Increasing emotional dysfunctions and poor coping skills may be behind the rising trend in cases of women committing or fostering the murder of their husbands, said mental health experts. 

There is a rise in cases of intimate partner violence, especially those involving the female partner. From a planned honeymoon killing in Meghalaya to a dismembered body found sealed in a cement drum in Meerut, the wave of husband murders has sparked a fierce debate on the mental status of the women committing these ghastly murders.

“These crimes are not to be viewed as aggressor being men or women rather these are to be viewed as human tragedies resulting from emotional dysfunctions, unhealthy coping skills and impaired cognitions and judgement,” Dr Shiv Prasad, professor, and head, Dept of Psychiatry at Lady Hardinge Medical College in New Delhi.