Victoria B. Titterington

A RETROSPECTIVE INVESTIGATION OF GENDER INEQUALITY AND FEMALE HOMICIDE VICTIMIZATION

ABSTRACT For the period 1981 to 1993 women represented 21 to 26 percent of homicide victims in the United States annually (Smith and Kuchta 1993). During this same time period sex-specific homicide rates have been among the forms of disaggregation researchers have used to test the utility of traditional correlates of homicide in predicting rates across various population subgroups and units of analysis. Based upon earlier research of the effects of gender inequality upon rates of lethal violence against women, and by applying a feminist theoretical perspective, it is hypothesized that the effect of general social structural characteristics of cities upon womens risk of homicide is mediated by levels of gender inequality. Specifically, this study examines the effects of gender, socioeconomic, legislative, political and extra-legal inequality upon female homicide victimization among 217 U.S. central cities for the period of 1989–1991. Using structural equation modeling results indicate that, among traditional social structural factors, economic deprivation, population size, divorce rate, and the sex ratio all have significant, positive effects on female homicide rates. However, in subsequent models testing the mediating effects of measures of gender inequality on the association between social structural variables and female homicide rates the divorce rate is the only social structural factor that continues to have a significant, positive effect upon homicide rates. Among the four measures of gender inequality, and in support of an ameliorative feminist argument, socioeconomic inequality has a significant, positive influence on rates of female homicide victimizaton. There is also a significant, negative effect of gender legislative inequality upon these rates. That is, the more laws or acts favorable to women, the lower their rates of homicide victimization. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Gender, Attributional Styles, and Direction of Lethal Violence A Partial Test of an Integrated Model of Suicide and Homicide

The present study is a partial test of Unnithan, Huff-Corzine, Corzine, and Whitts integrated model of suicide and homicide, focusing specifically on gender differences in the suicide-to-homicide ratio (SHR). In light of prior research on the differential attributional styles of men and women, the underlying assumption of Unnithan et al. regarding attribution of blame and direction of lethal violence is assessed. Using aggregate national suicide and homicide rates for the years 1979 through 1997, SHRs and lethal violence rates (LVRs) are calculated and compared by gender. Analyses reveal that womens SHRs are substantially higher than those for men. In addition, it is found that trends in LVRs over time are significantly different for men and women, exhibiting a cyclical pattern in the case of men and a linear pattern in the case of women. Implications of these findings for the integrated model and for future research are discussed.

Lethal Ladies: Revisiting What We Know About Female Serial Murderers

Serial murderers are rare offenders, and this, coupled with challenges to accessing data about them, poses a significant challenge to empirical investigation. It is also true that female serial murderers are thought to be rarer than their male counterparts and have often been excluded from being labeled “serial murderers” due to narrowly constructed definitions. Thus, female serial murderers are an even more elusive population to study. The results of this exploratory analysis, using newspaper articles to gather data about the crimes of a subset of 10 female serial murderers in the United States, suggest that not only are these women different from men who commit serial murder but also that the scant information published about these rare offenders may have underestimated the female serial murderer in terms of both offender and offense characteristics.

Abused South Korean Women: A Comparison of Those Who Do and Those Who Do Not Resort to Lethal Violence

This study compares two groups of women in South Korea: one group incarcerated for the deaths of their male partners and the other staying in a shelter for battered women. The analysis serves to answer two questions: First, are the findings regarding women who kill their intimate partners in Western societies generally applicable to their counterparts in South Korea? Second, how are abused South Korean women who resort to lethal violence against their abusers different from those who do not? Regarding both abused and nonabused women incarcerated for criminal homicide against their partners, results indicate that they have less experience of psychological and physical abuse by their partners and that they are less educated, underemployed, and more supportive of traditional patriarchal norms than are the women who utilize domestic violence shelters. This research explores implications for intervention strategies to encourage abused women to seek help from legal and extralegal sources.

