Partner-Killing by Women in Cohabiting Relationships and Marital Relationships

Abstract

Using a national-level U.S. database that includes more than 400,000 homicides committed from 1976 to 1994, the author calculated rates of partner-killing by women by relationship type (cohabiting or marital), by partner ages, and by the age difference between partners. Men in cohabiting relationships are 10 times more likely to be killed by their partners than are married men. Within marriages, the risk of being killed by a partner decreases with a man's age. Within cohabiting relationships, in contrast, middle-aged men are at greatest risk of being killed by their partners. The risk that a man will be killed by his partner generally increases with greater age difference between partners. These findings provide the first national-level replications of risk patterns reported for a national-level Canadian sample. Discussion highlights future research directions, including identifying why men in cohabiting relationships incur greater risk of being killed by their partners than do married men.

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