NCJ Number
196611
Journal
Homicide Studies Volume: 6 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2002 Pages: 188-210
Date Published
August 2002
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the relationship between gender equality and homicide by using theories from the feminist literature.
Abstract
Drawing on feminist theories that maintain that gender inequality influences gendered violence, this article examines the relationship between gender equality and homicide. Focusing on how gender stratification influences the gendering of homicide, the authors test both the ameliorative and backlash hypotheses from feminist literature. While the ameliorative hypothesis suggests that high levels of gender equality are associated with low levels of sexual violence, the backlash hypothesis suggests that the immediate effect of increased equality is increased violence against women. After presenting a brief review of prior research on gender equality, gender inequality, and rape, this article stresses that the ameliorative and backlash hypotheses have received mixed support in the rape literature and the literature on gender and homicide. Testing the hypotheses, the authors collected data from Supplementary Homicide Reports from 1990 to 1994. Comprising homicide data for 193 cities with populations greater than 100,000, the homicide rates for the various gender combinations, males killing males or females and females killing males or females, were examined using bivariate correlations. Results indicate that in southern cities, gender equality is positively associated with males killing both females and other males, while gender equality is negatively associated with males killing other males in other regions in the United States, offering some support for the backlash hypothesis. 1 Table, 2 appendices, 7 notes, 39 references