation, in the wife’s natal home or farm. A plethora of methods were used to perpetrate the murders, including shooting with a gun, hacking with a cutlass or machete, hitting with a blunt object, and beating with personal weapons.
The present study investigated the scope, nature, and determinants of intimate partner femicide–suicides (IPFS) that occurred in Ghana during 1990 to 2009. All 35 reported cases of intimate partner homicide–suicides with female homicide victims that occurred during the study period were extracted from a major Ghanaian daily newspaper. Findings indicate that offenders were of lower socioeconomic background and tended to be older than their victims. The results further show that shooting with a firearm and hacking with a machete were the primary homicide methods, whereas self-inflicted gunshots and hanging were the dominant suicide methods. Results showed that suspicion of infidelity and sexual jealousy were core contributing factors in arguments, disputes, and altercations that preceded the femicide–suicides. Furthermore, estrangement and threatened divorce or separation by the female intimate partner was a major precipitant of femicide–suicides
The loss of a parent due to intimate partner homicide has a major impact on children. Professionals involved have to make far-reaching decisions regarding placement, guardianship, mental health care and contact with the perpetrating parent, without an evidence base to guide these decisions. We introduce a study protocol to a) systematically describe the demographics, circumstances, mental health and wellbeing of children bereaved by intimate partner homicide and b) build a predictive model of factors associated with children’s mental health and wellbeing after intimate partner homicide.
Methods/Design
This study focuses on children bereaved by parental intimate partner homicide in the Netherlands over a period of 20 years (1993 – 2012). It involves an incidence study to identify all Dutch intimate partner homicide cases between 1993 and 2012 by which children have been bereaved; systematic case reviews to describe the demographics, circumstances and care trajectories of these children; and a mixed-methods study to assess mental health, wellbeing, and experiences regarding decisions made and care provided.
Discussion
Clinical experience and initial research suggest that the children involved often need long-term intensive mental health and case management. The costs of these services are extensive and the stakes are high. This study lays the foundation for an international dataset and evidence-informed decision making.
Intimate partner violence has been linked toincreased and repeated injuries, as well as negative long-termphysical and mental health outcomes. This study examines theprevalence and correlates of injury in women of African descentwho reported recent intimate partner violence and controlsubjects who were never abused.
Methods: African American and African Caribbean womenaged 18 to 55 years were recruited from clinics in Baltimore,MD, and the US Virgin Islands. Self-reported demographics,partner violence history, and injury outcomes were collected.Associations between violence and injury outcomes wereexamined with logistic regression.
Results:All injury outcomes were significantly more frequentlyreported in women who also reported recent partner violencethan in women who were never abused. Multiple injuries werenearly 3 times more likely to be reported in women who hadexperienced recent abuse (adjusted odds ratio 2.75; 95%confidence interval 1.98-3.81). Reported injury outcomes weresimilar between the sites except that women in Baltimore were66% more likely than their US Virgin Islands counterparts toreport ED use in the past year (P= .001). In combined-sitemultivariable models, partner violence was associated withpast-year ED use, hospitalization, and multiple injuries.
Discussion: Injuries related to intimate partner violence may bepart of the explanation for the negative long-term health outcomes.In this study, partner violence was associated with past-year EDuse, hospitalization, and multiple injuries. Emergency nurses needto assess for intimate partner violence when women report with aninjury to ensure that the violence is addressed in order to preventrepeated injuries and negative long-term health outcomes.
Background: Domestic violence can have an important influence on mother and child health.
Aim: To assess the consequences of remote and actual, emotional or physical, domestic violence on the reproductive and newborn health in pregnant women.
Material and methods: A longitudinal epidemiological observation from an Urban Primary Health Care Center from Valdivia, Chile, in 1998. Two cohorts were studied: Pregnant women that experienced domestic violence (index group) and pregnant women not exposed to domestic violence (control group). Women were followed during pregnancy and at labor. The newborn was also assessed.
Results: The index group had a higher relative risk (RR) for impending abortion (RR 1.44, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.07-1.93), hypertensive syndrome of pregnancy (RR 1.5, 95% CI: 1.18-1.96), intrahepatic cholestasis (RR 1.5, 95% CI: 1.1-1.94). Women that experienced violence during pregnancy had a higher risk of urinary tract infection (RR 2.88, 95% CI: 1.28-6.43), intrauterine growth retardation (RR 3.7, 95% CI: 1.77-7.93) and intrahepatic cholestasis. Newborns from the index group had lower weight, size and gestational age.
