Abstract
This research revisited the claim that victim precipitation (VP) is especially prevalent in situations where women kill their male intimate partners. Using administrative data from the Finnish Homicide Monitor (N =1,494), we created a typology of homicide incidents to examine variation in VP across three factors: the gender of the offender, the gender of the victim, and the intimacy of the victim–offender relationship. The results from regression models demonstrated strong support for the assumption that killings by women of their male intimate partners are more likely to have been victim precipitated than other types of homicide. This homicide type stood out as having the strongest association with each measure of VP included in the analysis. We did not observe statistically significant differences in VP among other homicide types. For example, we did not observe gender differences in VP in homicides that did not involve intimate partners. This pattern of results contradicts prior evidence suggesting that VP is a general feature of female-perpetrated killings, independent of the gender of the victim and the intimacy of the victim–offender relationship. As such, the present study underscores the importance of replication in studies of interpersonal violence. Theoretically, the results support the gender–partner interaction hypothesis over gender differences hypothesis of VP.
Highlights
Much of interpersonal violence stems from the escalation of bilateral disputes (e.g., Felson, 1993/2017; Griffiths, Yule, & Gartner, 2011; Luckenbill & Doyle, 1989)
Prior research confirms the expectation that self-defense is an important context of female-perpetrated intimate partner homicide (F-M intimate partner homicides (IPHs)); yet, it is seldom a motive for IPH committed by men against their female partners (Felson & Messner, 1998; Weizmann-Henelius et al, 2012)
Because most studies of IPH do not compare these outcomes with homicides that did not involve intimate partners, they cannot rule out the possibility that victim precipitation (VP) is central in killings by women of men, regardless of the intimacy of the victim–offender relationship
Summary
Much of interpersonal violence stems from the escalation of bilateral disputes (e.g., Felson, 1993/2017; Griffiths, Yule, & Gartner, 2011; Luckenbill & Doyle, 1989). Wolfgang argued that victim precipitation (VP) is a common feature of intimate partner homicides (IPHs), especially in situations involving a female offender and a male victim (Wolfgang, 1957, 1967). A study of IPH found that self-defense played a role in 36% of the cases involving a female killer, compared with only 1% of male-perpetrated homicides of the female partner (Weizmann-Henelius et al, 2012). Prior research confirms the expectation that self-defense is an important context of female-perpetrated intimate partner homicide (F-M IPH); yet, it is seldom a motive for IPH committed by men against their female partners (Felson & Messner, 1998; Weizmann-Henelius et al, 2012). In their research, Felson and Messner (1998) contrasted this gender–partner interaction hypothesis with two alternative hypotheses, both of which offer more parsimonious accounts of the patterns typically observed in the literature
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