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Changed forever: Friends reflect on the impact of a woman’s death through intimate partner homicide
Patricia M McNamara
Lecturer, School of Social Work and Social Policy, La Trobe University, VIC
Abstract
Australian women killed by their partners have often been understood to come from backgrounds of poverty and marginalization. However, it has become clear that a number of more affluent women also fall victim to intimate partner homicide.
Notwithstanding their socio-economic status, it
seems that women victims of lethal violence lack the power to protest. This
paper describes qualitative case study research with middle-class women
friends of a victim of intimate partner
homicide.
These women are determined to 'give voice' to their friend; they explore how they relate differently now to issues of gender, power and violence within the family and in the community.
Keywords
intimate partner homicide, friendship, case study
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