Sociostructural Considerations of Domestic Femicide

Previous research on the domestic murder of women is relatively scant. Domestic femicide data collected from 32 state domestic violence coalitions was regressed on variables associated with three theoretical explanations: economic stress and inequality variables, criminal justice variables, and community variables. Findings suggest that state size has the largest impact on the number of domestic femicides, perhaps because of the relationship between state size and other variables such as poverty and public services. Not related to domestic femicide are variables such as the number of officers on the street, the number of violent crimes, or household income.