Classifying spousal femicide

This study aims to empirically construct a classification system of men incarcerated for the murder of their female partner based on the Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart (1994) typology. Ninety men who have been convicted and imprisoned for the murder of their female partner were identified from 2 UK prison samples. A content dictionary defining offence and offender characteristics associated with two dimensions of psychological distress and criminality is developed. Variables are extracted from institutional records via content analysis and analyzed for thematic structure using multidimensional scaling procedures. The resultant framework classifies 80% (n=72) of the sample into three sub-groups of men characterised by a) Low Criminality/Low Psychological Distress (15%) b) Moderate-High Criminality/High Psychological Distress (36%) c) High Criminality/Low-Moderate Psychological Distress (49%). The latter two groups are akin to Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart’s (1994) Generally Violent/Antisocial and Dysphoric/Borderline offender respectively. This is the first study to empirically classify lethal domestic violent offenders.