Conjugal Homicide

Compared to various forms of manifestation of violent crime, familial homicide has a special psychological, social, moral and cultural meaning, given both by the relations between the aggressor and the victim (conjugal homicide, maternal or paternal filicide, matricide, patricide, uxoricide, etc.) and by the prejudices to the familial institution. In this context, I shall focus on conjugal homicide and shall identify in scientific literature studies on aggressors and victims, the characteristics of the relations where violence occurs, as well as some risk elements. As for prevention, this is associated to the results of our own research regarding homicide and, implicitly, conjugal homicide. Thus, we have noticed that the results achieved within international research projects have had a significant scientific contribution for sociology, criminology, psychology and criminal law. In the following, I think that new directions of analysis of conjugal homicide should be outlined in Romania, able to ensure the development of effective social and criminal policies. For instance, the identification of etiological elements associated to the relationship between the victim and his/her aggressor helps us identify the types of risk in terms of perpetration of the crime (low, medium or high), as well as suitable social and legal protection actions.