中華心理衛生協會

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze intimate partner femicide incidents, the characteristics of the offenders, and the relationship between the offenders and the victims in Taiwan. The prior violent behavior of the couple and the victim's help-seeking record were also examined. Understanding the offenders' motives, killing methods, situational factors, and the case results are additional study goals. Methods: Eighty intimate partner femicide cases were identified from court verdicts. Among them, 46 of the deceased had reported domestic violence to authorities prior to their murder. The court documents and the violence records were both reviewed. Results: Results indicated that offenders had a history of other criminal behavior, alcohol abuse, and mental illness. More than half of the victims were abused by their offender, although few had asked for help from the authorities. Nine victims had protection orders when they were killed The majority of the homicides were initiated without previous planning, implying the importance of situational factors. The main reason for the homicide was the offender's suspicion of the victim's infidelity and the most dangerous time frame was when the couple initiated a break up or started legal separation. Over 20 percent were murder-suicides. Conclusions: This study suggested a femicide incident's diagram, and future studies could pay more attention on the difference of domestic violence femicide and other murder cases. Moreover, this study also suggested that victims' services should include a danger assessment and consider safety plans in addition to protection orders.