Sororicides in Ghana: A Study of Homicidal Aggression Against Sisters

Sororicide has received scarce attention in the homicide literature. This is particularly the case for sororicide incidents occurring in the nonindustrialized, non-Western world. To help address this gap in the literature and extend the study of sororicides, the current exploratory, descriptive study examined the major characteristics of 18 media-reported sororicides that occurred in Ghana from 1990 to 2017, including the sociodemographic characteristics of victims and offenders, victim-offender relationship, incident location, modus operandi, motive, and criminal justice outcomes. The results show that sororicide represents a minuscule proportion of all homicides that occur in the country annually. Brothers were overwhelmingly the perpetrators of sororicide, accounting for 17 of the 18 killings. The findings indicate that a substantial proportion of the sororicides occurred in the context of disputes over money, land, property, or inheritance. Two brothers killed sisters they suspected of maleficent witchcraft.