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BC Femicide Report – 2002

Penny Bain and Kelly Watt

Femicide, the murder of a woman by her current or former intimate partner, is the most severe form of intimate-partner violence. In 2001, 69 wives were killed by their husbands in Canada, 17 more than in 2000. (Statistics Canada, 2001) Research indicates that femicide is the single most common form of murder perpetrated against women, accounting for between 30 and 60 percent of all murders of females in a given year (Brown, 1987; Campbell, 1986; Frye and Wilt, 2001; Mouzos, 2000; Polk, 1994, Wilson and Daly, 1992). This report briefly discusses perpetrator, victim, relational, and community responsiveness risk factors relating to femicide, and reviews media reports of apparent femicides in BC in 2002.

Perpetrator Risk Factors

Perpetrator risk factors are historical events, developmental experiences, personality characteristics, and life circumstances that increase the perpetrator’s risk of committing femicide, either by increasing the perpetrator’s thoughts, desires, or ability to cause serious harm to his partner, or by decreasing a perpetrator’s inhibitions once he experiences thoughts or desires of harming his partner.

Perpetrator demographics: In the United States, men who commit homicide, including intimate-partner femicide, are likely to be poor, young, and members of a minority group. (Campbell, 2001)

Firearms: Gun ownership is strongly associated with intimate-partner femicide. In the majority of studies, victims are more likely to be shot to death than killed by any other means.

Criminal history: In addition to having access to firearms, many perpetrators of femicide have prior histories of criminal behaviour. Generally, over half of perpetrators have prior arrests, most commonly related to domestic violence, non-domestic violent crime, and possession of narcotics. (Campbell and Wolf, 2001; McFarlane et al, 1999)

Previous intimate-partner violence: Perpetrators have commonly been violent toward
other intimate partners in the past. (Abrams et al, 2000)

Mental-health problems: Specific mental-health problems that have been associated with perpetrators of femicide include depression, sleeplessness, suicidal ideation or attempts, threats of homicide, and substance or medication use. (Campbell and Wolf, 2001; Campbell, 2001; McFarlane et al., 1999) Less frequently, perpetrators have histories of mental illness or diagnoses of personality disorders. (Campbell, 2001; Morton et al, 1998)

Victim-Vulnerability Risk Factors

Understanding femicide also requires understanding characteristics associated with victims. Victim-vulnerability factors include historical events, developmental experiences, personality characteristics, and life circumstances. Typically, these factors increase the victim’s risk of femicide in one of three ways: first, by increasing the likelihood that she will establish a relationship with a man who is at risk of committing femicide; second, by preventing her from perceiving risks in the relationship; or third, by decreasing the likelihood that she will take protective action once the risks are apparent.

Victim demographics: In the United States, ethnic minorities tend to be over-represented among victims of femicide. (Santa Clara County Death Review Committee: Final Report, 2000)

Previous intimate-partner violence: In addition to experiencing violence in their current relationship, victims have often been abused in previous relationships. (Abrams et al, 2000)

Mental-health problems: In addition, most victims of femicide exhibit signs of ‘decompensation’ prior to death. This term refers to stress-related physical and mental health problems such as sleeplessness and substance abuse, as well as to deterioration in social functioning, such as loss of employment and financial problems. (Abrams et al, 2000; Santa Clara County Death Review Final Report, 2000)

Relational Risk Factors

Relational risk factors focus on the relationship between the perpetrator and victim over time.

Relationship status: The literature shows that relationship status is commonly associated with risk for lethal violence. For example, findings from both Canada (Wilson, Johnson and Daly, 1995) and the United States (Shackelford, 2001) indicated that women in common-law relationships were at much greater risk for both lethal and non-lethal violence than were married women. In both common-law and married couples, femicide rates increased sharply with discrepancy between the partners’ ages.

