In article ,
msnyder{at}redhat.com says...
> Hello there, soc.men-ites,
>
>  "Lin which it was reported that
> 40% of spouse murders are committed by women (and that
> their average sentence if convicted is 6 years, compared
> to 16 years for men)?
>
> Well, I've found an independant source of data, and been
> able to confirm that result, plus I've eliminated the
> "self defense" argument with which feminists have attempted
> to discredit the finding.
>
> Figured you folks might find it interesting:
>
> The Chicago Homicide Database at Northwestern University
> An Online Treatise by Michael Snyder
>
> Chapter 1: Murder/Suicide
> http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.true-crime/msg/73ccacd3e70e8f24
> Chapter 2: Self Defense
> http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.true-crime/msg/977d6ba9b0b6a146
> Chapter 3: Spousal Self Defense
> http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.true-crime/msg/b8119f617a000c33
> Chapter 4: Crime and Punishment
> http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.true-crime/msg/3283cf27fcef38a0
>
> The Chicago Homicide Database at Northwestern University:
> http://homicide.northwestern.edu/database
>
> Tables for Chapter 2:
> Homicides, female-on-female
> http://www.sonic.net/~msnyder/femonfem.html
> Homicides, male-on-female
> http://www.sonic.net/~msnyder/monfem.html
> Homicides, female-on-male
> http://www.sonic.net/~msnyder/femonm.html
>
> Tables for Chapters 3 and 4:
> Homicides, wife-on-husband
> http://www.sonic.net/~msnyder/wife.html
> Homicides, husband-on-wife
> http://www.sonic.net/~msnyder/husband.html
>
>
In chapter 4 you say:

"These findings, based on a very large and representative sample
of homicides from all over the US (but all from the same year,
1988), have never been independantly verified, and have been
informally 'refuted' with the argument that the wives were
probably defending themselves (since "everybody knows" that
husbands attack wives far more often than wives attack husbands). "


But the study DOJ says that the data is from "Large Urban Counties",
and your database seems to be the "Chicago Homicide Database".
While these two data sets may correlate well, are they really
a "very large and representative sample of homicides from all over the
US".   Will your findings from these studies be representative
of the results in the rest of the US--where 2/3s of the population
lives in cities of less than 100,000 people?    I don't know whether
the patterns of homicide differ between large urban counties and
smaller rural and suburban counties.

I wonder why the DOJ picked large urban counties?  Perhaps it
was because it simplified the task of collecting a reasonable
sample---easier to pull the records from a few dozen large
jurisdictions that to get a similar number of case records
from a thousand smaller courts, I suppose.   There is also
the possibility that the DOJ felt that the patterns in those
large jurisdictions were different from those in rurual
and suburban areas.


I think you have an excellent analysis of the data you have
reviewed,  but I still wonder if the patterns of homicide
vary from urban to rural and suburban areas.  I think that
the conviction and sentencing patterns  are probably less variable, as
the judges and lawyers involved probably have much the same
background as their counterparts in the large cities.  After
all,   most law schools are located in  or near the large
urban counties.

Mark Borgerson


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