Colorado Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board: First Annual Report, 2018
Date
2018
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Colorado Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board
Abstract
A total of seven cases of domestic violence fatalities reviewed were reviewed in 2017 by two active local Domestic Violence Fatality Review teams. The Colorado Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board reviewed findings from these cases with the assistance of staff of the Denver Metro Domestic Violence Fatality Review team. Given that Colorado’s legislation related to the work of domestic violence fatality reviews states that cases must be closed in order to be reviewed, and a trial may take years, cases reviewed are those that occurred one to several years prior. The majority of cases reviewed by Colorado local review teams in 2017 were primarily from 2016 (n =3, or 42.9%), followed by 2012 (n = 2, or 28.6%), and one case each (14.3%) in 2015 and 2011...The findings described in this report on the seven cases reviewed are consistent with much of the existing research. Intimate partner homicide (IPH) is a crime primarily committed by men against women, and often when they believe they have lost control of their intimate partner. The two women who killed their intimate partners were considered by the criminal legal system to have done so in self-defense, which is also consistent with the existing research on IPHs. Also consistent with existing IPH research, many men who murder a current or former intimate partner, subsequently kill themselves. The primary weapon used by men in the killing of a partner, a collateral victim, and for suicide, was a firearm. Women were more likely to use knives and stabbing, which is also consistent with the IPH scholarship. The analysis also found extensive criminal history for most of the perpetrators, as well as a few of the victims. The findings include a reminder of the wide-reaching consequences of intimate partner abuse, which do not only affect the individuals involved in an intimate relationship. Family members may also be killed by the perpetrator, as was true in one of the seven cases reviewed, in which the victim’s daughter was shot to death by her mother’s perpetrator while trying to help her mother leave this abusive man. In this case, the offender shot and killed his wife’s adult daughter who had come to pick her up to take her to lunch, where she planned to discuss how to keep her mom safe after the divorce. The perpetrator then killed himself. (Author Text)
Description
Report
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Keywords
Data Analysis, Domestic Violence, Domestic Abuse, Intimate Partner Violence, Violent Death, Homicide, Partner Abuse, Violence Against Women, Gender-based Violence, Coercive Control, Murder, Murder-Suicide, History of Offending, Unemployment, Stalking, Substance Abuse
Citation
Larson, DoraLee; Lamanna, Barb; Doe, Jenn; Dyer, Rachel. (2018). Colorado Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board: First Annual Report, 2018. Colorado Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board, 30 pgs.