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Offense

Uxoricide

Acts Leading to or Intending Death

The killing of one's own wife, a term also sometimes applied to the killing of one's own girlfriend, derived from the Latin uxor, meaning wife, combined with a suffix denoting a killer; the killing of a husband or boyfriend is termed the inverse, mariticide. United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show that uxoricide accounts for approximately seventy percent of all spouse murders in the country, with women making up the vast majority of victims in intimate partner homicide generally.

Facts
Notable Example
The 2002 killing of Laci Peterson by her husband Scott Peterson, who was later convicted of her murder, is a widely documented modern uxoricide case in the United States. 1
Jurisdiction Variation
Uruguay's criminal code once tolerated crimes of passion connected to adultery under Article 36, a leniency that was legislatively removed on 22 December 2017. 1
Classification
Offense Grade
Serious or Indictable Offense 1
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Uxoricide (Wikipedia)
  • Known or suspected examples, Laci Peterson entry
    Murder of Laci Peterson, 24 December 2002.
  • Uruguay legal reform section
    On 22 December 2017, Article 36 of the Criminal Code was modified to remove the crime of passion.
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