When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 1999 Homicide Data
Females Murdered by Males in Single Victim/Single Offender Incidents
Section Three: Hispanic Women�Five-State Analysis
Few national or
regional studies have compared the murder of Hispanic women to black
women and/or white women. This omission is partly because there is no
comprehensive database that adequately identifies women of Hispanic
ethnicity and the circumstances of their murders. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention has information about the numbers of murders
broken out by Hispanic ethnicity, while the Federal Bureau of Investigation
has information about the circumstances of murders, but has severely
limited information regarding ethnicity. There is no way to link the
two databases, nor any other database that contains both types of information.
Only five states�Arizona,
California, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas�reported Hispanic ethnicity
information that could be broken down for comparison with other races/ethnicities.
These five states provide a snapshot of the characteristics of Hispanic
female homicides and how these homicides fit into the larger female
homicide picture.
Nationally, Hispanic
females are killed at rates slightly above white females, but below
black females. (The national female homicide rate includes women
murdered by other women, women murdered by more than one person, etc.)
The overall female homicide rate for Hispanic females is 3.0 per 100,000,
with the white and black female homicide rates at 2.0 and 8.1 per 100,000,
respectively.l
Age of Hispanic Female Homicide Victims�Five-State Analysis
In single female
victim/single male offender homicides reported for 1999, 13 percent
(15 victims) of the Hispanic victims were less than 18 years old and
only two percent (two victims) were 65 years of age or older. The average
age of Hispanic female homicide victims was 31 years old, far younger
than the average age of non-Hispanic white women (42 years old) or black
women (35 years old) in the five states analyzed.
Victim to Offender Relationship�Five-State Analysis
Compared to a man,
a Hispanic woman is far more likely to be killed by her spouse, an intimate
acquaintance, or a family member than by a stranger. Nearly 17 times
as many Hispanic females were murdered by a male they knew (117 victims)
than were killed by male strangers (seven victims) in single victim/single
offender incidents in 1999. Of Hispanic victims who knew their offenders,
63 percent (74 out of 117) were wives, common-law wives, ex-wives, or
girlfriends of the offenders. Of the homicides in these five states
where the race/ethnicity of the offender was known, 88 percent (383
out of 433) involved an offender of the same race/ethnicity.
Hispanic Female Homicide Victims and Weapons�Five-State Analysis
Firearms�especially
handguns�were the most common weapons used by men to murder Hispanic
females in 1999. In homicides in which the murder weapon could be identified,
52 percent (62 out of 119) of all female Hispanic homicide victims in
the five states were shot and killed with guns. And when these women
were killed with a gun, it was almost always a handgun (52 victims or
84 percent). In fact, in the five states, 84 percent of Hispanic women
were killed with a handgun in firearm murders, compared to 82 percent
of non-Hispanic white women and 78 percent of black women. The number
of Hispanic females shot and killed by their husband or intimate acquaintance
(45 victims) was more than six times higher than the total number murdered
by male strangers using all weapons combined (seven victims) in single
victim/single offender incidents in 1999.
Hispanic Female Homicide Victims and Circumstance�Five-State Analysis
The overwhelming
majority of homicides among Hispanic females by male offenders in single
victim/single offender incidents in 1999 were not related to any other
felony crime. Most often, females were killed by males in the course
of an argument�usually with a firearm. In 1999 for homicides in which
the circumstance between the Hispanic female victim and male offender
could be identified, 87 percent (104 out of 119) were not related to
the commission of any other felony.
Of the homicides
not involving a felony, 78 percent (81 out of 104) involved arguments
between the Hispanic female victim and male offender. Fifty-two percent
(42 victims) were shot and killed with guns during those arguments.
l) Data from Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention
and Control�WISQARS.
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All contents � 2001 Violence Policy Center
The Violence Policy Center is a national non-profit educational foundation
that conducts research on violence in America and works to develop violence-reduction
policies and proposals. The Center examines the role of firearms in America,
conducts research on firearms violence, and explores new ways to decrease
firearm-related death and injury. |