Previous intimate-partner violence: Prior intimate-partner violence is one of the strongest and most consistent risk factors associated with femicide. (Campbell, 2001) Studies indicate that two-thirds of intimate-partner femicides involve battering of the victim by her male partner before her death. (Campbell, 2001) More specifically, violent victimization tends to escalate in severity and frequency prior to the femicide. (New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, 1997; Office of Chief Medical Examiner, 2001)

Separation: A history of actual or attempted separations has also been strongly associated with femicide. (Campbell, 2001; Daly, Wiseman, and Wilson, 1997; Dobash et al, 2001; Ryan et al, 2000) Dobash et al (2001) found that men who killed an intimate partner were 10 times more likely to have been recently divorced or separated from their partner than those who committed non-lethal violence against an intimate partner. Wilson, Johnson, and Daly (1995) suggest that women are at highest risk of femicide if separation and initiation of legal proceedings occur simultaneously. These findings are consistent with research suggesting that men may become extremely dangerous when they believe a relationship is about to end. (Bourget, Gagne, Moamai, 2000; Daly and Wilson, 1988; Fleury, Sullivan, and Bybee, 2000)

Stalking: Following separation, perpetrators commonly engaged in stalking or controlling behaviour, such as threats of harm, following the victim, and unwanted communication. (Campbell, 1995; Abrams et al, 2000; Santa Clara County Death Review Final Report, 2000) McFarlane et al (1999) found that during the 12 months prior to an actual or attempted femicide, more than three-quarters of women were stalked and more than two-thirds were physically assaulted. Stalking behavior within the context of femicide is highly associated with extreme jealousy, perceptions of betrayal, obsessive thinking, and sexual possessiveness on the part of the perpetrator. (Campbell and Wolf, 2001; Daly and Wilson, 1988)

Children: In addition to being associated with relationship difficulties between the victim and perpetrator, children may be associated in several ways with lethal violence. For instance, studies indicate that approximately half of victims have children from previous relationships. (Brewer and Paulsen, 1999; Daly, Wiseman, and Wilson, 1997; Abrams et al, 2000) In addition to the presence of step-children, abuse during pregnancy has been associated with intimate-partner femicide. (Campbell, 2001) Although little is known about how the presence of children may increase the risk of femicide, in many cases in which children were present during a femicide, they were either physically injured or killed, indicating that children are often as much at risk of harm as adult victims. (Abrams et al, 2000; New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, 1997)

Community-Responsiveness Risk Factors

Community-responsiveness factors include characteristics of the social-support network, neighborhood, and community. Norms, laws, policies, procedures, services, and support may be inadequate to prevent a perpetrator from committing violence or to assist potential femicide victims in increasing their safety. In some cases, helping agencies may actually condone violence by minimizing and denying the effects of violence and blaming the women for the abuse. (Ptacek, 1999)

Awareness of relationship problems: In the vast majority of cases examined by US fatality-review committees, family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors, or services were aware of or suspected problems, such as conflict, physical violence, and death threats within the victim/perpetrator relationship prior to the femicide. (New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, 1997; Abrams et al, 2000)

Medical and social-service contact: Victims often sought medical treatment, domestic-violence service, or social-service intervention prior to the femicide. (New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, 1997) According to the Denver Metro Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee (Abrams et al, 2000), one-quarter of victims reported their history of domestic violence to medical caregivers, while one-fifth had received medical treatment due to domestic violence prior to their fatality.

Criminal-justice agency contact: Reviews also indicate that police or other criminal justice agencies were involved prior to the death of the victim in more than 65 percent of femicide cases due prim-arily to prior arrests for incidents of domestic violence. (Florida Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team, 1994; New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, 1997; County of San Diego Domestic Violence Review Team, 2001; Santa Clara County Death Review Final Report, 1997) However, of men with a history of arrests related to incidents of domestic violence, only a small proportion received domestic-violence treatment. Restraining orders were also commonly active or being issued. According to the State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence (1997), in cases where restraining orders were in place prior to the homicide, the majority had been violated on at least one occasion.

