Intimate Partner Homicide-Suicide in the United States: A Comparison to Homicide-Only Cases and Suicide-Only Cases

• In Event: Lightning Talk: The Rutgers Violence Against Women Research Consortium: Addressing Research Gaps and Fostering Creative Dissemination

Abstract

While literature on intimate partner homicide-suicide has expanded over the past 20 years, a number of gaps still remain. One area scholarship has explored is what risk factors are associated with intimate partner homicide-suicide and whether these risk factors are more similar to those of homicide-only cases or suicide-only cases. Some argue that intimate-partner homicide is distinct from both. Understanding the etiology of homicide-suicide is critical to prevention and intervention efforts. The overall goal of this study was to explore risk factors associated with intimate partner homicide-suicide risk using more recent data from NVDRS (i.e., 2018 and 2019). Quantitative analysis was used to examine individual and case-level characteristics associated with intimate partner homicide-suicide compared to suicide-only cases and homicide-only cases. Qualitative analysis was used to review homicide-suicide narratives to identify noteworthy case characteristics that are were not accounted for in the quantitative analysis.

Author

• Laura Johnson, Temple University