Conclusions: Domestic violence is associated with hypertension during pregnancy and intrauterine growth retardation. The incorporation of bio-psychological evaluation and monitoring systems could attenuate the consequences of domestic violence (Rev Mé 2001; 1413-24).
Objectives. This paper presents the results of the first research made in Romania on young intimate femicide cases committed between 2011 and 2015. The study aims to identify the incidence, risk factors and the particularities of the young intimate femicide from a South-East European country.
Material and methods.In the definition area for ‘young intimate femicide’, there are included all cases of intentional murder of a woman aged between 15-25 years, both the victim and the offender being actual or former intimate partners. Information about the cases of young intimate femicide was extracted from the online media. The registration file for the young intimate femicide cases includes: data regarding the victim, the offender, and the murder.
Results.A number of 184 cases of intimate femicide were committed in Romania between 2011-2015, out of which 32 cases (17.4%) were committed against young women aged between 15 and 25 years old. On average, 6 young intimate femicide cases were committed per year. The number of women murdered in urban areas (59.4%) was higher than the number of young intimate femicide committed in rural areas (40.6%).
Conclusions.This study confirms the results of other studies regarding young intimate femicide. The results of data analysis show that the young intimate femicide is the result of a relationship marked by violence against women. For most of the cases, jealousy associated with the suspicion of infidelity represented the main reasons for young intimate femicide.
This article analyzes intimate partner violence and femicide in Ecuador from an ecological per-spective. The qualitative study, involving the participation of 61 individuals, took place in the prov-ince of Imbabura and was based on eight interviews with qualified experts and seven focus groups made up of professionals from the field of social and public services. The study comprises: a) the characterization of the dynamic of violence and risk of femicide; b) the analysis of the microsys-tem in relation to the family, neighbors, and professionals; c) an examination of the institutional response; and d) the assessment of the patriarchal culture, the role of the church, and indigenism. The results point to the permanence of a naturalized, chauvinistic culture, the lack of an effective network of resources to support victims, and a rigid administrative structure. As a consequence, victims have little confidence in public institutions, rates of reporting and prosecuting cases of violence are very low, and there is a perception that the aggressors are able to act with impunity, increasing the risk of severe violence and femicide.
Neurobiology of female homicide perpetrators is not well understood. Data from private interviews and examinations of females were re-analyzed comparing those who committed homicide (n = 9); other violent crimes, no known homicide (n = 51); nonviolent crimes, no known violent convictions (n = 49); and noncriminals (n = 12). Homicide perpetrators suffered the most childhood sexual abuse (CSA); most recent abuse; had the most neurological histories, mainly traumatic brain injuries (TBIs); most health care access for abuse-related injuries; lowest AM and PM salivary cortisol; and greatest proportion who committed crime under the influence of alcohol. Only CSA, years since last abuse, TBI, neurological histories, and health care access for abuse-related injuries were significant. Those who committed homicide under the influence of alcohol suffered the most recent abuse and had the lowest AM cortisol and flattest diurnal cortisol slope (DCS) compared with others; though the n precludes determining significance. Amount of time since last abuse, AM cortisol and DCS progressively decreased as crime severity increased; other variables progressively increased as crime severity increased. These preliminary findings suggest that low AM cortisol, flat DCS, greater CSA frequency and severity, recent abuse, TBIs, and health care access for abuse-related injuries could be risk factors for females committing homicide. Further study is needed due to the small n of homicide perpetrators. Abuse victims may be at greater risk for alcohol use and cortisol dysregulation associated with perpetrating violence, especially homicide. Frontal lobe damage from TBIs may decrease ability to control behaviors associated with emotions from the limbic system. Health care providers released these women when their abuse-related injuries were not life-threatening; yet, they were life-threatening for victims of their subsequent homicides. Females accessing health care for abuse-related injuries present a critical opportunity for violent crime prevention interventions.
