Intimate Partner Homicide in California, 1987-2000 (ICPSR 3501)

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Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose

Since 1976, the United States has witnessed a steady and precipitous decline in intimate partner homicides. At first glance, the trend appears to signal success brought about by two decades of criminal justice policy improvement and domestic violence resource enhancement. However, much work and scientific analysis remain to be done. This study builds on the work of Dugan et al. (1999, 2000) and Browne and Williams (1989) by examining, in greater detail, the relationship between intimate partner homicide and gender, race, criminal justice system response, and domestic violence services. Specifically, the study examines the net effect of criminal justice system response and federally-funded domestic violence shelters on victimization of white, African American, and Hispanic males and females. This study is unique in its focus on rural and urban settings and Hispanic victims.

Study Design View help for Study Design

This study used aggregated data from the 58 counties in California from 1987 to 2000. Focusing on California permitted the researchers to obtain reliable and standardized data for a large number of counties featuring diversity in population, in rural and urban characteristics, and with a variety of domestic violence criminal justice responses and shelter resources. Homicide data were gathered by the State of California Department of Justice, Criminal Justice Statistics Center. These data provided detailed information on homicides committed in California from 1987 to 2000, such as whether the victim and offender were intimate partners, the county of the homicide, whether the offenders and victims were adults, and the race and gender of victims and offenders. Data on domestic violence resources were obtained from the Governor's Office of Criminal Justice Planning, Domestic Violence Branch, in the form of detailed reports from domestic violence shelters in the state. Because only recent data (starting in 1997) were available in machine-readable format, the researchers used the hardcopy reports from the individual shelter-based service providers in the state. State records indicated the number of years federal funding was provided to each community organization. Based on these records, the researchers computed the number of federally-funded shelter-based organizations in a given county over time. Data on criminal justice responses at the county level were gathered from the State of California Department of Justice, Criminal Justice Statistics Center. Arrests for violation of California penal code 273.5 were classified as domestic violence arrests. Data were gathered on any convictions and incarceration that followed an arrest for domestic violence. Incarcerations included prison sentences, jail sentences, and sentences to probation that included some jail time. The researchers disaggregated these criminal justice system measures by race and gender. In order to account for population differences and changes over time, rates were computed per 100,000 adults (age 18 and older).

Universe View help for Universe

All counties in California from 1987 to 2000.

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Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables

Variables include county name, whether the county was rural or urban, year, and number of federally-funded shelters in the county. Additional county-level variables are provided for the county's entire adult population, white adults, Black adults, Hispanic adults, males, females, white males, Black males, Hispanic males, white females, Black females, and Hispanic females. These variables are population, number of intimate partner homicide victims, number of non-intimate partner homicide victims, intimate partner homicide victimization rate, non-intimate partner homicide victimization rate, number of domestic violence arrests, number convicted, sentenced, sentenced to prison, sentenced to probation, sentenced to probation with jail, and sentenced to jail after an arrest for domestic violence, domestic violence arrest rate, one-year lagged domestic violence arrest rate, conviction (following domestic violence arrest) rate, one-year lagged conviction rate, incarceration (following domestic violence arrest) rate, and one-year lagged incarceration rate. Other variables are number of shelters per 100,000 women, Black women, Hispanic women, non-white women, and white women, one-year lagged shelter rate for all women, Black women, Hispanic women, and white women, non-white male domestic violence arrest rate, non-white male conviction and incarceration rates (following arrest for domestic violence), one-year lagged non-white male domestic violence arrest rate, one-year lagged non-white male conviction and incarceration rates (following arrest for domestic violence), and non-white female intimate and non-intimate partner homicide victimization rates.

Response Rates View help for Response Rates

Not applicable.

Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales

None.

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Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date

2003-06-19

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