Patterns in Intimate Partner Homicide

Abstract

This article examines correlates and patterns of intimate partner homicide by relationship type and gender ratio of victimization with data for over 2,500 such homicides committed in California between 1987 and 1996. Many of Wolfgang's findings for spousal homicide in Philadelphia 40 years ago are reproduced in the authors' analysis of presentday California. Similar to Wolfgang, they find that female-perpetrated intimate homicides are especially likely to occur in private settings, to result from arguments, and to involve knives as the instrument of death. They also find, as did Wolfgang, that the ratio of female-to-male perpetrated killings is substantially higher among African Americans than among other groups. Although the range of relationship types is considerably broader than when Wolfgang conducted his research, encompassing large numbers of unmarried cohabiting couples, Wolfgang's research remains a durable foundation for understanding how the most intimate human relationships end in homicide.