La violencia es la segunda causa de muerte en Panamá (INEC, 2009); sin embargo, la investigación científica de la dinámica de este fenómeno social es insuficiente, especialmente en el campo de la neuropsicología. Esto cobra relevancia a partir del hecho de que hay evidencia que sugiere que la inteligencia y las funciones ejecutivas están íntimamente relacionadas con la comisión de delitos (Moffitt, 1993; Morgan & Lilienfeld, 2000). En el presente estudio se evaluaron tres grupos de hombres condenados por delitos como femicidio de pareja íntima (FPI; n=27), homicidio no relacional (HNR; n=28) y delitos no violentos (DNV; n=29). Se evaluaron la inteligencia verbal (WAIS-III) y la no verbal (TONI-2), así como el desempeño en tareas de función ejecutiva (TMT, Stroop, y COWAT). El grupo FPI mostró diferencias con los otros dos grupos en cuanto a un peor desempeño en el Stroop, lo que pudiera estar relacionado con un déficit en la velocidad de procesamiento en este grupo. La característica más pronunciada en cuanto al desempeño cognitivo en los tres grupos evaluados fue un déficit en el CI verbal. Se mostró una asociación significativa entre el CI verbal y las siguientes variables: nivel de escolaridad, CI no verbal, y el desempeño en la mayoría de las pruebas neuropsicológicas utilizadas. Estos hallazgos brindan evidencia preliminar que puede sustentar la creación de programas de prevención de la violencia en edades más tempranas.
Violence against women has only recently been addressed in national policy and legislation. Responses by most societal institutions to women assaulted by male partners are still based primarily on a lack of knowledge about the prevalence, severity, and outcomes of violence perpetrated by men against female intimates. Although well suited to make a vital contribution, psychologists still rarely involve themselves in proactive interventions with women victims. This article reviews empirical literature on the physical and sexual assault of women by their male intimates and discusses potential physical and psychological outcomes, with a focus on linking what is known about abused women’s reactions with the rich literature on survivors’ responses to trauma. Implications for research, treatment interventions, and policy are discussed.
Background: Domestic violence results in long-term andimmediate health problems. This study compared se-lected physical health problems of abused and neverabused women with similar access to health care.
Methods: A case-control study of enrollees in a mul-tisite metropolitan health maintenance organizationsampled 2535 women enrollees aged 21 to 55 years whoresponded to an invitation to participate; 447 (18%) couldnot be contacted, 7 (0.3%) were ineligible, and 76 (3%)refused, yielding a sample of 2005. The Abuse Assess-ment Screen identified women physically and/or sexu-ally abused between January 1, 1989, and December 31,1997, resulting in 201 cases. The 240 controls were a ran-dom sample of never abused women. The general healthperceptions subscale of the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey measured general health.The Miller Abuse Physical Symptom and Injury Scale mea-sured abuse-specific health problems.
Results:Cases and controls differed in ethnicity, mari-tal status, educational level, and income. Direct weightswere used to standardize for comparisons. Significancewas tested using logistic and negative binomial regres-sions. Abused women had more (P.05) headaches, backpain, sexually transmitted diseases, vaginal bleeding, vagi-nal infections, pelvic pain, painful intercourse, urinarytract infections, appetite loss, abdominal pain, and di-gestive problems. Abused women also had more (P.001)gynecological, chronic stress–related, central nervous sys-tem, and total health problems.
Conclusions: Abused women have a 50% to 70% in-crease in gynecological, central nervous system, and stress-related problems, with women sexually and physicallyabused most likely to report problems. Routine univer-sal screening and sensitive in-depth assessment of womenpresenting with frequent gynecological, chronic stress–related, or central nervous system complaints are neededto support disclosure of domestic violence.
A volunteer community sample of 159 primarily (77%) African American battered women were interviewed about forced sex by their partner (or ex-partner). Almost half (45.9%) of the sample had been sexually assaulted as well as physically abused. Except for ethnicity, there were no demographic differences between those who were forced into sex and those who were not, and there was no difference in history of child sexual abuse. However, those who were sexually assaulted had higher scores on negative health symptoms, gynecological symptoms, and risk factors for homicide even when controlling for physical abuse and demographic variables. The number of sexual assaults (childhood, rape, and intimate partner) was significantly correlated with depression and body image.
A community volunteer sample of 98 battered women was interviewed using a combination of established instruments and in-depth questions over three points in time during a period of 3½ years. An ANOVA change analysis approach was used, dividing the women into three approximately equal groups according to abuse status. Groups 1 and 2, women who indicated a change from abuse to nonabuse status, reported significantly better health as compared to women reporting abuse at all three times. In contrast, depression decreased for all 3 groups from Time 1 to Time 2, with a significant increase at Time 3 with no effect of abuse status. Self-esteem in non-African American women had a similar trajectory. However, for African American women, the means in both self-esteem and self-care agency increased across all three times, regardless of abuse. Depression trajectories also differed between African American and non-African American women.
