Domestic homicide in New Brunswick, 1999–2008

Description

After the announcement by the provincial government in 2009 of the creation of a domestic violence death review committee (DVDRC) and the announcement by Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General in February 2010 of work starting by DVDRC members, the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research (MMFC) was approached to conduct a study of domestic homicide in New Brunswick. The research was conducted between June and December 2010. Few studies have been conducted on domestic homicide in the province of New Brunswick and none have examined all deaths related to domestic violence. This study is an attempt to present a comprehensive analysis of domestic violence deaths over a 10-year period (1999–2008), in the province of New Brunswick. The objective of this examination of domestic violence fatalities is to better understand what leads to death in domestic violence situations in order to prevent future deaths. Three main questions led the study: 1) What can we learn from domestic homicide cases in New Brunswick?, 2) What are the risk factors of domestic homicide?, and 3) What steps can be taken to prevent domestic homicide from happening? A comprehensive analysis of domestic violence deaths over a 10-year period (1999–2008) will identify deaths directly or indirectly caused by domestic violence, will track the prevalence of evidence-based risk factors for domestic homicide, and will help to understand the unique etiology of domestic homicides. Given that it is only recently that researchers have taken a retrospective examination of domestic homicide to learn about and prevent domestic violence this report includes a description of the process of creating the sample; the methodology for the review of all cases and its limitations; a statistical analysis; and recommendations for consideration to the Committee/Chief Coroner.