Study on Spouse Murder / We already knew it! | |
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/spmurex.txt Quote:
U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Bureau of Justice Statistics
Executive Summary
September 1995, NCJ-156831
Spouse Murder Defendants in Large Urban Counties
(Note: This file does not contain graphics or tables. The full report may
be ordered using the title and NCJ number above by calling the BJS
Clearinghouse at 1-800-732-3277.)
Highlights
Number of spouse murder defendants
and their demographic characteristics
In 1988 the justice system in the Nation's 75 largest counties disposed of
an estimated 540 spouse murder cases. Husbands charged with killing
their wife outnumbered wives charged with killing their husband. Of the
540, 318--or 59%--were husband defendants and 222--or 41%--were wife
defendants.
Blacks comprised 55% of the 540 defendants, and whites comprised 43%.
Among husband defendants 51% were black and 45% were white.
Among wife defendants 61% were black and 39% were white. In 97%
of the murders, both spouses were the same race.
Ages of spouse murder defendants ranged from 18 to 87. The average
age was 39. The average age of husband defendants was 41; of wife
defendants, 37 years.
Arrest charge
First-degree murder was the most frequent charge at arrest, accounting for
70% of defendants. In descending order of seriousness, charges were
distributed this way across the 540 spouse murder defendants:
70% first-degree murder
24% second-degree murder
6% nonnegligent manslaughter
How the justice system disposed of spouse murder cases
Cases were disposed of in one of three ways:
(1) the prosecutor declined to prosecute; or
(2) the defendant pleaded not guilty, stood trial, and was either acquitted
or convicted; or
(3) the defendant pleaded guilty.
Of the 540 spouse murder defendants, 232--or 43%--pleaded guilty to
killing their spouse, and 238--44%--pleaded not guilty and stood trial.
The remaining 70 persons--or 13%--were not prosecuted.
Outcome for spouse murder defendants
who pleaded not guilty and stood trial
Of the 238 who pleaded not guilty, 63% were tried by a jury and the
remaining 37% were tried by a judge. Together, judges and juries
acquitted 16% of the 238 spouse murder defendants and convicted
84%--or 199 persons--of killing their spouse.
Bench trials (trials before a judge) had a higher acquittal rate than jury
trials: 26% of bench trials ended in acquittal, versus 11% of jury trials.
Defendants convicted of killing their spouse
Of the 540 spouse murder defendants, 431 (or 80%) were ultimately
convicted of killing their spouse. Their conviction was the result of either
pleading guilty (232 persons) or being convicted at trial (199 persons).
While most persons arrested (70%) for spouse murder were charged with
first-degree murder, most persons convicted (52%) of spouse murder had
negligent or nonnegligent manslaughter as their conviction offense.
Sentences for defendants convicted
of killing their spouse
Of the 431 defendants convicted of killing their spouse, 89% were
sentenced to a State prison, 1% were sentenced to a county jail, and the
remaining 10% received a sentence of straight probation (no prison or jail
confinement).
An estimated 12% of the 431 convicted spouse murderers received a
sentence to life imprisonment and 1% received the death penalty.
Excluding life and death sentences, the average prison term imposed was
13 years.
Wife defendants less likely
to be convicted
Wife defendants had a lower conviction rate than husband defendants--
* Of the 222 wife defendants, 70% were convicted of killing their mate.
By contrast, of the 318 husband defendants, 87% were convicted of
spouse murder.
* Of the 100 wife defendants tried by either a judge or jury, 31% were
acquitted. But of the 138 husband defendants tried, 6% were acquitted.
* Of the 59 wife defendants tried by a jury, 27% were acquitted. But of
the estimated 91 husband defendants tried by a jury, none was acquitted.
Convicted wife defendants sentenced
less severely
An estimated 156 wives and 275 husbands were convicted of killing their
spouse. Convicted wives were less likely than convicted husbands to be
sentenced to prison, and convicted wives received shorter prison sentences
than their male counterparts--
* 81% of convicted wives but 94% of convicted husbands received a
prison sentence.
* On average, convicted wives received prison sentences that were about
10 years shorter than what husbands received. Excluding life or death
sentences, the average prison sentence for killing a spouse was 6 years for
wives but 16.5 years for husbands.
* Among wives sentenced to prison, 15% received a sentence of 20 years
or more (including life imprisonment and the death penalty); among
husbands, it was 43%.
