Longitudinal Epidemiological and Forensic Study of Intimate Partner Homicide in South South Nigeria

Intimate partner homicide represents the most lethal end of the domestic violence continuum and demands rigorous forensic and epidemiological investigation to identify risk patterns, prevention leverage points, and systemic criminal justice failures. This doctoral study conducts a longitudinal epidemiological and forensic analysis of intimate partner homicide in the South South geopolitical zone of Nigeria over a fifteen-year period from 2009 to 2024. A mixed-methods longitudinal design was employed, systematically extracting data from 240 intimate partner homicide case files from coroners' courts and high courts across Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, and Rivers States, linking forensic pathology findings with sociodemographic, relational, and criminal history variables, and applying survival analysis and logistic regression to model risk factors and identify escalation pathways. In-depth qualitative analysis of thirty case narratives examined perpetrator motivation, victim help-seeking behaviour prior to death, and systemic intervention opportunities. Findings demonstrate a significant increase in intimate partner homicide incidence between 2019 and 2024, concentrated in urban centres within Delta and Rivers States. Blunt force trauma and sharp force injury constituted the predominant pathological causes, accounting for seventy-one percent of deaths. Prior police contact for domestic violence was documented in forty-four percent of cases without protective intervention. The study makes original epidemiological and forensic contributions and proposes an evidence-based Intimate Partner Homicide Risk Assessment Tool for use by Nigerian law enforcement. Keywords: intimate partner homicide, epidemiology, forensic pathology, South South Nigeria, domestic violence.