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Gendered Justice

Domestic Homicide and the Death Penalty

School of Social Work, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Jill.Messing{at}asu.edu

John W. Heeren

Department of Sociology, California State University, San Bernardino, jheeren{at}csusb.edu

This research examines a newspaper sample of men and women who killed multiple people in a single domestic altercation during the years 1993 to 2002. As all these perpetrators of multiple domestic homicide are eligible to be capitally tried, differences in capital sentencing are examined using bivariate statistics and descriptive, case-oriented analyses. Women who kill their children using a knife or firearm are disproportionately sentenced to death, whereas men who kill in the context of a separation are granted leniency in regard to the death penalty. The interaction between the gender of the offender and the crime committed is discussed.

Key Words: multiple murder • domestic homicide • separation homicide • homicide • murder • capital punishment • death penalty • gender • killing children

This version was published on April 1, 2009

Feminist Criminology, Vol. 4, No. 2, 170-188 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1557085108327657


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