Female intimate partner homicide: a population-based study.

Objectives: To identify the patterns of female intimate partner homicide, to describe the nature of the partner relationships between victims and perpetrators, and to determine the extent of intimate partner violence (IPV) preceding the homicide.

Methods: We reviewed North Carolina medical examiner records and conducted telephone interviews with law enforcement officers about partner homicides of women age 15 and older occurring in North Carolina from 1991 to 1993.

Results: Most women were killed in homes (80%) and with guns (66%). One hundred thirty-five women (of 293 cases) were killed by marital partners, 47 of them former partners. Nonmarital partners killed 158 women, 46 of them former partners. Intimate partner violence was noted in two-thirds of the cases, 70% of those involving marital partners and 64% involving nonmarital partners. Homicides by former nonmarital partners were the most likely to have been preceded by IPV (78%). One hundred six victims with histories of IPV had had contact with law enforcement or judicial systems in the year before death.

Conclusions: Legal and health care professionals should be aware that women are vulnerable to both IPV and homicide from both nonmarital and former partners as well as from current husbands.