The Perpetrator-Victim Relationship: An Important Clue in Understanding Intimate Partner Homicide in China

Abstract

Intimate partner homicide (IPH) is a global public health issue that has serious consequences for an individual’s health. Whereas prior research has made some progress analyzing the perpetrator-victim relationship in understanding the dynamics of IPH, research set in the context of China in this field using the perpetrator-victim relationship as a focal variable in analyzing IPH is still lacking. The current study addresses this gap and builds on existing research by exploring the significance of the perpetrator-victim relationship in order to facilitate a deeper understanding of IPH in China. After examining 979 IPH criminal judgments, the findings revealed that the perpetrator-victim relationship is an important clue in understanding IPH in China today. By analyzing the correlation between intimate relationships as a focal variable and other variables such as IPH characteristics and risk factors, it is possible to understand the prevalence of IPH in China in greater detail. Irrespective of the kind of relationship between the perpetrator and victim, the findings revealed that most of them come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, have no previous history of intimate partner violence, and are not satisfied with their marriages. Although research has provided detailed explanations, the perpetrator-victim relationship remains neglected, especially in the context of research on contemporary China. The findings showed that over half of the perpetrators and victims had intimate relationships with people outside their marriages. This may be the main reason for the rapid increase in the number of instances of IPH, which seems to be in tandem with China’s rapid modernization and urbanization.

Mapping Women’s and Men’s Pathways into Thailand’s Prisons for Homicide and Sex Offences: Utilising a Feminist Pathways Approach

“…Others relayed stories duplicating the limited research on women's participation in sexual assault showing women rarely engage in direct acts of abuse, but, rather, offend out of a desire to maintain an intimate relationship with the perpetrator. Here, the women supported, facilitated, or 'turned a blind eye' to men's toxic sense of masculine sexual entitlement (Cortoni and Stefanov 2020;Gannon et al 2010;Gannon et al 2012;Gannon et al 2014;Zhao 2021). These stories mirrored Daly's (1994) drug connected pathway, and in Southeast Asia, Jeffries and Chuenurah's (2018) trajectory of male association (in Cambodia), and Veloso's (2022, p. 133) research (in the Philippines), showing that most women were "dragged into the crimes" of intimate partners and others.…”

“…What we do know is that when women are criminalised for these types of violations, they have typically played a subsidiary role to a man, most frequently their intimate partner. Here, women engage in, support, or facilitate men's access to the bodies of women and children, either out of fear (e.g., as victims of domestic violence), a desire to attain or maintain intimacy with, and get validation from, their partner and/or because their self-worth is dependent on this relationship (Cortoni and Stefanov 2020;Gannon et al 2010;Gannon et al 2012;Gannon et al 2014;Zhao 2021). Daly's (1994) research is considered formative in the development of western feminist pathways scholarship.…”