“…This gender difference is consistent with Finkelhor and Dziuba-Letherman's (1994) conjecture that males have an increasing risk to be victims of fatal abuse with increasing age. Although some reports (e.g., US Department of Health and Human Services, 1997) and studies (e.g., Anderson, Ambrosino, Valentine, & Lauderdale, 1983;Goetting, 1988;Margolin, 1990;Schmidt, Grab, & Madea, 1996) have shown the majority of fatal abuse victims to be male, the gender of fatal abuse victims generally varies in the research literature as being either predominately female or equally male and female (e.g., Brewster et al, 1998;Hicks & Gaughan, 1995;Jason & Andereck, 1983;Schloesser, Pierpont, & Poertner, 1992). The findings of the present study suggest that one possible reason for the victim gender differences in published reports and studies may be because of varying definitions of filicide.…”