Intimate Violence: A Study of Intersexual Homicide in Chicago

Abstract

2 See FEDERAL BuREAu OF INVESTIGATION, U.S. DEP'T OF JUSTICE, UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS (1958-1982) [hereinafter cited as UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS]. (The Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") publishes its Uniform Crime Reports annually. The dates given hereinafter in citations refer to the year for which the data were collected. The Uniform Crime Reports generally is released during the year following data collection.

Intimate homicide: An analysis of violent social relationships

“…Gillis (1986) analyzed published data from 1961-1974 and found that the proportion of domestic homicides decreased in relation to all homicides. Zimring et al (1983) found a similar pattern in U.S. data. Table I extends Gillis' data 7 years for Canadian cases.…”

“…The domestic-stable category had the lowest rate of homicide by far (0.0494 per thousand). This may echo the suggestion of Zimring et al (1983) that marriage acts as a kind of "life insurance" given the rarity of homicide in this relationship. The domestic-unstable group had a rate more than three times that of the domestic-stable category (0.1712 per thousand).…”

“…Domestic relationships range from 30% to 36% of all murders, while other social relationships make up between 37% and 43% of Canadian murders. Why is the pattern of decline found by Gillis (1986) and Zimring (1983) not repeated here? The answer probably lies in the fact that Zimring used "spousal" and Gillis used "domestic" relationships while we could only examine "family" relationships.…”

“…Using Canadian national data collected by Statistics Canada, trends in homicide and social relationships were examined. The declines in the more intimate forms of homicide reported by Reed et al (1978), Zimring et al (1983) and Gillis (1986) were hypothesized in the more recently available data.…”

Examining the Instrumental–Expressive Continuum of Homicides

“…Among studies that examine specific jurisdictions, findings indicate that the majority of victims and offenders are acquaintances or strangers. For example, Zimring, Mukherjee, and van Winkle (1983) found that only 9% of the homicides in Chicago were among intimate partners or family members whereas nearly 83% were designated as intrasexual homicides (e.g., strangers and undetermined relationships). Additionally, medical examiner records in Florida indicated that over half (56%) of the homicide cases were committed by acquaintances and strangers compared to primary victim-offender relationships (Drawdy & Myers, 2004).…”