Women who kill their husbands: mariticides in contemporary Ghana.
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.
Adinkrah
Mensah
M
Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Michigan 48859, USA. adink1m@cmich.edu
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005869:Ghana / Q000453:epidemiology; D006708:Homicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D015995:Prevalence; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires