August 2007 - Volume 1, Issue 4

FACTORS INFLUENCING FAMILY VIOLENCE AND SPOUSAL MURDER IN THE CITY OF TEHRAN

Professor Ali Reza Kaldi University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, email: arkaldi@yahoo.com Nazanin Kianifard (MA)

ABSTRACT Introduction: This research was conducted to illustrate relevant causes of spousal homicide, such as improper family tradition, legal discrimination, lack of information about laws, difficulties in accessing to judicial system, lack of appropriate experts/consultants and psychological problems. Objective: The objective of this study was to address two fundamental questions: What are the reasons for spouse killing? What solutions can be presented in order to overcome this problem. By considering pertinent criminal cases presented in courts and prisons in Tehran, this research attempted to discuss about the factors relating to spousal homicide. Materials and Methods: The method of this research was based on quantitative and qualitative research. For data collection, questionnaire was used. 50 prisoners were asked to participate. Moreover, interview has been used with spouse killers in 3 prisons in Tehran. Furthermore, this study has taken into account the interviews given by lawyers, judges, and consultants. Findings: The outcome of this research points out that there is little difference among spouse killeres as far as family, social and educational factors are concerned. Conclusion: The crutial factors in committing this crime are economical problems, lack of information as to legal affairs, lack of information as to protective centres, legal cost, imposed and early marriage, age difference and existing problems of divorce.

Key Words: Homicide, Domestic violence, Legal discrimination, Imposed marriage.

INTRODUCTION

Harming the spouse is one of the main problems of most societies. This study has been implemented with the aim of specifying the reasons and factors of killing the spouse and some elements such as legal and family bottlenecks.

Violence in the family such as harming the child, the spouse, or the aged persons has attracted attention considerably since 1970.

Violence in the family such as "harming the wife", is the common and destroying phenomenon, and the statistics show the depth of this problem. Every year millions of women and children in the world are the sacrificed persons of the family harshness. More than two million women every year in the U.S.A. are harmed by their husbands [1], and it is estimated that one third of all women during the period of their adolescence has been threatened by their husbands [2 & 3]. According to the evidences of the Supreme Court of the U.S.A., women are the sacrificed persons of the family eleven times more than men.

Saunders and colleagues[4] studied on 165 persons committing harshness and have come to the conclusion that in 52% of cases, the persons that have committed the harshness have been only at home, 29% general committer of crime, and 19% persons in unstable condition in case of excitement. The results also show that such persons were alcholic.

Rosen [5] by implementing a study consisted from 277 cases has obtained results such as 25% of such persons have reported that minimum once have committed harshness in the recent relations. 28.2% have reported that minimum once have been the sacrifice of physical harshness. The results show that 40% of the participants have at least been the sacrificed person of physical harshness of their parents in childhood and 32.9% have evidenced at least one physical harshness between their parents in childhood.

Cyr and colleagues [6] in a research have shown that there is meaningful relation between seeing the harshness of marriage and becoming the sacrificed person in the youth age by one of the parents and aggressiveness and harshness in the next generation.

Nazparvar [7] has conducted a research under the title of "harming women". In this research by using the random samples consisted from 100 women which have been harmed by their husbands and 70 persons comparing group by other reasons that have referred to the medical examiner have been implemented. The results show that the most common reasons of family quarrels in the first stage have been the moral and training problems and then the interference of the others and especially the family of the husband and then the economic problems.
Zanganeh and colleague [8] found that the variables of age difference of the couples, the interference of the family and the relatives of the couples, the experiments and seeing the harshness of the parents by the couples in the family, the education level of the husband, are positive relation with the different harshness of husbands against the wives.
The results of Moazami's[9] research in case of harshness against the women show that half (51%) of the women which have suffered from harshness have nervous and migraine headaches. 18% of them have the effects of temporary or permanent strokes or burns. 9.2% are affected with venereal diseases and 7.1% have stomach ache or other harms such as miscarriage due to being beaten, heart diseases and so on.

In case of the biological, psychological and physiological elements, many studies have been considered the important relation between these elements and the harshness of men. Also mental analysis of Freud, the theory of behavior [10], inter-generation transfer, disappointment and aggressiveness, identification, individual differences, have been discussed in analyzing the family harshness.

