I was reviewing a research paper today and found some interesting stuff. For background I present part of their conclusion:
Seventy-nine percent (220/279) of the femicide victims aged 18 to 50 years and 70% of the 307 total femicide cases were physically abused before their deaths by the same intimate partner who killed them, in comparison with 10% of the pool of eligible control women. Thus, our first premise, that physical violence against the victim is the primary risk factor for intimate partner femicide, was upheld. The purpose of this study, however, was to determine the risk factors that, over and above previous intimate partner violence, are associated with femicide within a sample of battered women. Our analysis demonstrated that a combination of the most commonly identified risk factors for homicide, in conjunction with characteristics specific to violent intimate relationships, predicted intimate partner femicide risks.
Now, pulling some selected data from the body of the report we get some very interesting, at least to me, information.
Given that a woman was in a physically abusive relationship, the next highest risk factor was the abusers employment status. If the abuser was unemployed the Odds Ratio (OR) was 5.09 that he would murder her compared to someone who was employed in the population of abusers. But if he had a college education (vs. a high school education) the OR dropped to 0.31 (over three times less likely to murder than someone who only had a high school education).
If the abuser used illicit drugs the OR = 4.76. Excessive alcohol use was not associated with an increased risk.
If they lived apart and the female “had sole access to a firearm”* the OR dropped to 0.22. Yes, as expected, if a woman has access to a gun she is four to five times less likely to be murdered by her abusive intimate partner who does not live with her than if she doesn’t have access to a gun.
If the abuser has access to a gun then the OR is 7.59.
If the abuser had threatening behaviors and stalking was involved the OR were as follows:
Guess which statistic Mother Jones magazine pulled from this paper for “Myth #7: Guns make women safer.” I’ll give you a hint. It wasn’t the one which showed a woman was four to five times less likely to be murdered if she has access to a gun.
They said:
A woman’s chances of being killed by her abuser increase more than 5 times if he has access to a gun.
This doesn’t tell the story that the woman is already in a physically abusive relationship. And it leaves out the part about her having access to a gun increases her safety by a large factor.
As usual, they have to lie to have any hope of winning.
* I’m not exactly sure what “sole” access means in this context. My best guess is that it means that the abuse victim has access to a gun and the abuser does not.