Conclusions

Overall, these findings confirm that in many cases of femicide, there are multiple indicators to individuals and agencies that a couple is ‘at risk.’ However, even when indicators are recognized by family, friends, and co-workers, the interventions or assistance they provide may be inadequate to prevent femicide. (Abrams et al, 2000)

In addition, criminal-justice agencies often do not have access to complete and accurate information regarding the criminal histories and personal protection-order histories of abusers. (Michigan Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Task Force, 2001)

Furthermore, domestic-violence laws are often inconsistently applied and interpreted, leading to increased risk of harm to victims of domestic violence. (Michigan Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Task Force, 2001) Many reviews have highlighted deficits in communication, coordination, and training of various agencies involved in domestic-violence cases. (Michigan Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Task Force, 2001)

BC Femicides in 2002

Keeping in mind the risk factors identified by the literature, the Institute collected the following information from media reports of apparent femicides in BC in 2002:

Phoebe Mack was killed by her husband January 8, 2002 in Victoria, BC. The couple had lived together for four years but had separated in August, 2001. Her husband killed her in the presence of her two-year-old son. Death occurred as a result of him placing her in a headlock. He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Laurie Ross, who was last seen with her despondent husband, disappeared in January, 2002 from Alexis Creek, BC. Her husband had told his boss he was trying to sort out his marital problems just four days before he and his wife disappeared. Their abandoned vehicle was found at Sheep Creek Bridge between Alexis Creek and Williams Lake. The police suspect that she was the victim of a murder/suicide. Her husband’s body was found in the Fraser River May 11, 2002. They are survived by three teenaged daughters.

Carmela Cusano was killed by blows to the head allegedly inflicted by her husband of 40 years on January 25, 2002 in North Vancouver, BC. Her husband called police to the family home, where they found her body. Her husband was charged with murder. The couple has two grown children.

Janki Singh’s 71-year-old husband was charged with her second-degree murder on March 2, 2002 in Surrey, BC. The 67-year-old wife was found in the couple’s home. An autopsy disclosed a homicide. Surrey RCMP neither confirmed nor denied a report that the woman was suffering from a terminal illness and her death may have been an assisted suicide or mercy killing.

Patricia Sharon Cairns’ husband of three months hit her several times on the head with a hammer and then strangled her on April 22, 2002 in Crofton, BC. He was found guilty of manslaughter on April 29, 2003. His defense was based on provocation due to his wife’s gambling. The husband attempted suicide after the murder. The couple has an eight-year-old son.

Virve Carlita Taponen’s husband of eight years confessed to strangling her with a polyurethane wrapping while giving her a massage during a vacation in Mexico on August 6, 2002. He took the body to a hospital and reported that his wife had been attacked. Hospital workers became suspicious and called police. His lawyer stated that the husband would plead that he went temporarily insane over religious issues and feared that his marriage was unravelling. After her death, Virve’s father said her husband was extremely jealous. The couple, from Burnaby, BC, has two children, aged 5 and 7.

Rosella Centis’s husband was charged with first-degree murder for killing her with a shotgun at a Nanaimo gas station on September 1, 2002 in the presence of her daughter. He had just been served with divorce papers. The couple had been separated for two years. They have five children.

Wei Amanda Zhao’s boyfriend allegedly killed her on October 9, 2002 in Burnaby, BC. Shortly after her body was found at Stave Lake on October 20, the boyfriend returned to China. A roommate/cousin has been charged with accessory after the fact for helping the boyfriend to leave
the country.

Lori Lynn Elaine Kokotailo’s husband has been charged with first-degree murder in relation to her stabbing death on December 1, 2002 in Mission, BC, in the presence of her two teenaged daughters, who called 911.

In conclusion, based on the limited information available from media reports of nine femicides in British Columbia in 2002, several risk factors consistent with previous research are evident. In three cases, victims had either separated or were about to separate from their husbands; in three cases there were known relationship problems; in two cases children witnessed the murder; in one case the perpetrator had access to a gun; and in four cases the perpetrator was known to be depressed, suicidal, or extremely jealous.

Kelly Watt is a graduate student in the doctoral program in Clinical/Community Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her primary research interests are intimate partner violence and violence risk assessment. She has worked on various projects for the BCIFV over the past five years.

Penny Bain is executive director of the BCIFV.

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