Lethal and nonlethal violence against wives

Demographic patterns of risk of lethal and nonlethal violence against wives in Canada were compared utilizing Statistics Canada's Homicide Survey (1974-1992) and Violence Against Women Survey (1993). Comparisons were based on 1,429 uxoricide victims and 8,385 interviewees of whom 277 had been assaulted by their husbands within the past 12 months. We anticipated that lethal and nonlethal violence would exhibit parallel patterns of risk in relation to demographic factors because male sexual proprietariness appears to be the dominant underlying issue in both lethal and nonlethal violence against wives. Some. but not all, demographic risk patterns were similar for lethal and nonlethal incidents. In particular: (1) Wives incurred much greater risk of both lethal and nonlethal violence in commonlaw unions than in registered unions; (2) In registered unions, the risks of lethal and nonlethal violence declined in similar fashion in relation to the wife's age, but in commonlaw unions, uxorcide risk increased until "middle-age", whereas the rates of nonlethal violence declined in much the same way as in registered unions; (3) Uxoricide rates increased sharply as the age disparity of marital partners increased, in both registered and commonlaw unions, but there was no apparent relationship between age disparity and rates of nonlethal violence.