Next Millennium Conference: Ending Domestic Violence; Femicide and Fatality Review

Jacquelyn Campbell, from the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and a member of the Nursing Network on Violence Against Women International, provides an overview of some of the research on femicide. This overview includes a comparison of intimate-partner femicide with femicides outside of an intimate partnership. Victim characteristics in each type of femicide are addressed. Also considered is the recent decrease in femicides by intimate partners among African-Americans and possible explanations for it. Data issues of femicide research are addressed as well. Other issues considered by Campbell are femicides-suicides, the impact of femicide on the victim's children, and procedures for determining risk factors for lethality in domestic violence cases. Carolyn Block reviews findings on domestic violence in the Chicago Women's Health Study and their implications for preventing homicide in domestic violence situations. This involves comparing intimate partner violence situations that end in homicide and those that do not. The methodology used to determine this in the Chicago Women's Health Study is explained. Robin Thompson, former executive director for the Governor's Domestic Violence Task Force in Florida, describes how various research findings on domestic homicide have been applied in Florida. Efforts in Florida include the use of fatality reviews in four cities around the State. Findings of fatality reviews are being use in planning responses to particular cases of domestic violence and in developing general policies for responding to domestic violence.