Belski and Daton state that the environmental models have been considered in four stages shapes that in these shapes each stage enters to the next stage and due to this reason, it is also called environmental network. In the first stage the individual growth and the experiences of childhood which shows the harshness operations or being the sacrifice of harshness are taken into consideration. In the second stage the disciple of the family and the internal relation are taken into consideration. In the third stage, the external disciple and the official and
non-official structure of the society are taken into account that have influence on the fragments of the society. In the forth stage the macro discipline which has been consisted from the cultural and belief values are considered. In reality in case a culture advertises or bears harshness the coarse people have no reason to pursue these values [11].

A research conducted in 15 provinces of the country shows that 33% of killing the husbands has been the reaction to harshness, 67% of killing the husbands has been due to the disloyalty of man. 48% of the men have expressed the reason as suspicion, 35% fanaticism and jealousy and the existence of the third person, and 13% due to not paying attention to the spouse and the children and disinterest and making excuses and sexual disorder has been the reasons[12].

In order to study on the subject of killing the spouse and also the identification of the different dimensions, the combination of two methods of survey and intensive interview has been used. In survey method, for collecting data, questionnaire has been used. The most submitted questions in the questionnaire provides the possibility of identifying the subjective meaning, and also the possibility of measuring the variables in interval level, using statistical tests are being provided. The sample under study is 50 prisoners in Evin, Rajaii Shahr and Varamin prisons.
The interviews have been implemented in half an hour, and focused on the subject of research. The application of two methods as parallel, resulted the designing of the questions of the questionnaire with more insight. In addition the interviews were also implemented at the light of data resulted from the work of researches, which has been consisted from the sample of the society under study. For face to face interview, due to relatively good opportunity of course at the presence of the watchmen, questions from the murderers of women accused to kill their wives were asked and their wishes, desires and the real motivation were heard, and they also away from the inquiry questions and answers of the inspectors with the mutual confidence that had been resulted discussed the matter and it was also asked from them to answer the designed questionnaires.

The collected data in different ways has been reviewed and by using the proper statistical techniques, the questions of the research have been investigated. The sample under review has been consisted from 80% of men and 20% of women. Also 50% of the sample has been in age group 20-30, 40% in age group of 31-40 and 10% in age group of more than 40. 80% of the people who answered had education below diploma, 14% had diploma and associate of arts, and 6% had B.A. degree. In case of the number of dependant person, 40% had dependant persons less than 3, 20% between 3 to 5, 10% more than 5, and 30% did not answer this question. In case of the number of the children, 8% had no children, 20% had one child, 32% had 2 or 3 children, 18% had more than 3 children, and 22% did not answer this question. In case of the employment situation, 12% had free job, 16% were workers, 2% were employees, 20% had services work, 4% had professional jobs, 36% unemployed, and 10% did not answer this question. In case of economic income, 60% had low income, 30% had medium income, 4% had high income and 6% did not answer this question. In case of job satisfaction before committing murder, 34% answered positively and 62% answered negatively and 4% did not answer this question. In case of health situation, 80% were healthy, 6% were ill, 8% had addiction and 6% did not answer this question. In case of residential places before committing the crime, 20% were residing in the north of the city, 26% in the middle of the city, 38% at the south of the city, 10% in the margins of the city and 6% did not answer this question. In case of the period of marriage before committing the crime, 10% had been less than 6 years, 10% between 6 months and one year, 50% more than one year and 30% did not answer this question. In case of type of marriage, 60% had permanent marriage, 6% temporary marriage and 34% did not answer this question. In case of the turn of marriage, 60% had been for the first time, 14% for the second time and 26% did not answer this question. In case of penal record, 20% had the record of theft, 52% had the record of beating, 6% had the record of destruction, 12% had the record of insult and calumny, 2% had the chastity crimes and 8% had mentioned other cases. In case of the type of crime, 24% had intention to beat, 60% had done the crime intentionally, 12% had done the crime without intention and 4% did not answer this question. In case of amount of freedom in choosing and type of marriage with spouse, 60% answered very little, 20% little, 10% at an extent, 6% a lot, and 4% too much. In case of family harshness record at the time of childhood, 8% answered very little, 4% at an extent, 16% a lot, and 64% too much. In case of divorce record among the members of the family, 8% had answered very low, 30% low, 10% at an extent, 20% a lot and 32% too much. In total the persons who had answered the questionnaires have stated that in confronting with anger have used threatening, beating, cursing and then jackknife or weapon respectively. The reason and the motivation of committing crime have been specified in the following table:

