This research examines the role of situational factors in differentiating between male- and female-perpetrated intimate partner homicide. Applying concepts from Luckenbill’s theory of homicide as a situated transaction, an intimate partner homicide is seen as an amorphous event where the role of offender and victim emerge during the transaction. When adopting this framework, it is possible to treat the sex of the offender as a dependent variable and examine situational factors that may differentiate between male and female intimate partner homicide offenders. The data used in this analysis come from the lethal sample of the Chicago Women’s Health Risk Study, 1995 to 1998. These data consist of records for 85 heterosexual intimate homicide incidents that occurred in Chicago in 1995 and 1996. Logistic regression analyses indicate that the presence of a prehomicide injury and whether the offender used a knife differentiate between male and female offenders. Implications for future research are discussed.
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