Home Sweet Home: Feminist Domestic Violence Fallacies - Richard L. Davis

Home Sweet Home: Feminist Domestic Violence Fallacies

November 20, 2004


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by Richard L. Davis

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Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness. - James Thurber

It’s generally thought that the home is a more dangerous place for women than men. This myth is what fundamental feminists want us to believe. The fact is that our homes and neighborhoods can be a dangerous place for both males and females.

The vast majority of homicides are not committed by strangers. The majority of homicide offenders and victims are intimate/family members or acquaintances. The FBI Supplemental Homicide Report (SHR) defines intimate/family members as relatives, step-relatives, in-laws, and common law or ex-spouses.

It defines acquaintances as boyfriends, girlfriends, ex-husbands, ex-wives, employee, employer, friend, homosexual relation, neighbor, and other know individuals.

The SRC documents that between 1981 and 2000, 28,586 females were the victims of a family/intimate homicide. During that same period there were 31,509 male victims. From 1981 to 2,000, 120,095 males and 33,088 females were murdered by an acquaintance. During that same time period 49,424 males and 8,518 females were murdered by a stranger. To paraphrase Pogo, we have met the enemy and the enemy is us.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics, Homicide Trends in the United States, documents that females account for 24% of the total number of all homicides victims. Of that 24%, approximately 30% of females are murdered by a husband or intimate partner Thus, female intimate partners who are murdered by their spouse or intimate partner account for approximately 7% of the total number of homicides.

The majority, but certainly not all, domestic violence homicides are committed by people who have histories of criminal behavior, long histories of violent and aberrant behavior inside and out side the family, were physically and/or sexually abused as children and/or suffer from alcohol or substance abuse.

National Institute of Justice data document that in 74% of familial murders, the murderer has a prior criminal record of arrest or conviction. In fact 44% of the victims also had a prior criminal record. A Massachusetts study documents that 91% of chronic domestic violence offenders have a history of criminal behavior. Thus these people constitute a subgroup of the population and are not reflective of the general population.

The people who do not have histories of criminal behavior and commit a smaller number of domestic violence homicides also do not represent the general populace. They often appear to be people who display extreme narcissistic behavior, have alcohol or drug problems, display pathological jealousy, become extremely depressed at the prospect of losing their partner and blame their intimate partners for the loss of their economic standing or professional and personal esteem. In fact, approximately one in every four domestic violence homicides is a murder/suicide.

Between 1976 and 1996, 64% of female intimate partner victims were killed by their husbands, 5% by ex-husbands and 32% by partners/boyfriends. Of male victims, 62% were killed by their wives, 4% by ex-wives and 34% by partners/girlfriends.

This data documents that the home is a more dangerous place for males than females. The fact that the number of male offenders is higher than the number of female offenders does not change that fact.

Approximately one third of family murders involve a female as the murder. In sibling murders they account for 15% and for the murder of parents it is 18%. In spousal murders women represent 41% of the murders. In the murder of their biological children, women account for 55% of the murders.

In fact given this data the argument can be made that given the total number of murders committed by women, the home is more dangerous for men than women and women are more dangerous in the home than are men.

Richard L. Davis