Table 1.Comparison of Mean of the Reason & Motivation of Criminal Action

The calculated mean shows that in total the persons who have answered have expressed the reason of their criminal action as instant insanity, financial problems, being beaten and cursing, addiction, being pessimistic and jealously, disloyalty, defending from chastity and the child, mental imbalance, polygamy and revenge respectively.

The amount of implementing each of the measures after quarrel with the spouse consisting from sulking, disconnection of relations with his family, financial non-compliance, sexual
non-compliance, hidden relations, thinking about divorce, thinking about murder have been reviewed in the following table:

Table 2. Comparison of Mean of Implementing any Measures After Quarrel

Responses	Mean
Thinking about divorce	4.26
Sulking	4.08
Sexual non-compliance	4
Disconnecting relations with family	2.74
Establishing hidden relations	2.46
Financial non-compliance	2.06
Thinking about murder	1.6

The calculated mean shows that the total persons who have answered, after each quarrel have implemented the following measures: thinking about divorce, sulking, sexual non-compliance, disconnecting relations with the family of spouse, establishing hidden relations, financial non-compliance, thinking about the murder of spouse.

At the time of deciding about murder, the persons who have answered have thought to use murdering instruments consisted from cutting instruments, wire, physical attack, rope and wire.

Table 3. Comparison of Mean of Using Murdering Instruments

Responses	Mean
Cutting instruments	3.54
Wire	3.26
Other	3.02
Rope & wire cable	2.24
Physical attack	2.1

The calculated mean shows that in total the persons who have answered, at the time of deciding for implementing murder have preferred the following murdering instruments respectively: cutting instruments, wire, other murdering instruments, rope and wire cable, physical attack.

The criminal action has been implemented by the assistance or the guidance or the participation of another person.

Table 4. Comparison of Mean of the Method of  Implementing Crime

Responses	Mean
Alone	3.12
By the assistance or the guidance of another person	1.56
By the participation of another person	1.38

The calculated mean shows that in total the persons who have answered have implemented their criminal action as the following: alone, by the assistance or the guidance of another person, by the participation of another person.

Also the persons who have answered have stated their desire for murder and their previous intention at the medium level. Meanwhile, they have showed different reactions after murder.

Table 5. Comparison of Mean of Reactions After Murder 

Responses	Mean
Regret & sadness	4.2
Hiding the murder scene	4.02
Thinking about escape	3.74
Thinking about committing suicide	2.26
Introducing to the disciplinary power	1.38

The calculated mean shows that in total the persons who have answered after murder have implemented the following measures: regret, hiding the murder scene, thinking about escape, thinking about committing suicide, introducing to the disciplinary power.

The persons who have answered have expressed their satisfaction from the method of investigation and trial in the court, very low (78%), low (12%), to an extent (6%), high (2%), and very high (2%).

40% of the persons who have answered in this research have expressed their guiltiness, 40% in a very low level, 20% in low level, 26% to an extent, 10% high and 4% very high. Also the persons who have answered have stated that in case of not committing murder, they would choose another solutions such as referring to the consultancy centers, referring to the legal centers and juridical authorities, consulting with friends and the relatives or abandoning the house.

Table 6. Comparison of Mean of Choosing Another Solution with the Exception of Murder 

Responses	Mean
Referring to the consultancy centers	1.5
Referring to the legal or juridical centers	4
Consulting with the family or friends	3.78
Abandoning the house	3.52

In total the persons who have answered in case of choosing another measure with the exception of murder have considered proper the following measures respectively: referring to the legal and juridical centers, consulting with the family and the friends, abandoning the house, referring to the consultancy centers.

The persons who have answered have considered the following solutions in decreasing the prevention of family murders:

Considering crime the harsh action in the limit of very high (84%), establishment of governmental and non-governmental protection centers (in medium level) establishment of consultant telephone line in the limit of high and very high (76%), the emergency of reviewing the family problems in the courts in the limit of low (26%), immediate interference of the disciplinary power in the family problems in the limit of very low (0.36%).

