Though O.J. Simpson vehemently denies that he murdered his former wife, his case has provoked a flurry of media attention toward other husbands who kill their wives. Coincidentally with the Simpson case, the Department of Justice has just released the first detailed empirical study of "murder in families." It contains some surprising information, which contrasts sharply with the media headlines.
The most shocking finding of this study--which analyzed nearly ten thousand cases--is that wives murder their husbands far more frequently than press reports would suggest. To put the issue in context, women in general account for only about 10 percent of defendants charged with all murders. But for all spousal murders, women accounted for more than 40 percent of defendants.And "among black marital partners, wives were just about as likely to kill their husbands as husbands were to kill their wives." Not surprisingly, when it comes to parents who kill their children, mothers kill more often than fathers.
The real headline of this report, therefore, is that women W almost as often as men do in the context of all family murders, though men much more often kill strangers--nearly always other men,
The other shocker in this report is that husbands who kill their wives are not treated more leniently than men who kill strangers, despite the media myth to the contrary. Indeed, they were as likely to be charged with first-degree murder, were no more likely to have their cases dismissed or diverted, and were as likely to be convicted. Nor were their sentences significantly different, when relevant "case characteristics"--such as prior criminal record--were taken into account. Indeed, the only real difference is that spousal murderers "required less time to disposition than other types of murder cases."..read more
http://www.uiowa.edu/~030116/158/articles/dershowitz3.htm
The most shocking finding of this study--which analyzed nearly ten thousand cases--is that wives murder their husbands far more frequently than press reports would suggest. To put the issue in context, women in general account for only about 10 percent of defendants charged with all murders. But for all spousal murders, women accounted for more than 40 percent of defendants.And "among black marital partners, wives were just about as likely to kill their husbands as husbands were to kill their wives." Not surprisingly, when it comes to parents who kill their children, mothers kill more often than fathers.
The real headline of this report, therefore, is that women W almost as often as men do in the context of all family murders, though men much more often kill strangers--nearly always other men,
The other shocker in this report is that husbands who kill their wives are not treated more leniently than men who kill strangers, despite the media myth to the contrary. Indeed, they were as likely to be charged with first-degree murder, were no more likely to have their cases dismissed or diverted, and were as likely to be convicted. Nor were their sentences significantly different, when relevant "case characteristics"--such as prior criminal record--were taken into account. Indeed, the only real difference is that spousal murderers "required less time to disposition than other types of murder cases."..read more
http://www.uiowa.edu/~030116/158/articles/dershowitz3.htm
