The Social Structure of Homicide-Suicide

• In Event: Conceptualizing Intimate Partner Homicide

Abstract

Those who kill others sometimes kill themselves in turn. Such homicide-suicides are particularly likely among intimate partners. Here I focus on intimate-partner killings to address to address the question of why some killers subsequently take their own lives but others do not. Utilizing Blackian theories of conflict management and my (2012) theory of suicide, I advance several hypotheses about the relative likelihood of homicide, suicide, and homicide suicide among intimate partners. Specifically, I propose that differing amounts of status superiority and relational distance predict and explain different patterns of lethal violence. I illustrate and support these hypotheses with data taken from a study of intimate partner homicides in the state of West Virginia.

Author

• Jason Manning, West Virginia University