ABSTRACT
Introduction If… violence is seen as intentional acts undertaken in order to achieve ends that are deeply embedded in the circumstances of daily life, it becomes an issue for us all,may affect anyone, and is about daily life. (Dobash and Dobash 1999: 141)
Despite homicide being stereotyped as confrontational or, alternatively, as the act of a psychopath, in fact most homicides take place within families (Brookman 2005).This chapter concentrates on these homicides, first in the domestic context generally and then within specific cultural frameworks. These include acts as varied as ‘battered wife syndrome’,‘extended suicides’ and ‘honour killings’.To put these into context, a short description of the excluded types of homicide (i.e. mainly public, male-on-male manslaughter) will be given first.This chapter divides homicide into three main groups (Polk 1994: 189-90): confrontational homicide, other homicide, and domestic homicide, based on the relation of victim and offender and on the scene of the crime.
