Neighborhood Environment and Risk of Intimate Partner Femicide in Wisconsin, USA

Abstract

Intimate partner femicide (IPF) is the murder of a woman by her intimate partner; an estimated 30-50% of murdered women in the United States are killed by a current or former intimate partner. As intimate partner violence (IPV) has typically been conceptualized as a "private" form of violence, most research has focused on individual level risk factors. Recent work, drawing from social disorganization theory, has suggested environmental influences may also be relevant. Despite increased attention to the linkages between neighborhood environment and IPV, few studies have examined the role for neighborhood context in influencing IPF while controlling for individual risk factors.