Research Bulletin

              Is age discrepancy a risk factor
for intimate partner homicide?
By Noelia Breitman and Todd K. Shackelford, Florida Atlantic University,
and Carolyn Rebecca Block, ICJIA Senior Research Analyst
Vol. 1, No. 3 March 2003
Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
Research Bulletin
Chicago Homicide Dataset Series
Over the past two decades, much research has
investigated the patterns and predictors of
intimate partner homicide — cases of people
murdered by a spouse or ex-spouse, boyfriend or ex-boyfriend,
girlfriend or ex-girlfriend, or common-law
or ex-common-law spouse. In Chicago, Block and
Christakos (1995) analyzed risk patterns associated
with intimate partner homicide using the Chicago
Homicide Dataset, which consists of archived data
from 1965 to 1995. More recently, the Chicago
Women’s Health Risk Study (Block 2000a) combined
lethal and non-lethal data on intimate partner violence
to examine risk factors for death.
Other research suggests that the partners’ age discrep-ancy
is a predictor of intimate partner homicide.
Several studies using U.S. and Canadian national-level
data show that the rate of intimate partner homicide
victimization is higher the greater the difference
between the ages of the man and the woman (e.g.,
Daly & Wilson 1988; Mercy & Saltzman, 1989;
Shackelford, 2000, 2001a, 2001b; Shackelford et al.,
2000; Wilson & Daly, 1992, 1994; Wilson et al., 1993,
1995). Relative to their numbers in the general popula-tion,
intimate partner homicide is more likely for
couples with a large difference in age. This Research
Bulletin examines intimate partner homicide victimiza-tion
rates in the Chicago Homicide Dataset, for groups
of couples with different degrees of partner age
discrepancy.
Source of data
The Chicago Homicide Dataset is one of the largest
and most detailed datasets on homicide in the United
States. It has been collected and maintained for many
years by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information
Authority, in cooperation with the Crime Analysis Unit
of the Chicago Police Department. The current analy-sis
adds preliminary data for 1996, so that the dataset
Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor
Candice M. Kane, Executive Director
Research Bulletins are published periodically by the Illinois
Criminal Justice Information Authority. They focus on
research conducted by or for the Authority on a topic of
interest to Illinois criminal justice professionals and
policymakers. This is the first of a series of Research
Bulletins reporting on analysis of the Chicago Homicide
Dataset.
For more information about this or other publications from
the Authority, please contact the Authority’s Criminal
Justice Information Clearinghouse at 312-793-8550, or visit
our website at www.icjia.state.il.us
Printed by authority of the State of Illinois, March 2003.
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