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"Who Kills Whom" Revisited

A Sociological Study of Variation in the Sex Ratio of Spouse Killings

University of Louisiana at Lafayette

William B. Bankston

Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge

This article addresses the extraordinarily high ratio of females to males who kill domestic partners in the United States. Using a theoretical perspective conceptualizing violence between intimates as a form of self-help social control and as involving a pattern of sex-specific motives, the authors developed an explanatory model of variance in the rates of female and male spouse killing and thereby, in the spousal sex ratio of killing (SROK). Applied to cities in the United States with populations of 100,000 or more, the model predicted a significant proportion of variance in the rates of female and male killers (1984-1996) and in the SROK. Examination of the net differences in effects on sex-specific rates allowed for the interpretation of why the SROK varies so dramatically across communities and what factors contribute to the high spousal SROK in the United States. Directions for further sociological investigation of this question are discussed.

Key Words: spousal killings • domestic homicide

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