What have we learned from 15 years of older adult homicides in Victoria?
By AAG member Briohny Kennedy, PhD candidate at the Department of Forensic Medicine, Monash University
We are lucky that homicide is not a frequent occurrence in Australia. The death of a person at the hands of another represents an extreme of physical violence and an opportunity to contribute to future violence prevention. Thanks to the systematic and detailed investigation process each homicide undergoes in Australia, a large amount of information is generated that can inform a public health response to fatal violence.
My PhD research explores homicide against older adults (aged 65 years and older) living in the Australian community. We produced a particularly detailed description of older adult homicide circumstances for the population of Victoria, Australia, in the first published study using data from the Victorian Homicide Register (VHR).
The study examined all homicides against older adults reported to the Coroners Court of Victoria during 2001 to 2015. Data were obtained from the VHR, maintained by the Coroners Prevention Unit, at the Coroners Court of Victoria. The VHR was established to support the Victorian Systemic Review of Family Violence Deaths and includes information on all homicides in Victoria from 2001. We extracted data on both the homicide victim and their offender at the individual, interpersonal, incident and community levels. Variables included demographics; deceased-offender relationship; physical health, mental health and diversity factors; recorded contacts with services such as police, courts, healthcare and social support; and family violence factors, where relevant.
Our study included 59 primary older homicide victims, from a total of 63 deaths (only the primary or first listed victim was reported for methodological reasons). Among the included victims, females were represented less often than males (n=23, 39%, versus 36, 61%), while offenders where predominantly male (n=41/57, 72%). Older adult homicide victims were commonly killed in their own home (72%) by an intimate partner or other family member such as an adult child (62%). Many had a recorded physical illness (66%) and over one third (36%) had been in contact with a service such as a GP or Centrelink within the six weeks prior to the homicide.
The offender of older adult homicide commonly had a diagnosed mental illness, a history of alcohol or drug abuse (both 63%), or an historical exposure to violence (61%). Diagnosed mental illness was higher than for the older adult homicide victim (63% versus 14%), as was prior offending, substance use history and exposure to violence. This is consistent with domestic homicide research in the United Kingdom [1] and previous Australian research.[2]
Offenders had also been in recent contact with services including police and human services (46%), or tested positive for alcohol or illicit drugs (42%) post-incident. Both represent possible opportunities to intervene in mental health or other crises as identified in reviews of older adult homicide deaths in the United Kingdom.[1, 3]
Overall, the findings of this study suggest that older adults may be more vulnerable when they live with an illness and where their close family members or acquaintances have a diagnosed mental illness or substance abuse history, or a history of family violence within the relationship. For researchers and practitioners concerned with older adults, further work to confirm these findings and assess human services and GPs as sites for possible future interventions is needed.
Access the full article via Springer Nature.
Contact Briohny at [email protected]
[1] Bracewell, K., et al., Beyond intimate partner relationships: utilising domestic homicide reviews to prevent adult family domestic homicide. J Gend Based Violence, 2022. 6(3): p. 535–550. [2] Carcach, C., M. James, and P.N. Grabosky, Homicide & older people in Australia. Trends & Issues in Crime & Criminal Justice, 1998(96): p. 1–6. [3] Benbow, S.M., S. Bhattacharyya, and P. Kingston, Older adults and violence: an analysis of Domestic Homicide Reviews in England involving adults over 60 years of age. Ageing & Soc, 2019. 39(6): p. 1097–1121.
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