Victim provocation more often
present in wife defendant cases
According to information contained in prosecutor files, more wife
defendants (44%) than husband defendants (10%) had been assaulted by
their spouse (threatened with a weapon or physically assaulted) at or
around the time of the murder.
Self-defense as possible explanation
for wives' lower conviction rate
In certain circumstances, extreme victim provocation may justify taking
a life in self-defense. Provocation was more often present in wife
defendant cases, and wife defendants were less likely than husband
defendants to be convicted, suggesting that the relatively
high rate of victim provocation characteristic of wife defendant cases was
one of the reasons wife defendants had a lower conviction rate than
husband defendants. Consistent with that, of the provoked wife
defendants, 56% were convicted, significantly lower than either the 86%
conviction rate for unprovoked wife defendants or the 88% conviction rate
for unprovoked husbands.
No explanation for why State prison sentences
were, on average, 10 years shorter for wife
defendants than husband defendants
Wives received shorter prison sentences than husbands (a 10-year
difference, on average) even when the comparison is restricted to
defendants who were alike in terms of whether or not they were
provoked--
* The average prison sentence for unprovoked wife defendants was 7
years, or 10 years shorter than the average 17 years for unprovoked
husband defendants.
Victim's race unrelated to outcomes
The victim was black in 55% of cases and white in 43%. The likelihood
of a defendant being convicted of spouse murder was about the same
whether the murder victim was white or black. Among spouse murder
defendants whose victim was white, 81% were convicted. Among those
whose victim was black, 79% were convicted.
Likewise, the sentence was unrelated to the victim's race. The likelihood
of a convicted spouse murderer receiving a prison sentence was about the
same whether the murder victim was white or black: the convicted spouse
murderer was sentenced to prison in 93% of cases where the victim was
white, not significantly different from the 87% of cases where the victim
was black. The length of the prison sentence imposed on a convicted
spouse murderer was generally unrelated to whether the murder victim
was white or black--
* For conviction for first-degree murder, the average prison term
(excluding life and death sentences) was 29 years in white-victim cases,
not significantly different from the 32 years in black-victim cases
* For conviction for second-degree murder, the average prison term
(excluding life sentences) was 19 years in white-victim cases, significantly
longer than the 13 years in black-victim cases. However, 23% of
convicted second-degree murder defendants in black-victim cases received
a sentence of life imprisonment, compared to 8% of defendants in
white-victim cases.
* For conviction for nonnegligent manslaughter, the average prison term
(excluding life sentences) was 8 years in white-victim cases, not
significantly different from the average 6 years in black-victim cases.
Defendant's race unrelated to outcomes
The likelihood of conviction, and of a prison sentence if convicted, and
the length of the prison sentence were about the same whether the spouse
murder defendant was white or black--
* 78% of white defendants were convicted, not significantly different from
the 80% of black defendants.
* Among convicted spouse murderers, 93% of white defendants were
sentenced to prison, not significantly different from the 88% of black
defendants.
Processing time
Three measures of processing time were taken from the day of the
murder--to arrest, to indictment, and to final disposition. Most spouse
murder defendants were arrested on the same day the killing occurred.
Average time to indictment was 4 months. Average time to final
disposition was almost exactly 1 year.
For husbands tried by a jury, 12. months was the average elapsed time
from the day of the murder to the conclusion of the jury trial. For wives
tried by a jury it was significantly longer, about 18. months.
Methodology
This study is based upon a systematic sample of murder cases disposed of
in the 75 most populous counties in 1988. A case was considered
disposed if the prosecutor screened it out, if the defendant pleaded guilty,
or if the defendant went to trial and was either convicted or acquitted.
The 75 are where a little over half of all murders in the Nation occur.
Spouse murder defendants in the sample were drawn from State prosecutor
files in 33 of the 75 counties. The counties were widely scattered, from
Los Angeles and San Diego, Denver and Dallas, to Philadelphia and Dade
County (Miami). For each defendant, data collectors filled out a lengthy
questionnaire and prepared a brief narrative from file information.
Prosecutor files include such items as the police arrest report, investigator
reports, and information on how the case was disposed. Questionnaires
and narratives are the sources of data for this report.
The same database used in this report was previously analyzed by John M.
Dawson and Barbara Boland (Murder in Large Urban Counties, 1988, BJS
Special Report, NCJ-140614, May 1993) and by John M. Dawson and
Patrick A. Langan (Murder in Families, BJS Special Report, NCJ-143498,
July 1994).
(END OF FILE)
Owning Topic : T=Reference and Statistics - 202 E= 1767 Type = e
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25th-August-2008
