A New Global Database on Intimate Partner Homicide

• In Event: Intimate Partner Homicides, Familicides and Victim Perspectives

Abstract

Intimate Partner Homicide (IPH) has emerged as a major public concern, especially with the growing focus on feminicide. Yet comparative research on IPH remains limited due to the scarcity and quality of country-level data. This presentation introduces the Global IPH Database, which aggregates multiple data sources by fact-checking Eurostat and UNODC figures against press releases, NGO reports, and national statistics. This process reveals that UNODC data are often unreliable, with many countries reporting implausibly low IPH rates. Our database shows a strong correlation between IPH and overall homicide rates—a link we use to flag dubious figures. The current cross-sectional dataset covers 49 countries, with an oversampling of Europe and the Americas.

Beyond its empirical contribution, the Global IPH Database offers new avenues for theoretical insights. It enables testing of Verkko’s laws, which propose an inverse relationship between overall homicide rates and the share of female homicide victims. It also facilitates research on the relationship between IPH and gender equality. Although current scholarship often assumes that IPH is a function of gender equality, empirical findings have been mixed. Our data reveal a strong negative correlation between IPH and UNDP’s gender equality index, although this appears driven more by family structure than by other gender measures.

Currently, the database is cross-sectional, allowing for detailed descriptive analysis rather than causal inference. Plans are underway to develop it into a longitudinal dataset that will track how policy changes and societal shifts influence IPH rates over time. The Global IPH Database provides a robust empirical foundation for further IPH research, to inform policy on intimate partner violence, and to deepen our understanding of the relationship between IPH and overall homicide rates.

Authors

• François Bonnet, CNRS, PACTE, Université Grenoble Alpes

• Paul Le Derff, Institute of Political Studies of Bordeaux