Domestic violence against women is a serious problem in Russia. The main purpose of this investigation was to find out origins of crimes of violence in women.

A cohort of 25 females was examined by psychiatrists and forensic psychiatrists. All women had committed murders. Details of background, psychiatric and offending history were extracted.Each item was assessed with the help of descriptive statistics.

A research has been carried out on the basis of psychiatric and forensic psychiatric assesment of two groups of women who had a long history of violence by their husbands or partners. Clinical picture of their state was presented by depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, PTSD, drug abuse. The research has revealed two types of homocides. Women of the first subgroup displayed pathological altruistic motivation of murder of their children (4 females). Women of the second subgroup (21) had committed homocides of their husbands or partners whose violence towards women escalated in severity.

The research shows the necessity of domestic violence prevention by legal provisions and multidisciplinary research with participation of psychiatrists, psychologists, human rights advocates.