Testing intimate partner violence (IPV) theory on media coverage of IPV collateral homicides

The author presents results from a project that determined the frequencies and predominant media frames used to report intimate partner violence (IPV) incidents in which persons other than the principal victim are killed; an event referred to as collateral intimate partner homicide (CIPH). The project also tested which IPV theory best explains media reports of CIPH. Methods The present study involved an analysis of articles from Michigan newspapers across seventeen years (1990–2007). A content analysis of newspaper articles (n = 209) was conducted in order to determine victim and perpetrator characteristics as well as the reported causes and explanations for CIPH. Two divergent theories of IPV—“family violence” and “coercive control”—were utilized to address major research questions and hypotheses. Results/Outcomes CIPH appears to be gender asymmetric, with men perpetrating 100% of CIPH in this sample. Every principal victim was his female current or ex-partner, and the most common collateral victim type was her biological child. Despite being killed in every story, collateral victims were portrayed as ‘auxiliary', playing only a minor role in the crime. Media frames were primarily episodic in nature, with CIPH portrayed as the outcome of mutual conflict—a finding in line with the family violence perspective. Conclusions Results from this study extend our current understanding of how intimate crimes are reported by the mass media. It is clear that CIPH frames align with the family violence framework, which has direct implications for public perceptions of IPV.