Women as the Aggressors in Intimate Partner Homicide in Houston, 1980s to 1990s

Abstract Objective: The purpose of this study was to inform the ongoing quest for efficacious treatment of domestically violent women by (a) describing their representation in cases of intimate partner homicide over the period of 1985-1999 in Houston, Texas, and (b) by utilizing a measure known as the spousal sex ratio of killing (SROK), determining variation in this female offending by race/ethnicity and whether the relationship was registered or defacto. Method: Secondary data from the Houston police department homicide division murder logs and the U.S. Bureau of the Census were analyzed to determine the incidence and proportion of womens perpetration of intimate partner homicide. Results: Throughout the fifteen-year period of this study, women were over 40 percent of the offenders in lethal domestic assaults. Both victims and offenders in these intimate partner incidents were disproportionately Black. When comparing the sex ratios of killing by racial/ethnic subgroups, Black women were equally (or more) likely than Black men to be the perpetrators of intimate domestic homicide. Among non-Hispanic Whites (including Asians, others), there were 63 female intimate partner homicide offenders for every 100 male offenders. Within the small number of cases involving Hispanic couples, women were much more likely to be the aggressors in intimate partner homicide in the latter time period of this investigation. For both Blacks and Whites women were more likely to be the perpetrators in non-marital dyads. Conclusion: Implications of these findings for criminal justice and social service practitioners are discussed.

Domestic Violence and South Korean Women: The Cultural Context and Alternative Experiences

The present research contributes to the growing body of cross-cultural research on domestic violence. This is accomplished by answering the question of how severity of intimate partner abuse varies for (1) women incarcerated for the homicides of their male partners (2) abused women who sought domestic violence shelter, short of killing their intimate assailants, and (3) a group of South Korean females outside of domestic violence shelters or prison. The article concludes with a discussion of potential policy implications of the findings as well as promising directions for future research.

An Exploratory Analysis of German and U.S. Youthful Homicide Offending

German and U.S. incident-level homicide files are extracted from the Freiburg Cohort Study and Houston, Texas, respectively, to compare characteristics of criminal homicide perpetrated by persons ages 14 to 30 years between the mid-1980s and 2001. Findings indicate that many of the characteristics of offenders, victims, their relationships to one another, and methods of killing are not culture specific, particularly for female offenders. However, despite a substantial difference between the two areas in overall homicide levels, the offending rates for this 14- to 30-year-old group are 5 to 6 times the overall national rates in each country. Findings further indicate that peak ages for homicide offending by males are 2 to 5 years older for German nationals and immigrants than for specific racial and/or ethnic subgroups of U.S. offenders. Support is found in both countries for the concept of an aging out of crime in the case of homicide.

Margo Wilson’s Influence Continues A Research Note on the Sex Ratios of Killing (SROKs) in Texas’ Six Largest Cities

Drawing on Margo Wilson and Martin Daly’s cross-national research on the spousal “sex ratio of killing” (SROK), this study examines the overall, relationship-specific, and age-specific SROKs for Texas’ six largest cities. This analysis of Supplementary Homicide Reports for the cities of Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio indicates that overall sex ratios of killing in Texas were comparable to the United States, whereas four of the six cities had higher intimate partner sex ratios of killing than the state or nation. Wide variation of intimate partner SROKs based on offender age, race, and weapon was also found.

Right-to-Die Legislation: A Note on Factors Associated with Its Adoption

Legislation allowing for some form of death prior to it naturally occurring presently exists in very few industrial democracies. This article explores what large-scale economic and social factors may be associated with the legality of right-do-die measures, namely, a nations health care expenditures, the old-age dependency ratio, religious pluralism, and homicide and suicide rates. Using data from several sources, we find an association among these factors and right-to-die legislation. Four of the six countries with recent experience of legalized physician-aided death ranked in the top 50% of countries on our combined measure of the five factors under examination. Implications of this study and suggestions for future research of this timely issue are discussed.