Gender and homicide: Important trends across four decades

A comprehensive review of four decades of national homicide data show important gender differences and trends among homicide victims and offenders in the U.S., related to prevalence and the characteristics of the crimes and the men and women involved. The article "Gender Differences in Patterns and Trends in U.S. Homicide, 1976-2015" is published in Violence and Gender.

Coauthors James Alan Fox and Emma Fridel, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, examined the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports database covering 1976-2015. They report gender differences among victims and offenders based on characteristics such as their age and race, the weapon used and circumstances of the crime, and the victim-offender relationship. Among the most striking and important findings were the trends in intimate partner homicide. The researchers discuss how factors such as the ongoing efforts to reduce domestic violence, greater availability of social and legal interventions for women victimized by intimate partner violence, reduced stigma associated with being a victim of domestic violence, and the Brady Handgun Prevention Act of 1993 may have all had an effect on the observed trends.

"This study by James Fox and Emma Fridel, 'Gender Differences in Patterns and Trends in U.S. Homicide, 1976-2015,' is a must read! These researchers studied homicide data over nearly four decades, and one of their most 'striking' findings concerned the reduction in male intimate partner victimization homicides. You will find their explanation for this reduction absolutely fascinating," says Editor-in-Chief Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Forensic Behavioral Consultant and Senior FBI Profiler/Supervisory Special Agent (ret.) and currently, Director of the Forensic Sciences Program, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.