Husband-Wife Homicide

Homicide traditionally has been a matter between family, acquaintances, and friends.' This fact is not particularly surprising, given the reasonable expectation that one would have more reason to kill an acquaintance than a stranger. It would seem to follow that spouses and other intimates would have the most reason of all to kill each other. Yet we recoil from the very idea, clinging to the belief that intimate relationships are characterized by tenderness and love. That they are not always so characterized is evident in the fact of spousal violence and homicide. Most homicides are committed with firearms, and these weapons also play a role in the more specialized group of homicides that occur between spouses. One goal of all gun control proposals is to reduce the overall number of homicides by reducing the number of homicides committed with firearms. A particularly poignant subissue, however, is how to keep people from killing...