Approximately one quarter of all homicides are spouse killings (23.2%)

73.3% of spouse killings are men killing women.

26.7% of spouse killings are women killing men.

A history of domestic violence (almost exclusively male violence against women) was recorded in police files in at least 48% of all spouse killings.

A history of officially recorded violence occurred in 70% of cases which involved wives killing their husbands and in at least 40% of the cases of husbands killing their wives.

Nearly half (46%) of spouse killings by men were killings of women who had already left the shared home or were in the process of leaving.

(Source: Alison Wallace, "Homicide, The Social Reality" 1986, published by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.)

From GLW issue 70