The findings from the study are included in the report global estimates of violence against women: Prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence, released today [Thursday 20 June] by the World Health Organization, in partnership with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the South African Medical Research Council.
The estimates suggest that worldwide at least one in seven homicides (13.5%) are committed by an intimate partner, with partners responsible for 38.6% of all female murders compared with just 6.3% of male homicides.
After searching systematically for studies published in the past twenty years containing data on the global prevalence of intimate partner homicide and contacting national statistics offices from 169 countries, Dr Heidi Stöckl from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the UK and colleagues identified 118 studies, compiling data on 492,340 homicides from 66 countries.
The global picture varies widely. Countries with the highest rates of murder of women by intimate partners are those in southeast Asia (58.8%), high-income countries* (41.2%), the Americas (40.5%) and the Africa region (40.1%). Countries in the low and middle-income western Pacific region (19.1%), the low-income and middle-income European region (20%), and the eastern Mediterranean region (14.4%) reported the lowest rates.
By contrast, among murders of men, rates of partner homicide were highest in high-income countries (6.3%), the Africa region (4.1%), and the low-income and middle-income European region (3.6%). In all other regions prevalence was less than 2%.
The authors point out that these are conservative estimates and say that the true magnitude of the issue is hampered by a lack of data and the large amount of missing information about the perpetrator-victim status—at least a fifth of all homicides in the study did not report the victim-offender relationship and were recorded as non-partner murders.
According to Dr Stöckl, "Our results underscore that women are disproportionately vulnerable to violence and murder by an intimate partner, and their needs have been neglected for far too long. Such homicides are often the ultimate outcome of a failed societal, health, and criminal justice response to intimate partner violence."**
She adds, "More needs to be done, particularly to increase investment in intimate partner violence prevention, to support women experiencing intimate partner violence (most women killed by a partner have been in long-term abusive relationships), and to control gun ownership for people with a history of violence." **
Writing in a linked Comment, Dr Rosana Norman of the Queensland Children's Medical Research Institute at the University of Queensland, Australia, writes that "These findings have important implications for efforts to prevent intimate partner homicides and the need for further research…Prevention of homicide of women and men by intimate partners is important. Research into the complex issues related to intimate relationships can only be undertaken if improved data are collected in a systematic fashion."
NOTES TO EDITORS:
* Andorra, Australia, Austria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England and Wales, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA.
**Quotes direct from author and cannot be found in text of Article.
Journal
The Lancet