YOUNG WOMEN ARE OVERREPRESENTED AMONG HUSBAND-KILLERS

When a woman kills her husband, it is almost always an unplanned action of self-defense against a battering husband or a last-ditch attempt to survive a batterer's tyranny. Younger, reproductive-age women are battered and killed by husbands at higher rates than are older, post-reproductive-age women. Because husband-killing occurs in the context of self-defense or as a last-ditch effort to survive, reproductive-age women should kill their husbands at higher rates than do post-reproductive-age women. I used a sample of 8,077 husband-killings to test this hypothesis. Results support the hypothesis. Discussion suggests directions for future work that can improve the identification of women at greatest risk for husband-killing