In this research the persons who have answered have considered their success in using the attorneys and consultants free as a solution for decreasing the family murders has expressed in the medium level.

Table 7. Comparison of Mean of Decreasing or Preventing from the Family Murders

Responses	Mean
Considering the implemented harshness as crime	4.78
Establishing protection centers	3.26
Availability to consultancy possibilities	4.1
Emergency in investigating into the family problems	2.4
Immediate interference of the disciplinary power	1.9
Facilitation in using the attorneys & consultants	3.46
Reports of the treatment centers	2.22

The results show that the respondents expressed their approval with the submitted solutions as the following: considering crime the harsh action, availability to consultancy possibilities, facilitating the usage from the attorneys and the consultants, establishing centers for protection, emergency in investigating the family problems, the report of treatment centers, immediate interference of the disciplinary power.

In case of the elements related to hurting the spouse and her murder, three essential elements affecting on murder and hurting the spouse, i.e., social elements, legal elements and family elements are being analyzed. Among these three social, family and legal elements, the social elements with the average of 3.72% out of 5 had the most influence on the occurrence of family murders.

For the identification of different dimensions of killing spouse, intensive interview method has been used. 45 interviews with women in prison in Tehran, and 8 interview with people in case of the subject of harshness and killing the spouse has been implemented.

The results of the intensive interviews consisted of the conditions and behavior and the sense of modesty and sorrow, distraction, crying, nervousness and becoming angry, inattention, nervous laughs, playing continuously with hand and paper, taking the condition of madness, having make-up and being fresh, shyness and looking oppressed, being impatient, dowdiness, having hope, giving importance to the appearance and the cleanness of clothes, the way of talking (calm or with high voice) using improper words, and the characteristics of the interviewee persons such as age, education, marital status, employment situation, social class, number of children, and the type and times of marriage, the penal record and the record of addiction.

Of course most of them had requested help and had not satisfaction from their situation and mostly were trying to attract help and prove their innocency.

The findings of these interviews show that most women had imposed marriage, and had confronted harshness from the side of their husbands. Their personality and the human identity had been overlooked, and they had endured the life due to their children and the economic problems the rotation of this harshness and eventually they could not bear the life and had put an end to the life of their husbands.

Also husbands had killed their wives by mistake due to suspicion and jealousy. Most of the women had regret from the murder act but not the murder of their husbands, because they deserved murder. But most of men were sorry because they had vain suspicion and some of them thought that they deserved to be murdered. By reviews implemented from these interviews, it was revealed that most of the women that were in prison accused for killing their husbands had done murder by the assistance of another person. These women that had faced the tortures of their husbands had established relations with another person for taking revenge, and reaching to their wishes and as the husbands had been a great obstacle for them, they had planned to kill their husbands and in this way the another men had helped them to kill their husbands without knowing what will be their future. In reviewing the life of these women it was specified that most of these traitor women due to having bad, unemployed and addicted husbands had to become prostitute and eventually they had become tired from this situation and by the assistance of one of their customers had committed the murder.

Also a number of persons with the education of juridical law and in the position of juridical consultant in the family courts participated in interview and stressed on removing the legal bottlenecks that are on the way for preventing the murder of spouse.

CONCLUSION

Killing the spouse is the intense type of harshness. Usually those who commit harshness do this action in the continuation of persistent dissatisfaction which is the result of different elements. Limitation for fulfilling the rights of the woman from the legal channels in our society forces some women to enter into action, and for removing their husbands make a plan for their murder. But some men due to their men structure and being free with the least dissatisfaction or foul play in the relations commit harshness, and due to instant madness (that according to the reports of the medical examiner commissions and psychologist have been in normal conditions and there has not been the signs of madness in them) in a moment had decided to kill their spouse.

