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Definitions of domestic homicide shape data collection and prevention efforts and, consequentially, our understanding of these crimes. This chapter explores issues related to defining domestic homicide in the context of our work with the Canadian Domestic Homicide Prevention Initiative with Vulnerable Populations (CDHPIVP). We discuss selected case studies to demonstrate what cases are included and excluded in this work and to highlight the importance of understanding our narrower, project-based definition in relation to the larger context of domestic violence-related homicides and deaths. By considering how victims and perpetrators are identified when defining domestic violence, we illustrate how undercounting of domestic homicide may occur, contributing to the “dark figure” of domestic homicide. Furthermore, we argue that cases from certain groups, such as Indigenous women in Canada, may be systematically excluded from definitions of domestic homicide. In reflecting on these issues and cases, our aim is to advance calls for consistency and transparency in definitions to allow for stronger research across jurisdictions (Fairbairn, Jaffe, & Dawson, 2017; Jaffe et al., 2017), as well as to support efforts of initiatives such as domestic violence death review committees (DVDRCs) in their work to prevent domestic homicides.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of how collaboration agreements function and their benefits for the environments where they are implemented. The goal of these initiatives is to bring together in partnerships the actors concerned by domestic violence and coordinate their actions to ensure the safety of persons at risk of intrafamilial homicides through an effective collaboration structure.

The synthesis data originates from four research projects research work with the partners of four studied agreements: A-GIR (Arrimage-Groupe d’Intervention Rapide [Rapid Intervention Unit]) in Laval, Alerte-Lanaudière [Lanaudière Alert] in the Lanaudière region, P.H.A.R.E. (Prévention des homicides intrafamiliaux par des Actions Rapides et Engagées [Domestic Homicide Prevention through Rapid and Committed Action]) in South Western Montérégie and the Rabaska Protocol in Abitibi-Témiscamingue.

Overall, the interveners agree on the positive impacts resulting from the relationships between the partners, the development of a common expertise and the collective responsibility acting to prevent intrafamilial homicides, while highlighting the challenges met and the essential conditions for the success of these collaboration initiatives.

Findings are drawn from participants in a particular locale – i.e. French–Canada, and may not entirely apply to other regions and cultures. Additional research should be conducted with similar methodology in other regions of Canada and elsewhere.

The findings should help in the further development of best practices for IPH prevention and therefore protect potential victims from lethal assaults of domestic violence.

Few studies have been conducted on how stakeholders involved in IPH prevention actually work together in collaborative efforts, and none, as far as we know, specifically on drawing up formal agreements.

An article in the NIJ Journal (Websdale, 2003) notes that domestic violence can provoke suicide. The 2003 Massachusetts Domestic Violence Homicide Report (Lauby et al, 2006) notes that suicide can be attributed to domestic violence incidents. Utah Domestic Violence Related Deaths 2006 (Utah Domestic Violence Council, 2006) notes that the majority of domestic violence‐related suicides are not covered in their report. The report Domestic Violence Fatalities (2005) (Utah Department of Health, 2006) notes that there were 44 suicides and 21 homicide domestic violence‐related deaths in Utah in 2005. Using data from the Surveillance for Violent Deaths ‐ National Violent Death Reporting System, 16 States, 2005 (Karch et al, 2008), it is possible to extrapolate that as many as 7,832 male and 1,958 domestic violence‐related suicides occur annually in the US. When domestic violence‐related suicides are combined with domestic violence homicides, the total numbers of domestic violence‐related deaths are higher for males than females. This paper recommends that to understand the broad scope and tragic impact of domestic violence, further research is needed concerning domestic violence‐related suicide.

This study aims to draw together what is known regarding the characteristics and context of adult family violence, and to consider what practitioners and organisations in the UK might learn from the literature.

This study reviews literature on adult family violence and parricide and includes illustrative cases from a study of domestic homicide review reports involving older adults.

Adult family violence most often involves mothers killed by their adult sons. Mental health issues, alcohol/substance misuse and criminality are common themes for perpetrators. Caregiving responsibilities is a theme for both victims and perpetrators. Previous research identified two main categories of adult family homicide: perpetrators with major psychotic illness, and victims-perpetrators in complex relational contexts.

This study considers how practitioners respond to situations of adult family violence and learning for policymakers, agencies and practitioners.

This paper summarises what is known, argues that more research is needed and suggests practical ways forward for policymakers, relevant agencies and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of gender in intimate partner violence (IPV) and, based upon the author’s experience as an expert witness, 25 years of clinical experience working with IPV perpetrators and victims, and a review of the relevant scholarly literature, provide judges, attorneys, mental health professionals and expert court witness suggestions for the adjudication of cases involving IPV in homicide and other cases.

The author reviewed the extant general domestic violence research literature, depending largely on results from findings from the Partner Abuse State of Knowledge Project, a series of 17 literature review published in five issues of the peer-reviewed journal, Partner Ause. Other relevant research articles were found via a search of the PschInfo database, using the keywords “intimate partner homicides,” “domestic violence homicides,” “intimate partner homicides and gender” and “domestic violence homicides and gender.”

The judicial response to IPV perpetration has been limited by common misconceptions, among them the confusion between most forms of IPV, which are primarily bi-directional and less consequential and battering, which involves more serious assaults and is typically motivated out of a desire to dominate and control one’s partner. Another misconception is that women are much more likely than men to perpetrate IPV in self-defense or to express emotion. On the other hand, there is no question that female victims are much more likely to experience severe physical injuries, and that women account for approximately three-quarters of homicide victims.

