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Partner Homicide-Suicide Involving Female Homicide Victims: A Population-Based Study in North Carolina, 1988-1992

NCJ Number
175643
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 13 Issue: 2 Dated: Summer 1998 Pages: 91-106
Author(s)
E Morton; C W Runyan; K E Moracco; J Butts
Date Published
1998
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This study attempts to identify characteristics, precursors and typologies of homicide-suicide events involving female homicide victims.
Abstract
The study examined case files of 116 homicide-suicide events involving 119 female homicide victims in North Carolina from 1988-1992. In 86 percent of cases, the perpetrator was the current or former partner of the victim. Twenty-four percent of men who killed their female partners subsequently committed suicide and another 3 percent attempted suicide but survived. Victim separation from the perpetrator was the most prevalent precursor (41 percent), followed by a history of domestic violence (29 percent). In nearly half of the cases with a history of domestic violence, the victim had previously sought protection from the perpetrator in the form of an arrest warrant, restraining order, or intervention by a law enforcement officer. In 43 percent of the cases, children of the victim and/or perpetrator witnessed the homicide-suicide, were in the immediate vicinity, found their parents' bodies or were killed. Tables, note, references

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