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Women who kill their husbands: mariticides in contemporary Ghana
Author(s) -
Adinkrah Mensah
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
aggressive behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.223
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1098-2337
pISSN - 0096-140X
DOI - 10.1002/ab.20209
Subject(s) - wife , extant taxon , homicide , criminology , polygyny , phenomenon , suicide prevention , poison control , psychology , subject (documents) , domestic violence , sociology , human factors and ergonomics , injury prevention , medicine , medical emergency , law , political science , demography , biology , population , physics , quantum mechanics , evolutionary biology , library science , computer science
Homicide by wives against husbands is a largely unexplored subject in lethal violence research. The paucity of information on the phenomenon is particularly acute in the non‐Western world where scholarly research is virtually nonexistent. The specific goal for this article, then, was to provide additional insights into the issue by investigating wife‐to‐husband killings that occurred in Ghana, a non‐Western society, during 1990–2005. In line with the scant, extant literature, the results of the analysis demonstrate that victims were invariably slain at home. The motive for the crime was to punish a womanizing husband, a husband who had taken another wife, or one who was contemplating wedding another wife in this polygynous society. In other instances, the homicidal intent was to physically eliminate a husband to facilitate an amorous relationship between the assailant and her new lover. In several cases, husband‐slayers killed a latent or predisposing victim (e.g. sleeping or ill) via burning, slashing with a machete or food poisoning. The implications of the findings are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 33:526–536, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.