Homicide in England and Wales, Part 6: Homicide vulnerability

This is the sixth in a series of blog posts summarising the nature of homicide in England and Wales. Each post covers a different aspect of homicide, based on data from the Home Office Homicide Index. This post looks at homicides of specific groups of people: children, older people and victims of domestic abuse. This post is a summary of part of a longer national problem profile of homicide in England and Wales written by me and Prof Iain Brennan.

It’s worth reading this post after reading Part 2 of this series, which explains who in society is most likely to be a victim of society. In short, most victims are men, with especially young men being at higher risk. Also, while most homicide victims are White, Black people (especially young Black men) are at higher risk of being victims of homicide once the number of victims per million people in the population is taken into account. Homicide risk is also particularly high for unemployed people: unemployed White men aged 20–49 make up 12% of homicide victims but only 1% of the population.

Female victims of domestic homicide are most-often killed by their current partner

Domestic abuse is an important factor in homicide. The Homicide Index records domestic abuse in multiple ways, so the information below is based on whether the case met the Home Office definition of a domestic homicide. That definition includes people aged 16 or older killed by a current or former partner, or killed by a member of their own household (e.g. a family member)¹.

69% of homicides of female victims and 13% of homicides of male victims with an identified suspect met the Home Office definition of domestic abuse. The rate of domestic homicides varied across ethnic groups (Figure 1). The rate of domestic homicides was highest for Black victims. However, the small number of homicides in some categories mean that the calculation of victimisation rates is inherently less stable than for larger population groups, so the differences between groups should be treated with caution.

Figure 1: Domestic homicide rate by ethnicity and sex

Across all ethnic groups, female victims of domestic homicide were more likely to be killed by a current or ex-partner (74% of female domestic-homicide victims) than by a family member (26%). Conversely, male domestic-homicide victims were more likely to be killed by a family member (70% of male domestic-homicide victims) than by a current or former partner (30%).

69% of homicides of female victims and 13% of homicides of male victims with an identified suspect met the Home Office definition of domestic abuse

Among victims that were killed by a current/former partner, both men and women were more likely to be killed by a current partner (80% of those female victims who were killed by a current/ex-partner and 76% of male victims) than by an ex-parter.

Among domestic homicides committed by family members rather than partners, 77% of female victims were killed by one of their own children or step-children, compared to 49% of male victims. This reflects the higher age of victims killed by family members: while homicide victims overall had a median age of 37 years, victims of domestic homicide who were killed by family members had a median age of 61 years.

Very-young homicide victims are most likely to be killed by their own parents

There were about 69 homicides of child victims each year (75% boys and 25% girls). While all homicides of victims under 18 can be described as child abuse, child homicides fall into two distinct groups: children under 12 killed by family members (44% of homicides of children), and children 12 or older killed by acquaintances or strangers outside the home (38% of homicides of children). The latter category can be considered part of the wider problem of serious youth violence.

Among cases with an identified suspect, 86% of homicide victims under 12 were killed by one or more of their own parents or step-parents.

Of the roughly 19 children under 12 killed by family members each year, 36% were aged under 1 year, 67% under 3 years and 81% under 5 years. 95% of victims under 12 killed by a family member were killed in residential premises and 97% were killed by one or more of their parents or step-parents. Suspects typically (in 67% of cases) lived with the victim, although a minority (33%) did not.

Homicides of children under 12 by a family member were much less likely to involve the use of a weapon and much more likely to involve the suspect hitting, kicking or shaking the victim. In 31% of these cases, the homicide was believed to have been linked to the mental state of the suspect at the time, including cases of infanticide².

Older victims are more likely to be killed by their own children

At the other end of the age spectrum, there were about 80 homicides of victims aged 65 or older each year (50% men and 50% women), 13% of all homicides in that period. Homicides of victims aged 65 or over were more likely to be committed by a family member (38% of older victims, compared to 9% of other adults) and less likely to be committed by an acquaintance (23% of older victims, compared to 43% of other adults) or a stranger (19% of older victims, compared to 29% of other adults). Of the older victims killed by a family member, 80% were killed by their own child or step-child – homicides where the principal suspect was the victim’s child or step-child accounted for 21% of all homicides of victims aged 65 or over in which there was an identified suspect.

Among cases with an identified suspect, 21% of homicide victims aged 65 or more were killed by one of their own children or step-children, compared to 3% adult victims aged under 65.

Victims aged 65 or over were more likely than other adult victims to be killed in a residence (84% of older victims, compared to 47% of other adults) and much less likely to be killed in a public place (15% of older victims, compared to 49% of other adults). Suspects in homicides of older victims were also more likely to live with the victim (37%) than suspects in homicides of other adults (14%). Victims aged 65 or over were much less likely to be under the influence of alcohol or illicit drugs (9% of older victims were under the influence, compared to 41% of adult victims aged under 65), but suspects in homicides of those aged 65 or over were only slightly less likely to be under the influence (33% of suspects) than suspects in homicides of adults under 65 (35% of suspects).

In summary

This post highlights that homicide patterns are different for some types of victim, compared to homicides in the population as a whole. A majority of female homicide victims were killed in domestic homicides, most often by their current partner. Black people were at higher risk of domestic homicide, such that – even though in the population as a whole women were much more likely to be domestic-homicide victims than men were – Black men were at higher risk of being killed in a domestic homicide than White women were.

Young children – especially those who are very young – are at higher risk of homicide. Almost all homicides of young children occur at home, and in a large majority of cases the child is killed by one more of their own parents or step-parents. Older victims are also particularly vulnerable to being killed by a family member, with a disproportionate number of older victims being killed by one of their own children.

Footnotes

1. The formal definition is those cases in which “the death of a person aged 16 or over has, or appears to have, resulted from violence, abuse, or neglect by a person to whom they were related or with whom they were, or had been, in an intimate personal relationship, or a member of the same household”

2. In the law of England and Wales, infanticide is defined as a mother killing their child while “the balance of her mind was disturbed by reason of her not having fully recovered from the effect of giving birth to the child” (Infanticide Act 1938, s. 1).