National Trends Found in Same-sex Intimate Partner Homicides and Future Directions
Coker, Kendell
The Chicago School of Professional Psychology
2020
72
Psy.D.
The Chicago School of Professional Psychology
2020
The purpose of this study was to examine risk and demographic factors associated with Intimate Partner Homicide (IPH) between opposite-sex and same-sex couples. This study utilized the only multiple state, state-based, surveillance database that collects data on violent deaths. There were three main hypotheses to this study; (1) that of the demographic variables available, a history of violence will be the strongest predictor of same-sex IPH, (2) that there will be a higher number of same-sex IPH cases involving same-sex male couples as opposed to same-sex female couples, and (3) that there will be less cases of same-sex IPH in the years 2009-2015 as opposed to 2003-2008 as society began to increase acceptance and awareness of IPH within the same-sex population. Findings indicated that a history of violence was not a significant factor in predicting same-sex IPH. Results supported the hypothesis that there was a higher number of same-sex male IPH cases and that there is a significant difference in same-sex IPH between the genders X2 (1, N = 145) = 91.32, p = .00. Lastly, the results supported the opposite of the final hypothesis. It was found that the year in which the IPH occurred was not significant and there was a higher number of same-sex IPH's in the more recent years. It would be beneficial for future research to continue identifying risk factors for this marginalized population and further explore prevention and interventions based on these factors, as well as continue to utilize this dataset once it acquires data from all 50 states.