Fracture variation in survivable versus fatal blunt force trauma associated with intimate partner violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global human rights issue that affects approximately 25% of women and 10% of men and is the leading cause of homicides of women worldwide. Multiple interventional studies have been conducted to screen for IPV; however, fractures associated with intimate partner homicide (IPH) have not been studied from a forensic anthropological perspective. Therefore, this study uses computed tomography scans of IPH victims (n=33) obtained from the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator to 1) classify and quantify perimortem craniofacial blunt force fractures, and 2) compare the IPH-related fractures to those associated with non-lethal IPV using previously published studies. The results indicate that IPH cases presented similarly to non-lethal IPV cases in that they were concentrated on the middle and lower face, but fractures were more frequent in the upper face and cranial vault in IPH cases. While IPH cases showed more fractures, they were not necessarily associated with extensive fracturing, as 75.8% of IPH victims had five or fewer fractures-the most common being comminuted and linear fractures, comprising 93.8% of IPH-related fractures. As IPV is significantly underreported, understanding the nuances of fracture patterns associated with IPH can help to aid holistic forensic investigations.