Classifying partner femicide

The heterogeneity of men who are violent toward their female partner has long been established. However, research has failed to examine this phenomenon among men committing the most severe from of intimate partner violence. This study aims to use a multidimensional approach to empirically construct a classification system of men who are incarcerated for the murder of their female partner based on the Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart (1994) typology. Ninety men who had been convicted and imprisoned for the murder of their female partner or spouse in England, UK, were identified from 2 prison samples. A content dictionary defining offence and offender characteristics associated with two dimensions of Psychopathology and Criminality was developed. These variables were extracted from institutional records via content analysis and analyzed for thematic structure using multidimensional scaling procedures. The resultant framework classified 80% (n=72) of the sample into three sub-groups of men characterised by a) Low Criminality/Low Psychopathology (15%) b) Moderate-High Criminality/High Psychopathology (36%) c) High Criminality/Low-Moderate Psychopathology (49%). The latter two groups are akin to Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart’s (1994) Generally Violent/Antisocial and Dysphoric/Borderline offender respectively. Practical implications of the research are discussed.