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Female-Perpetrated Homicide

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Encyclopedia of Domestic Violence

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Without question, the strongest predictor of serious violent crime is gender. Across basically all time periods and locations, violent behavior has been the domain of males. This is especially true in the case of homicide. Annually around 90% of arrests for homicide are males. This proportion has been incredibly consistent throughout American history (Brearley, 1932; Lane, 1997; McKanna, 1997). Female-perpetrated homicides are also relatively rare in other countries (Silverman & Kennedy, 1993). Women’s involvement in homicide is generally concentrated within intimate partner relationships and thus the bulk of the research on female homicide offending and victimization is focused in this area. Across the globe, an estimated 6% of male homicide victims are killed by an intimate partner, compared to nearly 40% of female homicide victims. Cross-national research on intimate partner homicide has identified a number of significant predictors of variation across countries in rates of...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

    Wendy C. Regoeczi

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  1. Wendy C. Regoeczi
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Correspondence to Wendy C. Regoeczi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Gavin Vance

  3. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester Hills, MI, USA

    Madeleine K. Meehan

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Regoeczi, W.C. (2023). Female-Perpetrated Homicide. In: Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Domestic Violence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85493-5_588-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85493-5_588-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-85493-5

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