‘Just Say Goodbye’ (January 2013 online edition)

‘Just Say Goodbye’Separation: A key risk factorSeparation is a significant risk factor in intimate partner homicides (Dobash& Dobash 2009). Forty per cent of men who killed their intimate partner inAustralia were found to be motivated by the termination of a relationship orjealousy (Mouzos 1999). 13 A recent US study found that half the women (51per cent) killed by a male partner were killed as they were trying to leave andapproximately half these women were leaving for the first time (Block 2009).One review of domestic homicides in Ontario, Canada, found that 80 per centinvolved actual or pending separation (Ontario Domestic Violence DeathReview Committee 2004). The risk of homicide appears to escalate most whenthe man realises his wife will not return to the relationship, rather than whenshe actually leaves ( Johnson 2008). Female partners are typically killed in orderto prevent them pursuing a relationship with someone else or in revenge forhaving done so (Victorian Law Reform Commission 2002).A gendered phenomenonThis chapter has shown that research consistently demonstrates that there is agendered pattern to homicides involving intimate partners. Women comprisethe majority of victims, often killed in the context of prior violence against themand/or attempts to leave the relationship. These homicides are primarily by menand result from men’s sense of proprietary ownership over their female partners.Men are also the vast majority of perpetrators of familicides involving partnersand children. This paper will now turn to the issue of filicide and consider theresearch that indicates similarly gendered patterns exist when children arekilled by their parents. It will explore ways to apply what we know about familyviolence and intimate partner homicide to our understanding of filicide.13 It is likely that the true incidence of separation as a factor in intimate partner homicide is underestimated as itis often not known if the victim was planning to leave.13