Intimate Partner Femicide: Using Foucauldian Analysis to Track an Eight Stage Progression to Homicide

Violence Against Women. 2020 Sep;26(11):1267-1285. doi: 10.1177/1077801219863876. Epub 2019 Aug 5.

Abstract

The killing of women by their intimate, or former intimate, partners is a serious social, criminal justice, and public health issue. There are significant pressures on public services in the United Kingdom and other places to reduce the number of deaths, and a need for more information to aid in assessing risk. The aim of this article is to develop understanding of nonclinical risk assessment by organizing the perpetrator journey to homicide using temporal sequencing and drawing from coercive control discourse.

Keywords: coercive control; domestic abuse; homicide; risk assessment; stalking.

MeSH terms

  • Criminal Law
  • Domestic Violence / statistics & numerical data
  • Female
  • Homicide / psychology
  • Homicide / statistics & numerical data*
  • Humans
  • Interpersonal Relations
  • Intimate Partner Violence / psychology
  • Intimate Partner Violence / statistics & numerical data*
  • Male
  • Public Health
  • Risk Assessment
  • Sexual Partners
  • Spouse Abuse / statistics & numerical data
  • United Kingdom