American Honor Killing
The right wing makes a big story out of every “honor Killing” that comes to light in Islamic families, but they neglect the more horrible American version of honor killing. The American version involves a murder-suicide where an abusive husband murders the whole family and then himself. It’s unusual to have more than a couple of weeks pass without one at l;east of these stories in the U.S.
By Amanda Marcotte, Salon:
“Megan Short, who died alongside her husband, Mark, and the couple’s three children in an apparent murder-suicide over the weekend, had been planning to leave her husband, ” read the follow-up report at NBC 10. The story went on to detail that the couple had started dating when Megan was only 17 years old and Mark was 24, and that Megan had been communicating with friends about her desire to leave and her belief that her husband was abusive.
While there’s no way to confirm for sure what happened here, the entire story is a potent reminder that while mass shootings where madmen attack strangers grab the most headlines, the much larger problem in this country is people, mostly men, killing partners and family members — and then often themselves — in a desperate act to maintain dominance and control.
“In approximately 70% of domestic violence homicides (current or ex-intimate partners) there has been prior domestic violence against the female (not necessarily reported to police) ,” Dr. Jacquelyn Campbell, a domestic violence researcher at Johns Hopkins University explained over email, adding that “leaving the abusive relationship increases risk” of domestic homicide occurring.
“But the strongest risk factor — over and above prior DV – is gun ownership on the part of the male partner,” she added.