At the end of this article about horrific killing of a woman and her daughter by her partner is this phrase which I am trying to understand?

[Italiangreyhound]

At the end of this article about horrific killing of a woman and her daughter by her partner is this phrase which I am trying to understand?

""".... a loyal partner, a loving mother and a hard-working deputy headteacher. She did nothing to provoke her violent death and everything to love and protect her children. Her loss can only be described as devastating to all who had the pleasure of knowing her.""

I understand that all kind words can be of use in the sense of letting everyone know how valued a person is and so in one sense I understand what it says. However, I am struggling to know what any woman could do to 'provoke' her own killing and in a sense why that statement, '...She did nothing to provoke her violent death ...' is necessary? Does that make sense?

Do people need to keep saying this of victims of violence or is the very fact it needs to be said in some way a horrific indicator that if that person were not the person they are that in some ways the terrible actions of another would be less terrible?

I agree this really grates. Its one of those phrases that would never be written about a man.

I just hope it was in some free, regional newspaper and that extract isn't from a national.

It's taken from the police statement about the case, so will be everywhere.

Thanks for replying JackNoneReacher and PatriciaHolm.

There are other phrases in other articles about different cases that have really grated too.

One article about a totally different case used the phrase that the man had 'warned' his wife or parter (prior to killing her), which I would have thought was better phrased as 'threatened'.

Yes infuriating. So if she had "nagged" or been unfaithful for example, would she have "provoked" her own death?

Isn't this a bit of a double negative situation?

Mintyy not sure what you mean?

I agree OP. I dislike this sort of language being used in these cases. it's unnecessary and feeds into the idea that there can be justification for a killing like that.

Provocation to lose self control is a defence that can be considered by a jury in a case of murder, and can be reduced to manslaughter if they find the actions of a reasonable person were enough to make the defendant do as they did.

At most all those things she might have done, if she hadn't been the perfect wife and mother, might have justified divorce.

Not fucking killing her, only life and death self defence is justification for killing someone.

And your right non of this crap would be put on an arrival about a man's murder.

article

By stating the she didn't provoke it, it almost implies that the default position is that the woman has provoked it, if that makes sense?

yes educated. that makes perfect sense. I agree.

Well people get reduced / pathetic sentences on the basis that they were somehow "provoked" all the time, so it stems from that.

I totally agree, and it is highly inappropriate for the POLICE of all people to be implying that women and children are frequently "responsible" for "provoking" men into brutally murdering them.

JackNoneReacher Wed 06-Nov-13 22:49:20
I agree this really grates. Its one of those phrases that would never be written about a man.

Really? You often hear how a man was the victim of an unprovoked fatal attack. In the pub or when out for the evening. This is not a feminist issue, it's a lazy use of English issue.

I agree with the OP that saying a murder was unprovoked begs the question "what, as opposed to the others who deserved to get murdered???"

What Brenslo said. "Victim of an unprovoked attack" is common usage.

Dh was attacked several years ago, quite randomly on the way home in broad daylight. At the time the police described it as an unprovoked attack, as opposed to a fight I guess.

It wouldn't be ok if dh had got into an argument with someone and been horribly injured or killed, just as it wouldn't be ok if a woman had an argument with her partner and was killed.

What an awful story .

Sleapyhead so sorry to hear about your dh. Hope all ok now.

Agree, unprovoked murder and unprovoked attach are different things.

YY to last two posts

It is lazy and used elsewhere.

however this man killed a child. However much people might argue that women "provoke" men into doing them serious harm, surely this is not normally levelled at chiildren?

sleepyhead yes and I'm sorry that happened to your DH.

Similar-ish situation with me, long time ago.

IME police aren't interested. It's a bastard. They should be better trained and look into everything properly. Met is my local police and they have so much form for awfullness it's not even funny.

I have seen similar phrases used about male victims, it's not just a female thing (although maybe it's more common with women victims?)

I'm sure I read or heard recently a male elderly pensioner described as 'did not deserve' or 'did not provoke' an attack. (Perhaps that is again the same lazy way of implying he was not a youth involved in a pub fight or something?)

I think this particular context sets it apart from men killed by strangers on the street. Uprovoked is quite a descriptive phrase when talking of a pub brawl or attack/assault by strangers - ie he was just minding his own business, he did nothing to to provoke the violence.

This was a woman, and her child, killed by her own partner. I think I get what Mintyy was saying. It should not even need to be said.

Agree its lazy use of English brenslo.

But I think its totally different when the media describes "victim of an unprovoked attack" in a pub or something which implies an attack by a stranger and tells us that it wasn't in the context of a relationship/disagreement.

Whereas killing your wife and child without provocation seems to imply that its possible to be reasonably provoked into killing your wife because of her behaviour.

I'll be looking out to see if I can see a true reversal of this eg "this woman killed her husband and child without provocation" However I think it would be more likely to read something like "this woman killed her husband and child in cold blood".

it is unneccessary.
was thinking the same when watching 'countdown to murder' this week. it was about a man murdering his partner and how it came to that.
an awful lot of victim blaming going on.