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StumbleNevada’s rate of male-on-female killings tops nation
Metro Police investigate a shooting near St. Louis Avenue and Maryland Parkway that left an 80-year-old woman dead in this Sept. 24, 2009, file photo. Police said the woman’s 86-year-old husband shot her, then turned the gun on himself as part of a pact to end the couple’s suffering from health problems. The man survived the shooting but died later that year.
Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011 | 4:33 p.m.
Nevada ranks highest for women killed by men
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KSNV coverage of the increasing rate of women murdered by men, Sept. 20, 2011.
Highest male-on-female rate of killings per 100,000 residents
- 1. Nevada - 2.7
- 2. Alabama - 2.64
- 3. Louisiana - 1.99
- 4. Arizona - 1.92
- 5. Tennessee - 1.83
- 6. Georgia - 1.8
- 7. South Carolina - 1.79
- 8. South Dakota - 1.72 (tie)
- 9. Hawaii - 1.72 (tie)
- 10. Missouri - 1.7
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Nevada’s rate of women killed by men — more than double the national average — ranks first in the nation for the second consecutive year, according to a report released today.
Nevada has taken the unenviable top spot four of the past five years in the “When Men Murder Women” report released by the Violence Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that studies gun violence. This year’s report analyzes homicides from 2009, the most recent data available from the FBI.
Nevada’s homicide rate of women killed by men in 2009 was 2.7 per 100,000, according to the report. The national average was 1.25 per 100,000.
Alabama and Louisiana followed Nevada in the report’s homicide rate rankings.
Police say the gloomy portrait of domestic violence in Nevada, however, isn’t necessarily accurate now.
Metro Police Lt. Rob Lundquist of the department’s domestic violence detail said domestic violence-related homicides in Las Vegas have been decreasing since the report’s data were collected. There have been five female homicide victims related to domestic violence so far this year in Metro’s jurisdiction, he said.
“We’ve definitely had a substantial reduction in domestic violence-related homicides and also female fatalities,” Lundquist said. “We’ve taken a very active stance on it.”
The Violence Policy Center’s report studied female homicides nationwide in 2009 involving a single male offender and a single female victim. There were 35 cases that fit that description in Nevada.
Those included 26 in Las Vegas, six in North Las Vegas and one each in Reno, Storey County and Winnemucca, according to 2009 data used in the report.
Kristen Rand, legislative director at the Violence Policy Center, said the top states tend to have limited resources available to women in abusive relationships, as well as depressed economies and easier access to guns.
Explaining how the economy plays a role, Rand said: “What tends to happen is families get stressed. They feel like they have nowhere to turn.”
Even so, Rand noted that only “spotty research” has been done regarding factors contributing to homicides. The report’s findings, however, make it clear domestic violence is the underlying issue in many cases, with black women suffering the most.
Black women were killed by men at a rate almost 2 1/2 times higher than that of white women — 2.62 per 100,000 compared to 1.05 per 100,000, according to the report.
In most cases, the female homicide victims knew the male suspects, and arguments often preceded the slayings. Of those who knew the male suspects, 63 percent were wives or intimate acquaintances of the accused killers, according to the report.
The report also placed emphasis on the relationship between gun possession and homicide, stating that “a gun in the home is a key factor in the escalation of nonfatal spousal abuse to homicide.”
Nationally, 52 percent of the homicides studied for the report involved a firearm as the weapon, officials said. In Nevada, 50 percent of the women in 2009 were killed by guns, 80 percent of which were handguns.
“Nevada has a much stronger gun culture than, say, California,” Rand said. “You just have more guns in circulation.”
Lundquist credited a community approach in recent years for the local drop in female homicide victims since 2009. He cited organizations dedicated to helping women escape domestic violence, such as Safe Nest and The Shade Tree, in addition to Metro’s own initiatives.
“Domestic violence takes a community response, and we have very committed people to do that,” he said. “I think that’s why we’ve seen those numbers start to decline, because the economy hasn’t gotten any better.”
Discussion: 7 comments so far…
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Seems to be a lot of data missing in this so called study. Two catagories doesnt get it. How about natives as opposed to movins or citizens vs criminal invaders vs temporary visitors.
This makes sense. This town objectifies women. They are seen a sex objects. The exploitation and lack of respect is what makes this town popular with males. It doesn't matter if they are "native" or "transplants", even the cops treat women as objects.
Wow Big surprise.
Men are the root of (most) evil.
Natural disasters are probably second.
