“Missed it by that much”: A qualitative content analysis of social media discourse surrounding collateral intimate partner homicide

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been well-established among advocates, researchers, and public health officials as a pervasive and detrimental form of romantic abuse affecting millions of people in the United States annually. The reduction and eventual prevention of such harms requires a continuous examination of not only the individual and interpersonal dynamics which create and sustain abuse but also how said dynamics are cultured within and maintained by larger communal and social systems. Abuse ending in the death of an intimate partner committed by a firearm is an outcome for women, specifically, that is growing at an alarming rate. This research examines audience responses to news stories about the intimate partner homicide (IPH) of a female Iowa State student, which also claimed the life of a bystander, to better understand how members within communal and social systems framed conditions of abuse and assigned blame relevant to their deaths. A qualitative content analysis of user comments and replies to local news media articles on Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit identified ways in which user discourse constructed and negotiated abuse experiences and victimhood amidst the heightened threat of firearm use within romantic relationships.