Fatality Review and Women’s Use of Violence

What we know and what we don’t know

Kathleen J. Ferraro

What we know

• Men kill & are killed more often than women• Men kill intimate partners more often than women• About 80% of IPH victims are women• African Americans and American Indians are

disproportionately represented• About 30% of IPH involve suicide, most often male• Most female IPH victims have a history of IPV by

the male perpetrator

Murder in the U.S.: number of victims by race/ethnicity and gender 2013

Number of murder victims in the United States in 2013, by race/ethnicity and gender

Source: FBI; ID 251877

Note: United States; 2013

Total White Black / African American

Other race Unknown race

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

12,253

5,537

6,261

308 147

9,523

3,879

5,352

204 88

2,707

1,656

909

104 3823 2 21

Total Male Female Unknown

Nu

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of

mu

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ictim

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Notes

Further information regarding this statistic can be found on page 8.

IPH makes up a small proportion of all male homicide victims

IPH6%

Other94%

Proportion of male homicide victims killed by an intimate partner, 1993

Husband9%

Wife43%

Girlfriend37%

Boyfriend11%

Homicides by Relationship, Victim to OffenderFBI UCR, 2013

When women kill they are more likely to kill a family member.

Male Female 0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

45.00%

50.00%

Proportion of murder victims that were intimate partners, by of-fender gender

1976-1997

Source: Websdale, Understanding Domestic Homicide, p. 65

Female victims of IPHVictim’s relationship to perpetrator

Male perpetrator

Female perpetrator

Totals

Intimate partner

67 0 67

Family member

9 2 11

Love triangle 0 0 0

Police shooting

0 0 0

Friend/bystander

0 0 0

TOTAL 76 2 78

Victim’s relationship to perpetrator

Male perpetrator

Female perpetrator

TOTAL

Intimate partner

2 24 26

Family member

19 1 20

Love triangle antagonist

9 0 9

Police shooting

2 0 2

Friend/bystander

1 0 1

TOTAL male victims

33 25 58

Male victims of IPH

Victims of multiple homicidesVictims Male

perpetrators (sex of victims)

Female perpetrators(sex of victims)

Totals

Intimate partners

37 (35 F, 2 gay M)

2 (both male) 39

Family members

19 (10 F, 9 M) 5 (3 F, 2 M) 24

Love triangle 6 (M) 0 6

Suicide 39 (M) 5 (F) 44

Friends/Bystanders

3 (2 F, 1 M) 1 (F) 4

TOTAL 104 (47 F, 57 M)

13 (9 F, 4 M) 117

Contexts of women’s use of violence

• Immediate self defense• Proactive self defense• Third party murder• Aggressive• Retaliatory• Serious mental illness/psychosis

Nature of women’s IPV

• Equal perpetrators of situational couple violence

• Less coercive control, less injury & fear in abused partner

• Most women who perpetrate IPV are also victims of IPV

• Small proportion of women are primary aggressors

What we know about women’s experience of IPV:

• Women’s perceptions are altered by the experience of physical, sexual and psychological abuse

• Biography, including race/ethnicity, class and culture and the current context of women’s lives shape perceptions of alternatives

• Leaving is a process and does not end abuse• Many women never report abuse, so there’s no

documentation• Women fight back and are not passive or helpless• There is no “test” to diagnose “battered woman

syndrome”

WHAT WE DON’T KNOW

• Proportion of all female perpetrated IPHs preceded by IPV victimization

• Validity of retrospective accounts of women who kill, their families, victim’s families

• Role of serious mental illness in female perpetrated IPH

• Role of drugs and alcohol in female perpetrated IPH• Overall sentencing patterns for male & female IPH

perpetrators