News Release

Gender and homicide: Important trends across four decades

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

Violence and Gender

image: Violence and Gender is the only peer-reviewed journal focusing on the understanding, prediction, and prevention of acts of violence. view more 

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, May 30, 2017-A comprehensive review of four decades of national homicide data show important gender differences and trends among homicide victims and offenders in the U.S., related to prevalence and the characteristics of the crimes and the men and women involved. The article "Gender Differences in Patterns and Trends in U.S. Homicide, 1976-2015" is published in Violence and Gender, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Violence and Gender website.

Coauthors James Alan Fox and Emma Fridel, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, examined the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports database covering 1976-2015. They report gender differences among victims and offenders based on characteristics such as their age and race, the weapon used and circumstances of the crime, and the victim-offender relationship. Among the most striking and important findings were the trends in intimate partner homicide. The researchers discuss how factors such as the ongoing efforts to reduce domestic violence, greater availability of social and legal interventions for women victimized by intimate partner violence, reduced stigma associated with being a victim of domestic violence, and the Brady Handgun Prevention Act of 1993 may have all had an effect on the observed trends.

"This study by James Fox and Emma Fridel, 'Gender Differences in Patterns and Trends in U.S. Homicide, 1976-2015,' is a must read! These researchers studied homicide data over nearly four decades, and one of their most 'striking' findings concerned the reduction in male intimate partner victimization homicides. You will find their explanation for this reduction absolutely fascinating," says Editor-in-Chief Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Forensic Behavioral Consultant and Senior FBI Profiler/Supervisory Special Agent (ret.) and currently, Director of the Forensic Sciences Program, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.

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About the Journal

Violence and Gender is the only peer-reviewed journal focusing on the understanding, prediction, and prevention of acts of violence. Through research papers, roundtable discussions, case studies, and other original content, the Journal critically examines biological, genetic, behavioral, psychological, racial, ethnic, and cultural factors as they relate to the gender of perpetrators of violence. Led by Editor-in-Chief Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Forensic Behavioral Consultant and Senior FBI Profiler/Criminal Investigative Analyst (ret.), Violence and Gender explores the difficult issues that are vital to threat assessment and prevention of the epidemic of violence. Violence and Gender is published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print, and is the official journal of The Avielle Foundation. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Violence and Gender website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking and Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.


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