The use of physically aggressive tactics during disagree-ments between romantic partners, a critical dimension ofintimate partner violence (IPV), has been named a signifi-cant public health problem (White2009) and is the focus ofthe current Special Section. The consequences of IPVare farreaching and include health and mental health impacts(Breiding et al.2008; Coker et al.2002), difficulties asso-ciated with an increased probability of being involved in thelegal system (Jordan2004), loss of income and work pro-ductivity (Rothman and Corso2008), and financial costsassociated with medical and psychological treatment andrecovery (Bonomi et al.2009; Brown et al.2008).Unfortunately, even once IPV has come to clinical attention,evidence indicates that existing perpetrator treatment pro-grams are relatively ineffective (Babcock et al.2004; Jackson et al.2003). In addition, a recent review concludesthat many existing teen dating violence prevention programsalso have had a disappointing level of impact on recipients (Whitaker et al.2006).
Objetivos. Analizar los artículos publicados en revistas científicas entre los años 2000 y 2005 enfocados en los hombres que maltratan a sus parejas e identificar las características de los estudios empíricos cuantitativos. Métodos. Revisión sistemática de los artículos publicados entre enero de 2000 y junio de2005 que se centran en el tema de los hombres que maltratan a sus parejas. La búsqueda se realizó en las bases de datos EconLit, Embase, Eric, Francis, Índice Médico Español, ISI Web of Knowledge —Web of Science y Current Contents—, Medline, Psicodoc, PsycInfo y Sociological Abstracts. Resultados. Se identificaron 944 estudios, de los cuales 61 (6,5%) se centraron en el análisis. Treinta y cuatro (55,7%) se publicaron en revistas especializadas en la violencia y solamente 4 (6,6%) se publicaron en revistas de Ciencias Médicas; 47 (77,0%) procedían de instituciones norteamericanas —especialmente de los Estados Unidos de América (70,5%) — y solamente 1 (1,6%) artículo procedía de América Latina (Puerto Rico). De los 29 artículos que utilizaron métodos de análisis cuantitativo, 19 (65,5%) abordaron las causas o factores de riesgo relacionados con la violencia doméstica como eje central de su investigación y 10 (34,5%) centraron su atención en intervenciones dirigidas a los agresores. Conclusiones. Se encontraron pocos estudios científicos que abordaran la etiología de la violencia contra la mujer en la pareja y los encontrados utilizaron diseños epidemiológicos sin el suficiente poder explicativo para establecer relaciones causales. Los estudios que se centran en el problema desde un punto de vista curativo no presentan suficiente evidencia acerca de la eficacia de los programas dirigidos a maltratadores. No se encontraron estudios publicados en revistas de salud pública. La carencia de mayor información científica puede estar impidiendo que se tomen decisiones políticas informadas y se pongan en marcha intervenciones más eficaces.
Rape and domestic violence are two of the most controversial types of criminal behavior. Both are violent crimes and both are usually directed towards women. This research examines the short-term effect of weather and temporal variations (time of day, day of week, holidays, etc.) on calls for police service in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The influence of these variables on domestic violence and rape is compared and it is found that the two types of crimes are affected in very different ways by the independent variables used. The results suggest that the occurrence of domestic violence is much more highly influenced by immediate temporal and weather variables such as time of day, day of week and ambient temperature. However, rape appears not to be as greatly affected by immediate situational conditions and contexts. Possible explanations for the findings and implications of the research are discussed.
Ligation and discussion is still rare. Instead of simply focusing on a national case, the article tries to highlight national characteristics of femicide by comparison with other international findings. The article discusses the Eures data on femicide in Italy in the period 2000–2005, regarding 1080 victims and 954 perpetrators. To sum up, the Italian data that confirm international findings are: strong predictors at individual level, intra-ethnic lethal violence, a connection between intimate partner violence and femicide, endemic conflict in the couple, a high risk during estrangement or divorce, a high number of unemployed perpetrators with no previous criminal record, and social settings of low gender equality and rising gender equality. The Italian data that do not confirm international findings are: older victims and perpetrators, non foreign-born victims, senior victims, the presence of couples in long-term relationships, perpetrators with mental health issues. These data show how femicide is a universal phenomenon with some characteristics that are constant across different countries. At the same time, some elements of femicide are specific to the Italian national context; they should be taken into consideration when designing and implementing actions for prevention and control.
