Department of Criminal Justice, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA.
J Interpers Violence. 2012 Sep;27(14):2824-44. doi: 10.1177/0886260512438282. Epub 2012 Apr 4.
Femicide, the murder of females (most often at the hands of males), is an understudied area in homicide research. Furthermore, femicide perpetrated by females has been all but ignored. One reason this may be is because of the rarity of homicide victimization perpetrated by females. Rather, most homicide incidents consist of a male offender and a male victim. When a homicide does involve a female, either as a victim or as an offender, the other party implicated is generally a male. The primary goal of the proposed study is to provide an in-depth, albeit exploratory, examination of female-perpetrated femicide. Using homicide data taken from the Dallas Homicide Unit, 403 cases of femicide will be analyzed, with special attention devoted to comparing female-perpetrated femicide incidents (n = 39) against male-perpetrated femicide incidents (n = 364). Specifically, the current study will explore the similarities and differences in sociodemographic characteristics of victims and suspects, offense characteristics, and offense circumstances. Contrary to what was expected, results, at first glance, seem to suggest an overwhelming similarity between femicide suspects and victims, irrespective of gender. However, when the relationship between victim and suspect is considered, distinct differences appear. Implications from these findings as well as limitations and suggestions for further research are discussed.
女性杀人，即女性（通常是男性所为）杀害女性，是凶杀研究中一个研究不足的领域。此外，女性实施的杀人行为几乎被忽视。造成这种情况的一个原因可能是因为女性实施的杀人行为很少见。相反，大多数杀人事件涉及男性罪犯和男性受害者。当杀人事件涉及女性，无论是受害者还是罪犯，所涉及的另一方通常是男性。拟议研究的主要目标是对女性实施的女性杀人行为进行深入但探索性的研究。该研究将利用达拉斯凶杀案组提供的凶杀数据，对 403 起女性杀人案进行分析，特别关注比较女性实施的女性杀人案（n = 39）和男性实施的女性杀人案（n = 364）。具体来说，本研究将探讨受害者和嫌疑人的社会人口统计学特征、犯罪特征和犯罪情况的异同。与预期相反，乍一看，结果似乎表明，无论性别如何，女性杀人案嫌疑人与受害者之间存在压倒性的相似性。然而，当考虑受害者和嫌疑人之间的关系时，就会出现明显的差异。讨论了这些发现的意义以及研究的局限性和进一步研究的建议。
