‘Just Say Goodbye’ (January 2013 online edition)

‘Just Say Goodbye’• 6 per cent were the killing of other family members (such as aunts, grandparentsetc)• 4 per cent were the killing of siblings (Virueda and Payne 2010).Intimate partner homicideThe majority of the victims of intimate partner homicide are women. A 13-yearreview of family homicide in Australia found that approximately 75 per centof intimate partner homicides are perpetrated by men against their femalepartners (Mouzos & Rushforth 2003). Indigenous women are overrepresentedas victims of intimate partner homicide (Dearden & Jones 2008).There has been a significant body of research into intimate partner homicideswhich this paper does not have space to cover. The key finding is that mostwomen are killed by their partners in the context of a history of violence againstthem (WHO 2002, Mouzos & Houliaras 2006, Adams 2007). 10 In his researchon intimate partner homicide, Websdale found that male perpetrators had allused violence as a form of control against their female partners for a considerableperiod of time before the homicide (1999). In fact, most intimate partnerhomicides involve violence by the male partner toward the female partner,regardless of which partner is killed (Campbell et al. 2003a). Women who killpartners are often acting in self-defence, to protect themselves or their childrenfrom their male partner’s violence (Walker 1989, Browne et al. 1998, VictorianLaw Reform Commission 2004, Jones 2009, van Wormer & Roberts 2009).Polk’s groundbreaking work on men who kill in Victoria found thatpossessiveness and jealousy are common characteristics of male perpetrators ofintimate partner homicide (Polk 1994). More recent studies report similar findings.Adams (2007) interviewed 31 men who killed their wives. 11 He found that mostof the men were extremely jealous. They believed their partners were havingaffairs (even when there was evidence they were not) and constantly monitoredtheir whereabouts and behaviour. Adams found that disdain for women wasstrongly evident, as was distrust. For most of the men who killed their partners,a sense of proprietary ownership was intertwined with jealous anger (Adams2007). It has also been found that men who kill their partners frequently showa lack of remorse and empathy for the victim (Dobash & Dobash 2009).10 It should be noted, however, that some women are at risk of death even where there has been no previousviolence against them (Block 2009).11 As Adams could not interview their victims, he instead interviewed women who had survived serious lifethreatening,but not fatal, violence from a partner, to get their perspective as well.11