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I Decide when You Die: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Prior Reporting of Physical Violence for Intimate Partner Homicides by Heterosexual Spouses in Florida

It is generally believed that a victim of an intimate partner homicide, who faced ongoing physical violence prior to the killing, would have contacted authorities for assistance or protection some time prior to their death. However, the results of this study show that this notion that a victim of ongoing abuse will, more than likely, request help is a misconception. Through qualitative and quantitative methods analysis, this study reveals the dearth of prior reporting of physical violence to law enforcement or the court when an intimate partner homicide takes place between heterosexual spouses in Florida between 2006 and 2016. Additionally, "coercive control," a term that is not nearly as recognizable as domestic violence or intimate partner violence but that should be understood and regulated, was conceptualized and operationalized using NVivo Pro 12, a qualitative social sciences software package. By constructing an original data set from secondary data from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Uniform Crime Report Supplemental Homicide Report, multiple law enforcement agencies from throughout the state of Florida, and many Florida county courthouses, variables of intimate partner homicide were analyzed in unique quantitative models using IBM SPSS, an advanced statistical software analysis program. Also, as part of the content analysis process, Petitions for Injunction for Protection against Domestic Violence were organized, coded, and analyzed to provide insight into the role coercive control takes prior to an intimate partner homicide. This study sheds light on the fact that the emphasis on physical violence in intimate partner abuse, rather than the non-violent tactics of coercive control, for lethality risk assessments for intimate partner violence victims is misplaced and warrants reconsideration.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd-7516
Date01 January 2019
CreatorsKing, Donna
PublisherSTARS
Source SetsUniversity of Central Florida
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceElectronic Theses and Dissertations

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