Homicide is an important source of premature mortality, with intimate partners committing approximately one in seven homicides. Utilizing national statistics, this article explores recent data on intimate partner homicide in 10 European countries, namely Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK. It discusses policy developments and the role of key policy-making actors and it provides a novel classification, based on the time when government action developed, that maps the 10 countries in a temporal sequence under three main headings: early birds, intermediate and newcomers. Notwithstanding great differences, the article finds common trends in policy developments. Institutional commitment in collecting intimate partner homicide data is consistent with an enduring record of both women’s activism and public action in addressing intimate partner violence.
The present study estimated economic costs of domestic violence against women who sought help from a community care centre in South Africa. It aimed to relate the victims’ income and victims’ family income to violence related injuries and related costs. This was a cross sectional study with face – to – face interviews in a community care center in which victims of domestic violence sought various kinds of assistance. In total, 261 women were interviewed. The average economic cost of each domestic violence incidence was 691 USD while average cost for medical expenditure was 29 USD and average loss of income due to domestic violencie was 2092 USD. Larger families and higher individual and family incomes were protective factors for severity of violence related injuries. Pain and discomfort due to domestic violence emerged as expensive for both medical costs and productivity losses. Considering the average monthly income of 482 USD, domestic violence averaged a cost per incident of 691 USD during the previous month, indicating a deficit in householf budget. We found that omestic violence against women resulted with expensive injuries, pain and discomforts.
Recognition of violence against women as a public health problem is still relatively new, and epidemiological investigation is in its infancy. There are several reasons to hypothesize that the presence of children fathered by former partners might be a sig- nificant risk factor for such violence. Sexual possessiveness and jealousy are prominent attributes of wife-abusers and wife-killers,1″5 who may resent their prede- cessors’ children as living violations of their monopoly over their wives. Stepchildren are themselves vastly over-represented as assault and homicide victims, in Canada6,7 and elsewhere.8 Moreover, certain samples of spousal homicides include remarkably high proportions of stepfamilies.5 Even in the absence of violence, stepchildren are apparently sources of marital conflict: step- families are characterized by higher rates of divorce than two-genetic-parent families9,10 and by lower marital satisfaction.10,11 Despite these considerations, a possible association between stepfatherhood and violence against wives has apparently never been assessed. A 1986 review12 identified 97 proposed «risk markers» for violence against wives; parenthood of children was not among them. This neglect persists in subsequent research.
Homicide is an extreme manifestation of interpersonal conflict with minimal reporting bias and can thus be used as a conflict «assay.» Evolutionary models of social motives predict that genetic relationship will be associated with mitigation of conflict, and various analyses of homicide data support this prediction. Most «family» homicides are spousal homicides, fueled by male sexual proprietariness. In the case of parent-offspring conflict, an evolutionary model predicts variations in the risk of violence as a function of the ages, sexes, and other characteristics of protagonists, and these predictions are upheld in tests with data on infanticides, parricides, and filicides.
Using data from the Murder in Britain Study, the authors focus on murders that are related to intimate partner conflict but involve the killing of a person other than the intimate partner. Intimate partner collateral murders (IPCM) include children, allies, and new partners. The findings expand the number and types of murder associated with intimate partner conflict, characterize the three main types of collaterals, compare the childhood and adulthood of the perpetrators of intimate partner murder [IPM] (n = 104) and IPCM (n= 62), and reflect similarities and differences. Various disciplinary approaches are reflected in the research design, data collection, findings, and conclusions.
Since the issue of intimate partner violence first penetrated the realm of academia and policy some 30 years ago, the public has responded with the creation of hundreds of treatment centers, policy groups, advocacy groups, and public health campaigns [Pleck, J.H. (1987). The contemporary man.In,M. Scher,M. Stevens, G. Good, & G. Eichenfield, (Eds). Handbook of counseling & psychotherapy with men. (pp. 16-27). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications]. Almost all such programs are based on the first set of theories that lifted the problem of IPVinto the public realm; these center on the role of patriarchal social norms in the etiology and maintenance of partner violence [Dobash,&Dobash, (1979).Violence against wives: The case against the patriarchy. NewYork: Free Press.;Walker, L. (1989). Psychology and violence against women. American Psychologist, 44(4), 695-702]. Yet, new data accumulating from numerous rigorously designed studies challenge existing theories, and are largely overlooked or discounted. This article reviews evidence that accumulating data countering the traditional theories is not penetrating the field in several critical arenas: 1) A developmental approach to partner violence is omitted from the field’s mainstream lexicon; 2) The intersection of partner violence with other forms of family and non-family violence is underrepresented; 3) Partner violence prevention programs have limited effects, because they do not integrate accumulating data on relevant risk factors (mental health, poverty, etc.), focusing instead on universal prevention and gender-based interventions. The article overviews a program of research using longitudinal research methods to test prevailing theories and assumptions about partner violence. We draw from this evidence to recommend new directions for IPV research, and urge dissemination of the most recent, and often controversial, basic research findings to practitioners and academics.
