Trends in Partner Homicide: A Comparison of Homicides Between Marital and Non-Marital Partners From 1976-1987

• NCJ Number: 133297
• Author(s): A Browne; K R Williams
• Date Published: Unknown
• Length: 30 pages
• Grant Number(s): 85-1J-CX-0030
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Baltimore, Maryland, 1990.

Annotation

Using data drawn from incident files in the Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR), collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of its Uniform Crime Reporting Program, this study compares patterns of homicides between couples in marital and non-marital relationships for the period of 1976 through 1987. The study hypothesizes that changing demographics, in which fewer couples are marrying and more couples are either delaying marriage or living as unmarried couples, have increased the opportunity for violence among non-married partners while decreasing the opportunity for married couples.

Abstract

The analyses showed the rates of marital homicide declining over the reporting period, while the rates of non-married partner homicide increased. Analyses by gender indicated that, for non-married couples, the rate of women being killed by their partners increased while the victimization rate for men varied unsystematically. For marital couples, victimization rates dropped for both men and women, but more rapidly for men. These findings suggest that policies and interventions focusing on partner violence may have had a positive occurrence on the incidence of lethal aggression for individuals in marriage or common-law relationships. The results also give some perspective on gender differences in the potential impact of aggression between couples. 12 figures, 11 notes, and 37 references