Battered Women Who Were "Being Killed and Survived It": Straight Talk From Survivors

• NCJ Number: 195893
• Journal: Violence and Victims Volume: 17 Issue: 3 Dated: June 2002 Pages: 267-281
• Author(s): Kathryn Ann Farr
• Editor(s): Roland D. Maiuro Ph.D.
• Date Published: June 2002
• Length: 15 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article presents findings from a study of women survivors of attempted domestic homicide identifying various patterns in their experiences and factors increasing a woman's risk of being killed by a domestic partner or ex-partner.

Abstract

Utilizing a community sample to enhance the understanding of domestic homicide, this research study presented findings from police reports and telephone interviews with female survivors of attempted domestic homicide in a West Coast city. Data for the study came from police reports and telephone interviews with women survivors of an attempted domestic homicide in a city of approximately 500,000. Based on the findings, it was argued that the build-up (prior to the attack), the near fatal attack, and its aftermath were accompanied by specific patterns in sources and experiences of distress for victims of a domestic attempted homicide. The women interviewed reported a life of tension and violence in the year before their partner or ex-partner attempted to kill them. The batterer tended to be both an ongoing batterer and alcoholic/addict. The batterer typically had owned or had easy access to guns and threatened her life directly or indirectly. In most of the cases, the woman survivor had already left or broken up with the batterer or had made him aware of her intentions to leave. In some cases, the woman did not think the batterer was capable of killing her or guessed that his attempt to kill her was motivated by an alleged oversight or error on her part. The trauma of escaping death had become difficult to deal with and few women if any understood what she had been through. Most of the interviewed victims had graduated from high school and most were employed and had income problems. There were some interviewees that reported ongoing mental and physical health problems. All of the perpetrators in the interviewee cases were in prison, and all the women had terminated their intimate relationship with the perpetrator. The women felt that the ordeal in many ways had made them wiser and sturdier. Tables and references