There probably is some truth that some of the girls that flock here lack the self respect they need to find a nice guy and instead get hooked up with supreme jerks with a jealous, violent bent. I'm thinking Blu Griffith and the show girl he dismembered. I see a lot of good looking girls in this town on the arm of meatheads.
Perhaps the data is suggesting that if you're a woman and in Las Vegas (visiting or residing), that your chances of being injured or killed by a man are increased. I'm sure there are many contributing factors, i.e. drugs/alcohol and a general lack of intelligence on the man's part.
"Seems to be a lot of data missing in this so called study."
nez212 -- good point. But then that's common for most DV studies. I find it suspicious the article leads with a non-DV case, a suicide pact between despairing spouses. Hardly fits any reasonable criminal profile. Seems with the rates declining somebody was hard-pressed for a supporting case.
"...even the cops treat women as objects."
cnev -- newsflash: the cops here treat EVERYONE as objects. I know this firsthand.
"Men are the root of (most) evil...."
missd -- besides the "evil" moniker, your post makes absolutely no sense. Care to make another stab at relevance here?
"Perhaps the data is suggesting..."
dukeofdeath -- like all the other posters speculating here you completely ignored the preponderance of black women as victims.
Men and women have been killing each other since the beginning of time. Add in the factor of need for institutions like the Violence Policy Center for relevance and how the raw numbers can be spun, and their study may be as false as the Superbowl Sunday hoax from years ago.
"Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm --- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves." -- T.S. Eliot
Nevada is number one in a lot of bad catagories. You can thank all the Cali. transplants for that..
Wow Vegas is tops yet again on another bad list depicting this place as a dump? Shocking!!!!
I'd rather know where female on male killing lead the nation. I like wymmins with spunk.
I am so happy to report that although I could have been another statistic, I am alive. Many thanks go out to SAFENEST and METRO and AMERICAN SHOOTERS for teaching me how to safely own and operate my firearm. Every woman needs to own a gun and know how to use it to protect herself.
The comments posted in response to these articles are just too funny for words! So all of these rating agencies, government agencies, magazines, national polls - they ALL just make up stuff about Las Vegas! They ALL just, for some unknown reason, are skewing numbers, inflating information or just simply leaving it out because they all want to pick on Vegas? Really?
The same people who say these ratings are bogus or misleading comment every day on the rapes, murders, burglaries, suicides, drunk driving, blight, foreclosures, unemployment numbers, etc. but the minute that anyone outside of Las Vegas suggests this is a problem these people all jump up and cry foul. You can't be serious. I don't need a poll or a national study to tell me just how bad this city has become.
In the 90s when we rated as one of the most livable cities in America, one of the fastest growing cities in America, and one of the best new places to move to in America, I didn't hear any of you saying it was all BS.
Times have changed. You either do something about negative change or let it eat you for breakfast. Las Vegas is quickly turning back into the blighted washed-up gaming hasbeen it was in the 1970s and 80s and everyone's offended because we keep getting called out for it. Hm?
If the statistics of man killing woman were taken by city, rather than that of state, Las Vegas would surely top that list of all other cities in the nation. Probably three times or more than that of the national average. Having worked as a prison guard for nearly three decades at both Ft. Leavenworth and the Nevada prison system, I have read many a pre-sentence investigation report, and had candid one on one conversations with male inmates convicted of murdering their female spouse or companion. The type of inmates have ranged from that of an ex world boxing champion, to former business executives, to the neighborhood street corner drug dealer. They all have one thing in common. Each male was involved in some type of vice that here in Las Vegas is so much easier to become a part of than probably anywhere else in our country. There appears to be no available data on the percentage of these murders where the ultimate victim, the female, was involved in the illegal vices of her partner. However, it would be reasonable to say that a moderate percentage of women killed by their male counterparts were involved to some degree. In looking back through my personal archives, I had taken notes on many interviews with these inmates. Not surprisingly, sex and infidelity in 88% of my documents show that this was a leading "initializer" into these murders. In 92% of these cases, the man admitted he was cheating on his spouse or partner. Further details of these discussions showed that the female spouse or partner retaliated against her male counterpart by turning him into authorities for whatever vice that the individual man was involved in. This, in turn, prompted the man to take the ultimate act of violence against his wife and or partner. I don't see this number one standing of man murdering woman in Las Vegas ever changing. This will always be a town where the temptation to drink from the gold-rimmed glass overwhelmes common sense practices in a fair portion of people who reside in or visit Las Vegas. In an analogy, the bottom line is, describing that sparling, tantalizing, thirst quenching drink in that beautiful crystal gold rimmed glass? Once settled in your system, its nothing more than a toxic poison. The statistics of this study certainly prove this.