Dear Readers: “When Men Murder Women” is a significant contribution to the understanding of domestic and intimate partner violence if you can get beyond the anti-gun rants of the Violence Policy Center.
Our other concern with the data is that rural states keep popping up in this survey and data from other sources (the Centers for Disease Control–upcoming article).
While domestic violence has always been associated with rural states, we always wondered how traditionally high crime states with high rates of child abuse did not make the lists for domestic violence and men murdering women.
Quite frankly, there is something going on either with methodologies or circumstances that we do not understand.
Crime in America.Net
When Men Murder Women is an annual report prepared by the Violence Policy Center detailing the reality of homicides committed against women. The study analyzes the most recent Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) data submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). See http://www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2010.pdf
The information used for this report is for the year 2008. Once again, this is the most recent data available. This is the first analysis of the 2008 data on female homicide victims to offer breakdowns of cases in the 10 states with the highest female victim/male offender homicide rates, and the first to rank the states by the rate of female homicides.
This study examines only those instances involving one female homicide victim and one male offender:
- In 2008, there were 1,817 females murdered by males in single victim/single offender incidents that were submitted to the FBI for its Supplementary Homicide Report. These key findings from the report, expanded upon in the following sections, dispel many of the myths regarding the nature of lethal violence against women:
- For homicides in which the victim to offender relationship could be identified, 92 percent of female victims (1,564 out of 1,694) were murdered by someone they knew.
- Twelve times as many females were murdered by a male they knew (1,564 victims) than were killed by male strangers (130 victims).
- For victims who knew their offenders, 64 percent (997) of female homicide victims were wives or intimate acquaintances of their killers.
- There were 278 women shot and killed by either their husband or intimate acquaintance during the course of an argument.
- Nationwide, for homicides in which the weapon could be determined (1,662), more female homicides were committed with firearms (52 percent) than with any other weapon. Knives and other cutting instruments accounted for 21 percent of all female murders, bodily force 15 percent, and murder by blunt object seven percent.
- Of the homicides committed with firearms, 71 percent were committed with handguns.
- In 86 percent of all incidents where the circumstances could be determined, homicides were not related to the commission of any other felony, such as rape or robbery.
- The study also analyzes available information on the murders of black females. Not surprisingly, these homicides mirror the trends for women overall: most homicides against black women are not committed by strangers, but by men known to the victims.
Rankings by State
In 2008, the homicide rate among female victims murdered by males in single victim/single offender incidents nationally was 1.26 per 100,000.
For that year, Nevada ranked first as the state with the highest homicide rate among female victims killed by male offenders in single victim/single offender incidents. Its rate of 2.96 per 100,000 was more than double the national average. Nevada was followed by Vermont (2.54 per 100,000) and Alabama (2.07 per 100,000). The remaining states that comprise the top 10 can be found below.
Ranking State Number of Homicides Described Above–Homicide Rates per 100,000:
1 Nevada
2 Vermont
3 Alabama
4 North Carolina
5 Tennessee
6 Texas
7 (tie) Arkansas
7 (tie) Missouri
9 South Carolina
10 Georgia
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