The discourse about intimate partner violence often centers around men’s homicide against women, whereas women’s homicide against men is a topic that rarely receives attention. Hence, this study aims to investigate how female perpetrators of intimate partner homicide rationalize their reasons for committing the act. To address the purpose of the study, the following research questions have been formulated: How do women rationalize committing intimate partner homicide? Which accounts do women use in the court in their reasonings of committing intimate partner homicide? The study does not intend to explain influencing factors but rather to understand the women’s reasonings. The empirical data consists of preliminary investigation protocols. Womens interrogations have been analyzed through qualitative text and thematic analysis. Scott & Lyman’s (1968) theory of accounts and a feminist perspective consisting of Hunnicutt’s (2009) approach to patriarchy within the context of criminology has made up the theoretical framework of the study. Some key findings concern the women’s intimate relationship with the victims. Common in all but one case is that the intimate relationship was characterized by violence, control, and dominance, which urged the women to find a way out of the situation. In most cases, the act was not intentional in the sense that the violence would have a deadly outcome, but rather that the women felt the need to use violence in different situational contexts. The result suggests that the woman, as a victim of intimate partner violence committed homicide in self-defense, as revenge, or as an accident caused by fear. The results also include a case that stands out from the rest, where the relationship was not characterized by any violence or dominance, but where the woman rationalized the homicide as a humanitarian deed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-131104 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Helgevall, Johanna, Dahlberg, Emma |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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