Understanding Domestic Homicide (The Northeastern Series on Gender, Crime and Law)

Rating:
Summary: Websdale's exploratory analysis
Review: The format of this book is basically to relate existent research on all forms of domestic homicide to a sample of cases taken from archival records collected for one year in Florida. The analysis is mainly descriptive and exploratory (feels like an ethnography, but not). For instance, chapters basically are organized around discussing existent research in the context of examples of several case studies (developed out of archival research that includes newspaper clippings - it seems - not very explicit about method here). The theoretical slant is feminist (patriarchal) and somewhat conflict (focuses very much on marginalized statuses of both offenders and victims). Websdale offers several tables on Sex-ratios of killings, race ratios and on the major independent variables thought to be associated with DH. First and last chapter have the most substance. In sum, very readable and interesting, but if you're looking for a thorough quantitative analysis - look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Websdale's exploratory analysis
Review: The format of this book is basically to relate existent research on all forms of domestic homicide to a sample of cases taken from archival records collected for one year in Florida. The analysis is mainly descriptive and exploratory (feels like an ethnography, but not). For instance, chapters basically are organized around discussing existent research in the context of examples of several case studies (developed out of archival research that includes newspaper clippings - it seems - not very explicit about method here). The theoretical slant is feminist (patriarchal) and somewhat conflict (focuses very much on marginalized statuses of both offenders and victims). Websdale offers several tables on Sex-ratios of killings, race ratios and on the major independent variables thought to be associated with DH. First and last chapter have the most substance. In sum, very readable and interesting, but if you're looking for a thorough quantitative analysis - look elsewhere.