Increased Female Homicide

Violence against women especially from their intimate partners has become a very common issue in the society today. The department of Justice in the US has found that women tend to be the most vulnerable victims of violent crimes irrespective of whether she is an in a domestic violence situation or not. Most of these violent crimes tend to happen by the use of guns, most of the female intimate partners that are killed are more often with a firearm as compared to other means (Dobash & Dobash, 2017). This fact has led many women to consider having a firearm in their homes as a form of protection especially those that are in a violent domestic situation. The sad fact is that owning a fire arm for these women does not really protect them because the women that own guns have higher chances of getting murdered using these guns as compared to those that do not own the guns (Dobash & Dobash, 2017).

The reason why women tend to be the most victims when it comes to matters of domestic violence is because of the masculinity thinking that has led the society to assume that women are the weaker sex (Dobash & Dobash, 2017). These assumptions have given the men authority to mistreat the women in the quest of ensuring that women understand their position in the society. Men have this ideology that they superior to the women which gives them the chance to control them and to do this they have to show their aggression and strength (Dobash & Dobash, 2017).  Most women that are victims of domestic violence are the women that believe in equality and so they are always ready to argue with their male partners and that is where the violence begins.

The article by Alund & Buitrago (2018) is a great illustration of the extent to which the issue of violence on women has extended.  This article is effective because it helps to illustrate how these events of violence come about and how women end up becoming victims in these situations. The article presents the case of a 39 year old man Bailey was jailed for shooting and killing his girlfriend at her house in the presence of their children that are aged 11 and 10 (Alund & Buitrago, 2018). The sad fact is that no one was there at the time to help and one of the children is the one that to call their neighbour illustrating that the mother had been shot. The article goes further to illustrate that the girlfriend had filed a restrictive order against him that required him to stay away from her (Alund & Buitrago, 2018). This article helps to show the masculinity ideology in that Bailey even after being restricted by law to stay away from the victim, still felt that he as a man had control over her and he could do all that he wanted because he is a man. He did not care about his actions and the effects that they would have on the children who had to witness their mother getting shot at their house.

In the year 2015 in Tennessee there were over 1450 female victims that were murdered by a male that they knew and this included a boyfriend, a husband or someone that they were intimately engaged with (Dobash & Dobash, 2017). The sad fact is that 55% of these murders were committed using a fire arms. The laws on gun ownership need to be amended to ensure that people no longer keep guns in their homes. Having guns at home, creates room for more killing on innocent women by their partners which has a negative impact on the society. Domestic violence deters progress and it has very negative impacts on the children who grow up with the biased ideology that illustrates that women are to be controlled and disrespected by men. The society need to change its thinking by incorporating gender equality that will help reduce female homicide cases.

 

 

 

References

Alund, N. N., & Buitrago, J. (2018, December 27). Police: Man who shot girlfriend, then self

in head released from hospital, jailed. Retrieved from https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2018/12/17/nashville-shooting-woman-killed-netherlands-drive/2334393002/

Dobash, R. E., & Dobash, R. P. (2017). When Men Murder Women. When Men Murder

            Women, 245-264. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199914784.003.0011