Intimate Partner Violence, Femicide, and General Theories: Issues for Research and Policy From the View of Modern Control Theory

• Published date: 01 May 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10439862241245838
• Author: Michael R. Gottfredson,Mikaela S. Nielsen
• Date: 01 May 2024

https://doi.org/10.1177/10439862241245838

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2024, Vol. 40(2) 247 –271

© The Author(s) 2024

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DOI: 10.1177/10439862241245838

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Article

Intimate Partner Violence,

Femicide, and General

Theories: Issues for Research

and Policy From the View of

Modern Control Theory

Michael R. Gottfredson1 and Mikaela S. Nielsen1

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV), including intimate partner homicide (IPH) and femicide,

raises issues for general theories of crime, such as control and opportunity theories,

that see close relationships among friends and family as barriers to interpersonal

crimes. Crime-specific studies of both correlates and trends in IPV, including recent

interrupted trend studies that examine the effects of COVID restrictions, often test

opportunity theories absent considerations of theoretically driven images of actors.

Review of empirical research on IPV and IPH reveals strong compatibility between

the predictions of modern control theory and consistent findings from trend data.

Barriers to understanding of the explanatory power of general theories of crime

(including, for example, control theories and feminist perspectives) in contemporary

research include use of poor definitions of intimacy, misspecification of age effects,

failure to consider the versatility of offending behavior, neglecting the importance of

trends in analogous behaviors, neglecting the role of situational factors in violence,

and the limitations in the measurement of repetitive victimization. Theories such

as routine activity and situational crime prevention that fail to explicitly include

characteristics of actors can go only a limited way in providing meaningful policy.

Research supports the potential policy effects of investments in early childhood and

attention to situational barriers (including limitations on alcohol use and firearm

availability) to reduce IPV. Although modern control theory is used to illustrate these

issues, other general theories, like feminist theories, can make similar arguments.

1University of California, Irvine, USA

Corresponding Author:

Michael R. Gottfredson, Department of Criminology, Law and Society, University of California, Irvine,

Irvine, CA 92697, USA.

Email: gottfred@uci.edu

1245838CCJXXX10.1177/10439862241245838Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticeGottfredson and Nielsen

research-article2024

248 Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 40(2)

Keywords

interpersonal violence, femicide, intimate partner homicide, control theory, feminist

theory, self-control, crime trends, crime policy

Introduction

Research focused on trends in violence against women, including intimate partner

violence (IPV), presents major theoretical and policy issues for criminology. A now

substantial body of contemporary research, including both national and cross-national

studies, focuses on trends and correlates for IPV (including intimate partner homicide

[IPH] and femicide), scholarship that has great relevance for both causal theory and

methods of intervention and prevention. At the policy level, this concern is reflected in

the identification of violence against women as a global public health issue and as a

violation of women’s human rights (Caman et al., 2017). Both specialized and general

theories have been proposed to help explain IPV (cf. Campbell et al., 2007; Chapple

& Hope, 2003; R. Felson & Lane, 2012; Finkel et al., 2009; Frías, 2023; H. Johnson

et al., 2019; I. D. Johnson & Lewis, 2023; Nofziger, 2009; Payne et al., 2010; Piquero

et al., 2021). Recent studies examining violence during the pandemic using before/

after or interrupted time series designs have received considerable attention both in the

academic literature and in media accounts (Aebi et al., 2021; Lopez & Rosenfeld,

2021; Nivette, Ribeaud, et al., 2021; Piquero et al., 2021).

IPV, particularly IPH, presents issues for many putative general crime theories, as

they struggle to explain violence among persons who have ongoing interpersonal rela-

tionships. This is certainly the case for both control theories (e.g., Gottfredson &

Hirschi, 1990, 2020; Hirschi, 1969) and lifestyle perspectives (Gottfredson, 1981,

2021a; Hindelang et al., 1978), both of which see attachments to significant others as

creating informal and personal controls (social and self-controls) that inhibit causing

harm to others. Along with routine activity theory (RAT), these general theories

include the idea of opportunity as a causal element (Gottfredson, 2018; Gottfredson &

Hirschi, 2020). The concept of opportunity, as deployed by these theories, includes

consideration of the features of settings that are either conducive to or which impede

the presence of monitors that serve as barriers to the use of force or fraud used to pur-

sue immediate goals. Included is the idea that settings away from the restraints pro-

vided by close friends and family are more likely to involve aggressive or violent acts.

Although IPH are a relatively rare type of crime, these theoretical images in some

ways mirror public or media interest in violence and homicide among intimate part-

ners (see Fairbairn & Dawson, 2013; Richards et al., 2011). Such instances are often

sensationalized in the media because they raise the question “how could anyone do

something like that to someone they love?” It is highly problematic for both theory and

public sentiment to understand or explain serious violence among close friends and

family.

In contemporary criminology, general theories like routine activity, opportunity,

and lifestyle theories (Clarke, 2018; Cohen & Felson, 1979; Hindelang et al., 1978)

have been actively researched as explanations for trends in crime and violence (e.g.,