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Uxoricide

Uxoricide is the killing of one's own wife. It can also be used in the context of the killing of one's own girlfriend. It can refer to the act itself or the person who carries it out. Conversely, the killing of a husband or boyfriend is called mariticide. It comes from the Latin uxor meaning 'wife' and -cide, from caedere meaning 'to cut, to kill'.

Though overall rates of spousal violence and homicide in the US have declined since the 1970s, rates of uxoricide are significantly higher than rates of mariticide (the murder of a husband). Of the 2340 deaths at the hands of intimate partners in the US in 2007, female victims made up 70%. FBI data from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s found that for every 100 husbands who killed their wives in the United States, about 75 women killed their husbands. However, wives were more likely to kill their husbands than vice versa in some US cities including Chicago, Detroit, Houston, and St. Louis. Uxoricide rates varied among different demographic subgroups. In the US, 2002 murderers of spouses (husband and wives combined) were 69.4% white, 25.7% black and 4.8% Asian/Pacific Islander and 0.1 American Indian/ Alaska Native.

In the region of South-East Asia, 55% of all murdered women died at the hands of their partner, followed by 40% in the African region and 38% in the Americas. A 2013 study found that 38.6% of murders of women are committed by intimate partners.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, uxoricide made up 70% of the total spouse murders in the United States, data not including proxy murders conducted on behalf of the wife. FBI data from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s found that for every 100 husbands who killed their wives in the United States, about 75 women killed their husbands indicating a 3:4 ratio of mariticide to uxoricide.

Proponents of psychodynamic theories have offered explanations for the mechanisms underlying the occurrence of uxoricide. It has been suggested that men who kill their partners experience both an unconscious dependence on their wife and a resentment of her. These men wish to leave the relationship, but unknowingly perceive themselves as too helpless to do so, which culminates in a belief that killing the wife is the only way to be free of her. This approach also offers an alternative explanation for instances where a man commits uxoricide and subsequent immediate suicide – the man ends his life not due to guilt, but instead due to his perceived helplessness and dependency.

Links have also been established between violence in childhood and likelihood of uxoricide occurring. Psychodynamic researchers argue that being the victim of abuse in childhood leads to being a perpetrator of domestic abuse in adulthood via the route of defense mechanisms – in this case, violence is an unconscious defensive adaption to childhood trauma and other adverse events. Other psychodynamic researchers have reported that Thematic Apperception Tests reveal significant trends of rejection by a mother or wife in men who commit uxoricide. Psychoanalytic dream interpretation has also argued that unconscious conflict manifests into violent outbursts. For example, in one instance one man had experienced and recorded over 200 distressing, mostly violent dreams prior to murdering his wife.

In slightly more than two-thirds of US spousal homicides, a verbal disagreement escalated to homicide.

In two studies conducted in Canada and Britain, cohabiting women were found at greater risk of domestic violence and uxoricide than married women. Research has found that cohabiting women are nine times more likely to be killed by their intimate partner than married women. A number of possible reasons for this finding have been studied. Cohabiting women are more likely to be younger, have a lower level of education and are more likely to bring children from a previous relationship into their home with their new intimate partner. In addition to this heightened risk to a mother with stepchildren, the genetically unrelated stepfather also poses a risk to the child; research has shown that children are at much greater risk of violence and filicide (murder of a child) from stepfathers compared to a genetic father. This may be because investment from a stepfather reduces reproductive benefits. Research has found that the presence of stepchildren can significantly increase the risk of uxoricide for women. A large number of filicides are accompanied by uxoricide and suicide.

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