Men who kill partners get lighter sentence
THIS MAY MEAN THAT WOMEN KILLED
BY MALE PARTNERS ARE STILL SEEN AS
PROPERTY.
• Men who kill their female partners are more likely to be criminally convicted than men accused of killing strangers — but they also tend to get lighter sentences, a Canadian study concludes.
The research, being published in the journal Current Sociology, finds that men who kill their wives, girlfriends or other female family members are handed shorter prison terms than men who kill strangers.
According to the findings, men who kill women they know are treated more leniently at most stages of the criminal-justice process, such as facing fewer charges of first-degree murder.
Study author Myrna Dawson, an associate sociology professor at the University of Guelph, calls it the “intimacy discount.”
“This may mean that women killed by male partners are still seen as property and, as such, these femicides are not treated as seriously as other femicides,” the study said.
Another factor at play could be femicide of a partner or family member is typically seen as a spontaneous “crime of passion” or the result of victim provocation.
“Despite the dominance of these beliefs, there has been little examination of the validity of resulting stereotypes,” Dawson said. “Some exploratory research has shown that premeditation or intent is actually more likely in cases involving men who kill female partners.”
Perhaps counter-intuitively, given the lighter sentences, the study found that men who kill intimate partners are convicted at rates three times higher than men who kill female strangers.
Crimes involving relatives tend to be easier to solve and prosecute, research suggests. The shorter sentences could therefore be as a result of charges that are more often reduced in exchange for guilty pleas.
“Understanding whether the plea process or common stereotypes associated with intimacy and violence explain this relationship (between convictions and sentencing) is a crucial next step and one that I am currently examining,” Dawson said.
“Court actors — judges, Crown attorneys, defence lawyers — are professionals but they are also members of the public (so) how they see these crimes is key.”
For her article, Dawson analyzed Ontario homicide cases from 1974 to 2013, a period in which men killed at least 1,381 women — one femicide every 10 days.
A key finding was the “female victim effect,” a corroboration of American research. Men who kill women are generally treated more harshly than when they kill other men, with those who kill female strangers facing the most severe punishment, particularly at sentencing.