Intersections of Race, Gender, Disadvantage, and Violence: Applying Intersectionality to the Macro-Level Study of Female Homicide

Abstract

Intersectionality implies that multiple socially constructed categories (race, gender, and class) interact, but also operate at many levels when contributing to inequality. This paper provides an illustration of the intersection of race, gender, and disadvantage in the study of race-specific female homicide rates. In this research, we are interested in how race- and gender-specific forms of disadvantage differentially influence rates of homicide offending by white and African-American women in cross-sectional and change models. We account for the availability of domestic violence resources and crime control policies, in addition to the structural forces that have been found to influence female offending specifically. Methodological techniques are used to amend caveats in the data, such as the rare nature of female homicide offending. Our findings reveal similarities in the way economic marginalization and divorce influence female homicides across racial groups but a number of differences in the role of crime control policies and availability of domestic violence resources on race-specific female homicides cross-sectionally and over time. Overall, our study produced results which advocate the intersectional framework.