Preventing Intimate Partner Homicide: The Long Road Ahead

• Author: Tricia Bent-Goodley,Jacquelyn Campbell,Jill Theresa Messing,Millan AbiNader
• Date: 01 February 2022
• Published date: 01 February 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/10887679211048492
• Subject Matter: Special Issue Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/10887679211048492

Homicide Studies

2022, Vol. 26(1) 91 –105

© 2021 SAGE Publications

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DOI: 10.1177/10887679211048492

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Special Issue Article

Preventing Intimate Partner

Homicide: The Long Road

Ahead

Jill Theresa Messing1, Millan AbiNader2,

Tricia Bent-Goodley3, and Jacquelyn Campbell4

Abstract

Intimate partner homicide (IPH) consists primarily of men killing women in the

context of intimate partner violence. Researchers have described and identified

risk factors associated with IPH; additional comprehensive data collection is needed

to better understand IPH risk and to develop risk-informed prevention. Due to

structural racism, available interventions within the criminal legal and social service

systems may be eschewed by those—such as Black women—who are at the highest

risk. Anti-racist research, practice, and policy are key to reducing IPH. Gender and

racial equity, combined with fostering relational health leads, ultimately, down the

long road to IPH prevention.

Keywords

intimate partner, victim/offender relationship, risk assessment, homicide prevention,

relational health, intimate partner violence

Homicide is a gendered phenomenon. The majority of homicide victims are men;

with state and community violence intersecting to disproportionately drive fatal vio-

lence against men by men. Intimate partner homicide (IPH), however, is primarily

about the violence of men and the lethal victimization of women. IPH is the largest

1Arizona State University School of Social Work, Phoenix, USA

2University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice, Philadelphia, USA

3Howard University, Washington, DC, USA

4Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jill Theresa Messing, Arizona State University School of Social Work, 411 N Central Avenue, Suite 800,

Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA.

Email: Jill.Messing@asu.edu

1048492HSXXXX10.1177/10887679211048492Homicide StudiesMessing et al.

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