A Comprehensive Analysis of Factors Associated with Intimate Partner Femicide: A Systematic Review

Abstract

There has been a growing concern about violence against women by intimate partners due to its incidence and severity. This type of violence is a severe problem that has taken the lives of thousands of women worldwide and is expected to continue in the future. A limited amount of research exclusively considers factors related only to these women’s deaths. Most focus on deaths of both men and women in an intimate partnership and do not provide precise results on the phenomenon under study. The necessity for an actual synthesis of factors linked solely to women’s deaths in heterosexual relationships is key to a comprehensive knowledge of that case. This could assist in identifying high-risk cases by professionals involving an interdisciplinary approach. The study’s objective is to systematically review the factors associated with these deaths. Twenty-four studies found inclusion criteria extracted from seven databases (Dialnet, Web of Science, Pubmed, Criminal Justice, Psychology and Behavioral Science Collection, Academic Search Ultimate, and APA Psyarticles). The review was carried out under the PRISMA guidelines’ standards. The studies’ quality assessment complies with the MMAT guidelines. Findings revealed that there are specific factors of the aggressor, victim, partner’s relationship, and environment associated with women’s deaths. The results have implications for predicting and preventing women’s deaths, providing scientific knowledge applied to develop public action programs, guidelines, and reforms.

Risk Factors for Intimate Partner Femicide–Suicide in Italy: An Ecological Approach

“…About the second research question, the hierarchical logistic regression model results confirmed the perpetrators’ age role [ 4 , 6 , 12 ] and the law enforcement membership as significant individual risk factors for committing suicide after IPF; on the contrary, differently from other studies [ 3 , 6 ], our results did not highlight the possible role of the perpetrators’ mental and/or physical illness for IPFS. At the relational level, jealousy, quarrels, and violent behaviors in the couple were found as significant risk factors only for IPF, confirming the central role of the men’s possessiveness, and control over women as one of the main triggers in IPF cases [ 71 ]. Finally, at the contextual level, only the availability of a firearm to commit IPF seems to be significantly associated with IPFS.…”

Vulnerabilidades de las víctimas de feminicidio en España.

“…Múltiples trabajos han tratado de identificar factores que aumenten la probabilidad de sufrir violencia de género no letal, en general, y de sufrir una agresión mortal, en particular. En este sentido, aunque el feminicidio afecta a mujeres diversas (Consejo General del Poder Judicial, 2021), existen determinadas características y circunstancias que pueden colocar a ciertas mujeres en una situación de mayor vulnerabilidad, tal y como revelan múltiples estudios (Campbell, et al, 2003;Campbell et al, 2007;Garcia-Vergara et al, 2022;Spencer y Stith, 2018).…”

“…De entre estas situaciones, destaca la ruptura de la pareja. La ruptura de la relación supone un estresor importante que puede dar lugar a episodios de violencia o incrementarla en caso de que ya existiera (e.g., Johnson, 2011), así como aumentar el riesgo de feminicidio (e.g., Fernández-Teruelo, 2013;Garcia-Vergara et al, 2022). Los estudios destacan que el proceso de separación puede aumentar hasta diez veces el riesgo de feminicidio (Campbell et al, 2003;Matias et al, 2019), destacando el estudio de Kivisto (2015), que concluyó que entre el 20%-30% de los feminicidios podrían ser producidos por la propia separación.…”

“…De entre las características agravantes de los hechos, destaca el hecho de que la víctima quisiera romper la relación, circunstancia presente en el 46.2% de los casos. Como ya se comentó en la introducción, la influencia de la ruptura en la violencia que pueden sufrir las mujeres en la pareja es clara, ya que la separación aumenta el riesgo de sufrir violencia y la probabilidad de que pueda producirse una agresión mortal (Campbell et al, 2007;Garcia-Vergara et al, 2022;Spencer y Stith, 2018). Según Brownridge (2006b), los hombres pueden entender la ruptura de la relación como (a) un agravio por parte de la víctima, (b) una pérdida de control en su vida o (c) como una situación en la que entienden que tienen que reconciliarse con la víctima.…”

Gender-based violence in Latin America (Ecuador and Argentina): current state and challenges in the development of psychoeducational materials

“…These data suggest that intimate partner relationships can involve vulnerability and risk for women, and even end in murder [ 36 ]. Globally, a woman or girl is killed by a member of her family every 11 min.…”