The Problem of Intimate Partner Femicide

Abstract

Intimate partner femicide (IPF) is also a significant problem recognized across the world as a serious social issue. For example, in the United States three women are killed every day by an intimate partner or former partner (VPC 2005), which is between 40 and 50 per cent of all American women killed. This is nine times the rate of stranger homicide and comparable to only 5–8 per cent of men killed by an intimate partner or former partner (Campbell et al. 2003). Van Wormer and Roberts (2009) further report that homicide is the leading cause of traumatic death for pregnant and post-partum women in the United States. These figures do not take into consideration the ‘near misses’, where women manage to survive violent attacks. To put this comment in perspective, in Minnesota such is the problem with strangulation assaults by men on women that legislation has been enacted which specifically targets strangulation assault in cases of IPA. It was argued that allegations of choking and strangulation were often treated as lesser misdemeanour offences, rather than felony offences, minimizing both the perceived risk and the trauma to the victim. It was established that there was evidence of a correlation between strangulation assault and subsequent fatal assault, where women have a relationship with an abusive man (Turkel 2007), and this legislation was designed to raise awareness of the risks.