Understanding Domestic Homicide

Case histories of some 300 homicides involving family members, framed within their interpersonal, familial, cultural, and situational contexts.

The literature on domestic violence will often treat homicide as its most extreme outcome. The reality is more nuanced, with many domestic homicides occurring within a history of abusive behaviour. This book offers a much-needed synthesis of the literature on domestic homicide, covering its history; the theories supporting it; its various forms such as filicide, intimate partner homicide, parricide, siblicide and familicide; and its prevention. The authors explore the predominant theories that have been used to explain domestic homicides in general, as well as specific subtypes of domestic homicide. Each chapter then takes a chronological approach in examining relationships between victim and perpetrator in the most prominent types of domestic homicide. Drawing on the empirical evidence, it offers a unique insight into the dynamics of domestic homicides, and debunks some of the common stereotypes surrounding it. The book concludes with an overview of the main areas of prevention of domestic homicide and offers recommendations for professionals working in domestic violence services, medical practitioners and mental health services. This book will be of interest to criminologists, psychiatrists, psychologists and sociologists alike, and will be key reading for a range of courses on violence, abuse and aggression.

Preventing Domestic Homicides: Lessons Learned from Tragedies focuses on the diverse nature of domestic homicides and what has been learned about the most effective prevention strategies from emerging research and the work of domestic violence death review committees in Canada, the US, the UK, NZ and AU. Each chapter focuses on different populations-specifically older women, youth dating relationships, indigenous women, immigrant and refugee populations, rural/remote communities, same-sex relationships, homicides with police & military, domestic homicide in the workplace, and children killed in the context of domestic violence. Topics cover current research, risk factors, and include case studies from domestic homicide review committees. Cases are summarized regarding major themes and recommendations, such as public awareness, professional training, risk assessment, intervention and collaboration amongst service systems. Written for academic and domestic violence researchers in sociology, criminology, psychology and psychiatry by global contributors with on-the-ground domestic homicide experience. Focuses on the diverse nature of domestic homicides from emerging research around the world Includes coverage on marginalized populations, children witnessing intimate partner violence, elder abuse, LGBTQ abuse and intimate partner violence, to name a few Includes actual global case studies written by contributors with on-the-ground case review experience

Domestic homicide is violence that strikes within our most intimate relations. The most common strategy for addressing this kind of transgression relies on policing and prisons. But through examining commonly accepted typologies of high-risk intimate partner violence, Ardath Whynacht shows that policing can be understood as part of the same root problem as the violence it seeks to mend and provides an abolitionist frame for the most dangerous forms of intimate partner violence. This book illustrates that the origins of both the carceral state and toxic masculinity are situated in settler colonialism and racial capitalism and sees police homicide and domestic homicide as akin. Describing an experience of domestic homicide in her community and providing a deeply personal analysis of some of the most recent cases of homicide in Canada, the author inhabits the complexity of seeking abolitionist justice. Insurgent Love traces the major risk factors for domestic homicide within the structures of racial capitalism and suggests transformative, anti-capitalist, anti-racist, feminist approaches for safety, prevention and justice.

'Groundbreaking' OBSERVER 'Blows assumptions about abusive relationships out of the water' CAITLIN MORAN 'Offers a strategy for intervention that would save lives' INDEPENDENT Every four days in the UK, a woman is killed by her partner or ex-partner – and in the past year, domestic abuse has become an epidemic. For thirty years, Jane Monckton Smith has been fighting to change this. A former police officer and internationally renowned professor of public protection, she has developed her ground-breaking research into an eight-stage homicide timeline, laying out identifiable stages in which coercive relationships can escalate to violence and murder. Drawing on disciplines including psychology, sociology and law, Monckton Smith talks to victims, their families and killers to piece together the hows and whys of abuse – while shining a searching light onto the society and media that allow it to thrive.

This comprehensive and challenging text unravels the phenomenon of homicide. In introducing the broad spectrum of different features, aspects and forms of homicide, Fiona Brookman examines its patterns and trends, how it may be explained, its investigation and how it may be prevented.

This edited collection highlights international research on domestic homicides and death reviews which are a rapidly growing intervention/prevention initiative in various countries. Chapters focus on: the impetus for the international development of such initiatives, the identification of risk factors and recommendations for improving systemic responses, the uptake and impact of these recommendations and, finally, the social and public policy implications of outcomes for developed and developing countries. Despite rapid growth, the current state of research and knowledge about domestic violence death review initiatives is limited, fragmented, and primarily descriptive, largely comprising annual public reports. The authors of this book bridge this significant gap by analysing the wide range of models currently in development and operation. A bold and important examination, this work will have a powerful impact on policy makers and scholars of social science theory, women's studies, and domestic violence.

This book is devoted to illustrating the significance of perpetrator-victim relationship, including its status and state, in understanding intimate partner homicide (IPH) in the context of China today after comparing with the findings in the previous studies. By analyzing the correlation between intimate relationships as a focal variable and other variables such as IPH characteristics and risk factors, a deeper understanding of IPH in China today has emerged. Finally, this book shows that many perpetrators and victims had intimate relationships with people outside their marriages as the main reason for the rapid increase in the number of instances of IPH, which seems to be in tandem with China’s rapid modernization and urbanization. Presenting the sole academic research that closely investigates the characteristics of intimate partner homicide in modern China, the book is a valuable resource for not only for the Chinese government but also for Chinese and international researchers.