Though the Laci Peterson case is shocking enough in itself, American Murder also highlights an alarming statistic about pregnant women that’s still relevant in the US today. While Scott Peterson is currently fighting for a new trial , he remains in prison for the 2002 murder of his wife Laci and their unborn son Conner. He was originally given the death penalty in 2005, but this was changed to life without parole in 2021.
American Murder: Laci Peterson examines the case in great detail, with the new true crime series featuring interviews from Modesto detectives who carried out the investigation, Laci’s family and friends, and a number of Scott’s relatives. Statistically speaking, in the case of a woman’s disappearance, their spouses or partners are suspect number one. But the risk is amplified when the victim is pregnant.
Sharon Hagan, a criminal investigative profiler, highlights the disturbing statistic in American Murder Episode 3. “With a low-risk victim such as Laci, who was very much a homebody, whose world was very small and condensed, the most likely person who will harm someone like her is her intimate partner,” she says. “And the statistics that we keep on homicide bear this out.
In fact, not only does pregnancy increase the risk of victimization for women, but it is the number one cause of death for pregnant women.” In 2022, a study was published on the matter, where researchers from Harvard T.H.
Chan School of Public Health found that US women who .