80% of the implemented murders by the women had been done from fear of husband, repeated humiliation and sexual harm. The women killing their husbands with the previous plan and during the period of enduring living conditions, have murdered their husbands personally or by the assistance of another man. Poverty, being jobless, addiction and treachery has been the cases that have resulted killing the husband in Iran. Most women killing their husbands have been suffered from lack of affection. 95% of the women after killing their husbands have not regretted it, but even in investigations have announced that in case the time could be returned to the past they would kill their husbands. While, most of the men have expressed regret after killing their wives.

The most important reason of killing spouse has been due to continued dissatisfaction from the life, and the spouse, because of beating, addiction of the husband, failure in divorce and the existence of legal gaps that has resulted to be less bearable in respect of the existing conditions and under non-rational conditions have been implemented the crime. One of the reasons has been derived from the revenge sense that during the confrontation of the woman with the treachery of the husband and establishing unlawful relations with the other woman has been created. This matter is due to the permission of the lawmaker for permanent polygamy and choosing numerous wives on the basis of temporary marriage for the men that in case this matter would be prohibited by law, and at least conditions and limitations would be created or the right for divorce and other rights would be given to the wives against this matter, the scope would be decreased, and this natural jealousy of women which is the reason for revenge would be colorless. The lawmaker gives permission to the men to commit murder and not to be punished, but in case the flame of the envy of a woman is motivated, and she commits the murder and take revenge from her husband, it is behaved with her as an innate killer.

The last type of occurrence of harshness by the women who kill their husbands is related to the unlawful relations of the woman due to different reasons, such as lack of sentimental or mental elements in the marriage life, that results the establishment of hidden relations with the others and in this way for continuing these kind of relations that are against the law and the custom of the society, and are contrary to them, implements the ominous thinking of the plan of killing the husband and in most cases by the assistance of the other person.

The increase in the amount of contradictions and the boundary of freedom of the person, sometimes results to a level of disputes that each of the couples pursue a solution for escaping from the existing situation and attaining to the desired needs and in the conditions that there are many ways for the men for exiting from the conceivable dead ends, the women who are captured in the contradictions and limitations are pursuing the ways for emptying their intense sentiments against their husbands and rescue themselves and therefore, killing their husbands.
By becoming colorless the affection inside the family and the numerous economic and social problems that results carelessness to the mental conditions of the people and under these conditions the existence of "substitute love" for filling the gap of sentiments and the formation of illegal relations which is accompanied with the torture of conscience the way of these people ends to planning for murder.

Also the protection system from these kind of tortured women in the house of the husband is not clear in the society, and in most cases, it is for the benefit of the men. Therefore, the women get into contradiction and commit the crime.

REFERENCES

1. Straus, M.A., & Smith, C. (1990). Family patterns of primary prevention of family violence. In M.A. Straus & R.J.Gelles (Eds.), Physical violence in American families: risk factors and adaptations to violence in 8145 families (pp.507-526). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.
   
2. Browne, A. (1987) When battered women kill. New York: The Free Press.
   
3. Browne, A. Salomon, A., & Bassuk, S.S. (1999) Impact of recent partner violence on poor women's capacity to maintain work. Violence Against Women, 5(4), 393-426.
   
4. Saunders, D.G., & Size, P.B. (1986) Attitudes about woman abuse among police officers, victims, and victims' advocates. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 1, 25-42.
   
5. Rosen, D. (2004). "I just let him have his way": Partner violence in the lives of low-income, teenage mothers. Violence Against Women, 10, 6-28.
   
6. Cyr, M., Mcduff, P., & J. Wright (2006). Prevalence and predictors of dating violence among adolescent female victims of child sexual abuse,Journal of International Violence,21(8),1000-17. 7. Nazparvar, B. (2002) Wife Abuse, Journal of Women's Studies, No.3:25-43.
   
7. Zanganeh, M. and H. Ahmadi (2002) Factors Influencing Husband's Violence Against Wife, Bushehr: Research Publications.
   
8. Moazami, S. (2004) Protection of Women Against Family Violence, Social Welfare Quarterly, Vol.3, No.13, 223-250.
   
9. Kar, M. (2001) Research in Violence Against Women in Iran, Tehran: Roushangaran Publications.
   
10. Ezazi, S. (2001) Family Violence, Tehran Roushangaran Publications.
    
11. Ashouri, M. and S. Moazami (2001) Spouse Killing in 15 Provinces in Iran, Research Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Tehran University.