Women’s eNews (U.S.),
February
17, 2010
Streets May Be Safer, But Relationships? Not
By Judith Spitzer
FBI statistics
show violent crime retreating, but it's impossible to say exactly
what's going on with domestic violence deaths because total numbers
are not tracked. Calls to state anti-violence coalitions, however,
suggest this crime is bucking the trend and getting worse.
PORTLAND, Ore. --The
homicide patterns of this city appear to be mirroring a national
trend.
Here, the Oregonian
newspaper reported recently that homicides in 2009 declined to
the lowest level--21--in almost 40 years, according to preliminary
FBI reports.
That stands in shocking
contrast to a recent spate of domestic violence that between Nov.
5 and Dec. 2, 2009, claimed 18 lives in Portland. Eight male suspects
committed suicide; seven women died in homicides; two young children
were shot along side their mothers; and an adult son died trying
unsuccessfully to protect his mother. In every case, the murder
weapon was a gun.
Like Portland, many
cities are proudly announcing falling crime rates. So are states.
FBI figures indicate
law-enforcement agencies throughout the nation reporting a decrease
of 4.4 percent in the number of violent crime offenses for the
first six months of 2009, compared with the same period in 2008.
The violent crime category includes murder, forcible rape, robbery
and aggravated assault.
Nationwide, FBI statistics
for 2009 show a 10 percent decrease in murders.
However, what FBI reports
didn't, and don't, track as a separate category, as it does with
so-called hate crimes, are the total number of domestic violence
homicides and suicides, including children and co-workers who
are caught in the crossfire.
The most recent data
available on the Justice Department's Web site are from 2005 and
indicate a slight uptick in domestic violence homicides that year
to a total of 1,510 intimate homicide victims. The Justice Department,
however, does not provide information on the total number of victims
in domestic violence homicides--including suicides, the children
of the victims and witnesses. Thus, no reliable measure is publicly
available to track national current trends.
However, telephone
calls to state anti-violence coalitions, backed up by calls to
the Washington, D.C.-based National Network to End Domestic Violence,
reveal a disturbing trend.
Violence Up in Many
States
Last year Utah had
one of the deadliest years in recent history of domestic violence
deaths. The Utah Domestic Violence Coalition estimates there were
27 domestic violence-related homicides in the state in 2009. In
2008, it documented 22; in 2007, 18; in 2006, 29.
In Wisconsin, there
were 36 domestic violence deaths in 2008; current figures indicate
59 deaths in 2009. Coalition members at Wisconsin's Coalition
Against Domestic Violence say it's the largest increase in homicides
they've seen in years.
In the District of
Columbia, there was one more DV homicide in 2009 (21) than the
20 homicides in 2008.
In New Hampshire, there
was a spike in domestic violence fatalities--suicides involving
husbands and wives--across the state, according to Maureen McDonald,
director of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual
Violence. "Domestic violence homicides account for 37 percent
of the total homicides so far this year," she said.
The Kansas Coalition
reports that 2009 saw 130 total homicides in that state. Of those
deaths, 34 adults and 14 children (under 18) were domestic violence-related--the
second-highest numbers since 1992.
In Maryland, 75 individuals
were killed in domestic-violence related crimes, according to
the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence, compared to 52
deaths in 2008.
In Pennsylvania there
were 198 domestic violence-related fatalities, according to the
Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence. "And that's
counting the victims, the perpetrator, children killed, anyone
involved that was killed," said Judy Yupcavage, the organization's
public policy and information manager.
In Philadelphia in
2009, two more killings are being investigated and are likely
to be added to the total of 35 domestic violence-related deaths.
Twenty-one of the 35 domestic homicide victims had made a total
of 178 calls to the police and some victims had restraining orders
against the individuals suspected or convicted of killing them.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the city's overall homicide
rate dropped 23 percent but domestic homicides were up by 67 percent--and
that's without counting suicides and other related deaths.
Why the Violence?
The reasons behind
the increased violence?
Brian Namey, communications
director at the National Network to End Domestic Violence, says
distress from the economy doesn't create batterers but has caused
an dramatic increase in both frequency and severity in "all
corners of the country."
"It's like pouring
gas on a fire," Namey said. "The economy doesn't cause
it but it can make it worse. There's a much higher demand for
services and funding has decreased."
Namey said shelters
and state coalitions across the country have been reporting dramatic
increases in not only increased homicides-suicides but also overall
more requests for services.
The National Network
to End Domestic Violence is asking Congress to restore the Family
Violence Prevention and Services Act budget, which was reduced
by $2.1 million in 2008.
A May 2009 survey published
for the Mary Kay Foundation found that 3 out of 4 domestic violence
shelters across the country sought an increase in assistance from
September 2008. In a poll of more than 600 shelters nationwide,
73 percent attributed the rise in abuse to "financial issues."
"Stress" and "job loss" (61 percent and 49
percent, respectively) were listed as contributing factors in
the reported increase in domestic violence cases involving women.
An increase in the
number of shelters reporting women seeking help because of domestic
violence since September 2008, according to the survey, broke
down as follows:
The region with the
largest reported increase was the South (78 percent);
The Midwest reported
a 74 percent increase;
The Northeast reported
a 72 percent increase;
The West reported a
71 percent increase
The survey also inquired
about the cause(s) for the increase in domestic violence cases
across regions. It found:
Seventy-five percent
of shelters in the West reported "financial issues;"
Approximately 66 percent
of respondents in the Midwest noted "stress;"
More than half of respondents
(53 percent) in the South reported "job loss;"
The "loss of a
home or vehicle" was reported more often in the Midwest than
other regions, with 44 percent; the Northeast had the lowest with
35 percent;
Reasons more commonly
associated with domestic violence, such as "substance abuse"
and "relationship challenges," also contributed to the
increase in domestic violence shelter assistance in each region,
according to the survey.
Judith Spitzer is
an award-winning journalist who lives and writes in the Pacific
Northwest. She is currently working on a book about police-perpetrated
domestic violence.
Back
to Top
Send
this page to a friend!
