Intimate Partner Femicide: using Foucauldian analysis to track an eight stage relationship progression to homicide

Abstract

The killing of women by their intimate, or former intimate partners, known as Intimate Partner Femicide (IPF), is a serious social, criminal justice, and public health issue. This paper presents the argument that IPF is part of a journey where the motivation to abuse (need for control) is linked to the motivation to kill (loss of, or threat to, control). Using the principles of temporal sequencing and the histories of 372 cases of IPF a staged progression which shows how risk can escalate is presented