Theories play an important role in guiding intimate partner homicide (IPH) prevention research and practice. This study is the first systematic review of theories employed to explain why someone might kill their intimate partner. This review used rigorous methods to locate and synthesize literature that described explanatory theories of IPH perpetration. Using set search terms, we systematically searched 15 databases and repositories for theory-focused documents (i.e., theory papers or analyses) published in English from 2003 to 2018. Eighteen documents met these inclusion criteria and identified 22 individual theories that seek to explain why people might kill their intimate partners. These theories fell within four broader theoretical perspectives: feminist, evolutionary, sociological/criminological, and combined. Key tenets and focal populations of these 22 theories were identified and organized into a compendium of explanatory theories of IPH perpetration. Potential strengths and limitations of each of the four perspectives were described. Review findings underscored the likely importance of addressing gender as well as risk and protective factors at all levels of the social ecological model in efforts to understand IPH perpetration. The review findings highlighted the need for both integrated theories and a broader conceptual organizing framework to guide work aimed at IPH perpetration prevention to leverage the strengths of disparate theoretical perspectives. With the goal of informing future research, a preliminary iteration of such a framework is presented.

中文翻译：

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亲密伴侣杀人犯罪的解释性理论：系统评价。

理论在指导亲密伴侣杀人（IPH）预防研究和实践中发挥着重要作用。这项研究是对用来解释为什么有人可能会杀死他们的亲密伴侣的理论的第一次系统回顾。本综述使用严格的方法来定位和综合描述 IPH 犯罪解释理论的文献。使用集合搜索词，我们系统地搜索了 15 个数据库和存储库，以查找 2003 年至 2018 年以英语发表的以理论为中心的文档（即理论论文或分析）。18 个文档符合这些纳入标准，并确定了 22 个试图解释为什么人们的理论可能会杀死他们的亲密伙伴。这些理论属于四个更广泛的理论观点：女权主义、进化论、社会学/犯罪学和综合。确定了这 22 种理论的关键原则和重点人群，并将其组织成 IPH 实施的解释性理论纲要。描述了四种观点中每一种的潜在优势和局限性。审查结果强调了在社会生态模型的各个层面解决性别以及风险和保护因素的可能重要性，以努力了解 IPH 犯罪。审查结果强调需要综合理论和更广泛的概念组织框架来指导旨在预防 IPH 犯罪的工作，以利用不同理论观点的优势。为了为未来的研究提供信息，提出了这样一个框架的初步迭代。