These include the following: this concise review of IPV research provides a clearer understanding of IPV, useful for anyone working in the field. Mental health professionals working with IPV perpetrators, as well as victims, can draw from this research best practice suggestions in working with more problematic cases. The paper should be especially useful to anyone involved in the adjudication of IPV cases, including lethal cases. In particular, prosecutors and attorneys working for the defense are given suggestions on how to obtain more reliable research data, choose more fruitful questions for their clients, and better conceptualize a case overall.

This paper presents a more nuanced and evidence-based conceptualization of serious and lethal IPV, drawing on a broad research base not generally available to members of the legal profession.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to explore homicide trends in Trinidad and Tobago, to describe the factors that impact the risk for homicide perpetration and victimization, and to discuss the effectiveness of strategies implemented by law enforcement agencies to prosecute homicide cases.

Design/methodology/approach – The chapter employs a detailed review of relevant literature to explore homicide trends and the strategies instituted to investigate and prosecute this criminal offense.

Findings – Our findings suggest that homicide victimization and perpetration is concentrated among young men of African descent, who reside in underprivileged communities with a high population density. Gang violence prompted by a narco-drug economy, coupled with gun violence, accentuates the risk of homicide perpetration and victimization. As homicide rates remained high, law enforcement officials in Trinidad and Tobago were ill equipped to investigate and make arrests in these offenses.

Originality/value – This chapter adds to the literature on homicide in Trinidad and Tobago by (1) showing that geographic and demographic factors structure homicide victimization and (2) exploring how the political economy of drugs in the Caribbean contributes to murder.

This paper is a commentary on COVID-19’s impact on Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs), the system in England and Wales that enables learning from domestic abuse-related deaths.

Drawing on a practitioner–researcher perspective, this paper reflects on how COVID-19 affected the delivery and experience of DHRs, the place of victims at the heart of this process and what the pandemic’s impact might mean moving forward.

This paper explicates some of the challenges of undertaking DHRs in a pandemic. Critically, however, it argues that these challenges illuminate broader questions about the practice of DHR.

This paper’s originality comes from the author’s practitioner–researcher perspective and its use of COVID-19 as a lens to consider DHRs.

In a series of high-profile cases, defendants accused of murdering women have tried to mitigate their murder charge on the basis that the killing was not intentional but rather was an accidental outcome of consensual ‘rough sex’. Activists, academics, and the popular press have presented this as a form of victim blaming and calls have been made to ban the so called ‘rough sex defence’. This has led to a promise from the government to include such a prohibition in the Domestic Abuse Bill which is currently making its way through Parliament. In this chapter the overarching problems around trying to define ‘rough sex’ in a sufficiently clear manner to make for an effective law will be explored. This will include a discussion of the inherent physical riskiness and harm of sexual intercourse and associated activities and how this would fit with the current offences against the person legal architecture. It will also consider how the court has struggled to deal with other areas of potentially consensual personal interaction which can lead to harm such as the case law on ‘horseplay’. Finally, it will argue that trying to define ‘rough sex’ within the confines of domestic abuse legislation may limit the scope and effectiveness of the measures. The proposals will also be placed in the context of previous unsuccessful attempts to deal with gendered issues in criminal law offences such as limits on the use of sexual history evidence and the use of sexual infidelity in ‘loss of control’ cases. The chapter will conclude by considering whether a ‘rough sex’ defence ban might meet a similar fate.

Media power plays a role in determining which news is told, who is listened to and how subject matter is treated, resulting in some stories being reported in depth while others remain cursory and opaque. This chapter examines how domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is reported in mainstream and social media encompassing newspapers, television and digital platforms. In the United Kingdom, newspapers have freedom to convey particular views on subjects such as DVA as, unlike radio and television broadcasting, they are not required to be impartial (Reeves, 2015).

The gendered way DVA is represented in the UK media has been a long-standing concern. Previous research into newspaper representations of DVA, including our own (Lloyd & Ramon, 2017), found evidence of victim blaming and sexualising violence against women. This current study assesses whether there is continuity with earlier research regarding how victims of DVA, predominantly women, are portrayed as provoking their own abuse and, in cases of femicide, their characters denigrated by some in the media with impunity (Soothill & Walby, 1991). The chapter examines how certain narratives on DVA are constructed and privileged in sections of the media while others are marginalised or silenced. With the rise in digital media, the chapter analyses the changing patterns of news media consumption in the UK and how social media users are responding to DVA cases reported in the news. Through discourse analysis of language and images, the potential messages projected to media consumers are considered, together with consumer dialogue and interaction articulated via online and social media platforms.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the term “overkill” is used in the homicide literature to identify definitional issues that may interfere with reliable data coding across studies. This preliminary examination of the concept can guide future studies seeking to develop a standard definition.

To identify issues inherent in the term “overkill,” three definitions – ranging from broad and unclear to more specific and objective – were extracted or adapted from the existing literature. Using closed, homicide case files, nine coders were tasked with coding for the presence of overkill according to one of the definitions across two rounds of coding. Definitional components that made the coding of overkill difficult were identified using a qualitative sorting task to separate items into themes that represented similar issues; basic inter-rater agreement patterns were examined using pairwise percent agreement.

Based on coder feedback, two problems were identified: conceptual issues with the definitions and logistical issues with coding. However, feedback also suggested that increasing the objectivity of the overkill definition led coders to feel the intended meaning of the term was lost. Two out of three groups showed an increase in coder agreement between the two phases of data collection, illustrating how increased training is useful in certain situations.

This study is the first in-depth methodological and empirical examination of how the term “overkill” has been operationalized in the literature, raises key questions that may help with more clearly coding this variable, and outlines issues that may add difficulty to the development of a standard definition.