Increase in Intimate partner violence
Intimate partner violence and the murder of women are not new phenomena, but in the past few years, there has been an increase in violence toward women.
The study found that 89 percent of women were killed by someone they knew, with the most common weapon used being a gun.
In 2014, the rate of femicide reached a low of 1.08 per 100,000 women. Since then, the rate has increased, with a 2020s rate of 1.34 per 100,000 women, up 24 percent since 2014. Paraphrase Text
According to the report, in the United States, 2,059 females were murdered by males in single victim/single offender incidents in 2020, at a rate of 1.34 per 100,000. With nearly 9 out of 10 victims knowing their offenders, eight times as many women were murdered by a male they knew than were killed by a stranger.
Black women are impacted more by lethal domestic violence
Black women are disproportionately impacted by lethal domestic violence. In 2020, black women were murdered by males at a rate of 2.96 per 100,000. Three times the rate of 1.07 per 100,000 for white women murdered by men.
Racism and patriarchy are both systems of oppression that have created a dynamic for black women, leaving them vulnerable to domestic violence at alarming rates while remaining unprotected.
Economic independence plays a significant role in how women respond to domestic violence. Black women face a wider-than-average pay gap despite the fact that they are in the workforce at much higher rates than most women. Receiving a higher education is often a path to financial freedom. But even with this, it does not shield black women from the pay gap or the wealth gap. Black women are far more likely to pay for school with federal student loans than white women. After black women graduate, the effects of the gender wage gap and the racial wealth gap make it harder for black women to repay their loans, intensifying the strain on their prospects of economic security as they enter their careers.
With this, black women have a large gap in both the economy and how much they are paid. The consequences of this lead to less access to economic self-reliance, and opportunities to leave abusive relationships and/or home environments are diminished. With the added addition of race being a constant concerning factor in black women's lives, black women also feel unsafe to seek state protection even when experiencing bodily harm because of the fear of consequences of police interventions for themselves, such as being abused by the police, being arrested or killed, or even the same for their abusers.
91 percent of black women killed by men knew who their killers were, and black women are three times more likely to be killed by a man compared to white women. Patriarchal attitudes in black communities endanger black women's lives and harm their physical and emotional well-being. In fact, among young African American women between the ages of 15 and 45, murder by intimate partners ranks among the top causes of mortality.
Telling their stories
Khaliyah Jones was kidnapped at gunpoint by her ex-boyfriend, Cameron Hopkins. She was later shot to death inside Hopkin's car. The tragedy happened exactly one year ago When police said Cameron Hopkins kidnapped Khaliyah once before. Hopkins went on a high-speed police chase and shot at the police. When he was finally detained, Khaliyah was unfortunately found dead in Hopkins's car. Khaliyah’s mother said Hopkins had been threatening her daughter for years. Court records show that Hopkins was out on bond for similar charges of abduction just one year earlier. An error made by prosecutors may be responsible for this, in which they missed the time period to indict Hopkins. Khaliyah Jones's story is just one of many stories of black women and the turmoil of domestic violence.
Patrice Wilson was a Detroit Medical Center nurse when, on May 13, she was kidnapped after leaving for work outside of the Detroit hospital on a Saturday morning. Wilson was walking to her car after the end of her shift when she was kidnapped. The suspect, Jamere Miller, was wearing a blonde wig, and he came up from behind her and forced her into the car before stepping away. Her body was later found dead inside her vehicle.
Greg Hightower, an identified United States Navy recruiter, killed his wife while she was holding their child in her arms. Before the murder, NCIS agents were interviewing his wife, Takara Hightower, who was 34, in Atascocita, Texas, regarding a domestic violence investigation. During the investigation, Gregory L. Hightower, 37, opened fire, fatally shot Takara Hightower, and injured one other NCIS agent. Hightower managed to flee and was later shot and killed after he fired at deputies who approached him near a family member’s apartment on the northwest side of Houston. Police had previously responded to the residence as part of a domestic violence prevention call.
Even children are not safe at the hands of domestic violence; oftentimes, they become collateral in the ongoing battle between two partners. Wynter Nicole Smith was abducted the night of July 2, just before midnight. Police believed that she had been taken by Rashad Maleek Trice, who went to her home to take her mother. Trice went on a high-speed police chase in which he crashed into another police car and was arrested.
When the officers looked in the car, there was a car seat in the back, but Wynter was nowhere to be found. Trice is accused of sexually assaulting and stabbing his ex-girlfriend before kidnapping her daughter on July 2. Her body was later found on July 5 in a Detroit alley.
A father was charged with driving his family off of a cliff. A Utah man killed his wife and five children, and his mother-in-law, Brian Walshe, was charged with murdering his wife Ana Walshe after she was reported missing.
These are just a few of the many stories of women being murdered by their partners in 2023. Femicide, or the murdering of women by men, almost often current or past intimate partners, is expected to surpass prior years' rates in 2023. The United States ranks 34th overall and is responsible for 70% of femicide incidences among our peer nations.
GUN CONTROL AND FEMICIDE
A woman is five times more likely to be murdered by an abusive partner when the abuser has access to a gun. While domestic violence affects both women and men worldwide, it disproportionately harms American women when it involves a handgun. American women make up about 92% of all women killed by firearms in high-income nations, and they are 21 times more likely to be shot and killed.
Federal law does not mandate that weapons that abusers already possess be taken away when they are made illegal. Instead, states establish their own removal processes. The lack of such prohibitions in all states, however, gives abusers several opportunities to keep their firearms. While some states take responders' firearms, others demand that abusers surrender their weapons within a set time frame.
While some states permit the removal of firearms from abusive spouses, this rarely applies to abusive dating partners unless the victim has children with the abuser or has cohabited with him or her. Despite the fact that statistics indicate that stalking is a risk factor for femicide and attempted femicide, federal law does not forbid domestic abusers with minor stalking convictions from acquiring or having weapons.
Ways to Prevent Femicide
Providing A unified response to femicide policies needs to be enacted to combat violence against women and specific measures to prevent femicide.
Increasing the effectiveness of legal responses Femicide should be treated as a separate criminal offense. This requires developing investigation protocols for law enforcement professionals as well as prosecutorial rules.
Improving data gathering on femicide cases Data is an essential tool for determining the scope of the occurrence and designing and monitoring prevention and response strategies.
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