Objetivo: Describir el perfil de las mujeres adscritas al Programa de Violencia, Punta Arenas, Chile, y que han presentado violencia física durante el embarazo. Método: Estudio de abordaje cuantitativo, con diseño descriptivo y retrospectivo. Se entrevistó a 59 mujeres, utilizando el Instrumento de la OMS sobre la violencia contra las mujeres Versión 9.1 para Chile modificado. Resultados: La prevalencia de violencia durante el embarazo fue 28,8%. En su mayoría el agresor fue la pareja y el 52,9% declaró que los golpes o patadas fueron en el abdomen. El 100% presento violencia psicológica, física leve y grave y 70,6% violencia sexual. El 58,8% tenía entre 15 a 29 años al momento de vivenciar la violencia, el 35,5% completó la enseñanza media, de religión católica, trabajan fuera del hogar, convivían, tenían tres o más hijos y con estrato socio-económico medio y medio bajo. Las manifestaciones de violencia que se relacionaron con violencia física en el embarazo fueron la presencia de manifestaciones de violencia física leve: abofeteado o tirado cosas que pudieran herirla (p=0,000) y violencia física grave: golpeado con su puño u otra cosa que pudiera herirla (p=0,006), pateado, arrastrado o dado una golpiza (p=0,004), estrangularla a propósito (p=0,010), presencia de lesiones (p=0,048). Los factores que se relacionaron con la presencia de violencia física en el embarazo fueron el nivel educacional de la pareja (p=0,047), condición laboral de la mujer (p=0,018) y antecedentes de peleas físicas en la pareja con otros hombres (p=0,046). Conclusión: Los hallazgos obtenidos permiten identificar precozmente a las embarazadas con mayor riesgo de violencia, y permiten ofrecer una intervención oportuna, minimizando las graves consecuencias que tiene para la mujer y los hijos.
A computerized safety decision aid was developed and tested with Spanish or English-speaking abused women in shelters or domestic violence (DV) support groups (n = 90). The decision aid provides feedback about risk for lethal violence, options for safety, assistance with setting priorities for safety, and a safety plan personalized to the user. Women reported that the decision aid was useful and provided much-needed privacy for making safety decisions. The majority (69%) reported severe to extreme danger in their relationship as scored by Danger Assessment (DA); only 60% reported having made a safety plan. After using the safety decision aid, the women felt more supported in their decision (p = .012) and had less total decisional conflict (p = .014). The study demonstrated that a computerized safety decision aid improved the safety planning process, as demonstrated by reduced decisional conflict after only one use in a sample of abused women.
Nordic countries are the most gender equal countries in the world, but at the same time they have disproportionally high prevalence rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women. High prevalence of IPV against women, and high levels of gender equality would appear contradictory, but these apparently opposite statements appear to be true in Nordic countries, producing what could be called the ‘Nordic paradox’. Despite this paradox being one of the most puzzling issues in the field, this is a research question rarely asked, and one that remains unanswered. This paper explores a number of theoretical and methodological issues that may help to understand this paradox. Efforts to understand the Nordic paradox may provide an avenue to guide new research on IPV and to respond to this major public health problem in a more effective way.
Previous typologies of male batterers, including typologies developed by means of rational-deductiveand empirical-inductive strategies, are reviewed. On the basis of this review, 3 descriptive dimensions(i.e., severity of marital violence, generality of the violence [toward the wife or toward others], and psychopathology/personality disorders) that consistently have been found to distinguish among sub-types of batterers are identified. These dimensions are used to propose a typology consisting of 3 subtypes of batterers (i.e., family only, dysphoric/borderline, and generally violent/antisocial). Adevelopmental model of marital violence is then presented, and the previous literature is reviewed toexamine how each batterer subtype might differ on variables of theoretical interest. Finally, some ofthe methodological limitations of previous typology research are reviewed, and suggestions for futurework are offered.