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National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) | 1400 16 th Street NW, Suite 330 | Washington, DC 20036Phone: (202) 543-5566 | Email: advocacy@nnedv.org | Web: www.nnedv.org 

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: FATAL AND NON-FATAL VIOLENT CRIME AGAINST WOMEN

Every day in the United States women are killed or severely injured due to the lethal combination of domestic

violence and firearms. Abusers use firearms as their primary weapon of choice in domestic violence homicides andthird weapon of choice in non-fatal domestic violence assaults.i When abusers have access to firearms, not onlywomen’s safety, but their very lives, are in danger.

Homicides Against Women in the U.S.

  From 2002 through 2011, an average of 3,551 women were killed every year  in the United States.ii 

  Homicides have been the 3rd, 4th and 5th leading causes of death of women in the United States in the primedating ages of 15-19, 20-25 and 25-34, respectively.iii 

  In the United States, homicides have claimed the lives of twice as many white women as black women.iv 

Homicides Against Women in the U.S. are Most Often Committed with Firearms in General and Handguns in

Particular  Women in the United States are eleven times more likely to be murdered with guns than women in other

high-income countries.v 

  From 2002 through 2011, firearms were used to kill more than half of murdered women in the U. S. vi 

  In 2010, 52 percent of female homicide victims were killed with a gun. In 2011, 51 percent of femalehomicide victims were killed with a gun.

  Handguns are more likely than shotguns or rifles to be used by men who kill women. In 2010 and 2011,

handguns were used, respectively, in 70 and 73 percent of the cases where men used firearms to killwomen.vii 

Women in the U.S. are at an Increased Risk of Homicide When Abusers Have Access to Firearms

 

Nearly one-third of all women murdered in the United States are murdered by a current or former intimatepartner.viii 

  More than three times as many women are murdered with guns used by their husbands or intimate partnersthan are murdered with strangers’ guns, knives, or other weapons combined.ix 

  Homes with guns have a 3-fold increased homicide risk as compared to homes without guns. This riskincreases to 8-fold when the perpetrator is an intimate partner or relative of the victim. When previousincidents of domestic violence exist, the risk of homicide is 20 times higher.x 

   Abusers’ access to firearms presents substantial independent effects that increase homicide risks fordomestic violence victims. Abusers are often deadliest when victims wish to leave.xi 

Congress Is Urged To:

 

Demonstrate concern for this issue by holding hearings on the nature of women’s homicides in theUnited States.

  Co-sponsor S. 1290 which ensures that abusers who are prohibited from having access to gunsinclude abusers of dating partners.

  Support legislation that removes firearms from abusers at the time temporary protection orders aregranted.

 

Support legislation that fixes NICS and incentivize states to provide prompt and complete entry ofcivil and criminal prohibited purchaser data into NICS.

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National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) | 1400 16 th Street NW, Suite 330 | Washington, DC 20036Phone: (202) 543-5566 | Email: advocacy@nnedv.org | Web: www.nnedv.org 

i When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2011 Homicide data: Females Murdered by males in Single Victim/Single Offender Incidents, Violence Policy Center, Washington,

D.C., 2013, www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2013.pdf (and refer to previous annual When Men Murder Women reports); Truman, Jennifer L. and Rachel E. Morgan, NonfatalDomestic Violence, 2003-2012 , U. S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice statistics, April 2014,http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ndv0312.pdf.ii Homicide in the U.S. Known to Law Enforcement, 2011, U. S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, December 2013,

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/hus11.pdf . iii

Heron, Melonie, Deaths: Leading Causes for 2010, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health

Statistics, National Vital Statistics System Reports, Vol. 62, Number 6, December 2013, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr62/nvsr62_06.pdf.  For 2010, the year analyzed,only unintentional injuries, suicide, malignant neoplasms and diseases of the heart surpassed homicide as the number one cause of women’s deaths. Ibid.

 

iv http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_1_murder_victims_by_race_and_sex_2012.xls.v D. Hemenway and E.G. Richardson, “Homicide, Suicide, and Unintentional Firearm Fatality: Comparing the United States with Other High-Income Countries, 2003,” 70Journal of Trauma 238-42 (2011), available at doi: 10.1097/TA.0b013e3181dbaddf. vi Homicide in the U.S. Known to Law Enforcement, 2011, U. S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, December 2013,

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/hus11.pdf. vii When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2010 Homicide Data: Females Murdered by Males in Single Victim/Single Offender Incidents, Violence Policy Center,Washington, D.C.. 2012, http://www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2012.pdf ; When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2011 Homicide data: Females Murdered by males in SingleVictim/Single Offender Incidents, Violence Policy Center, Washington, D.C., 2013, www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2013.pdf . viii Rennison, Callie Marie and Sarah Welchans. 2003. Intimate Partner Violence 1993-2001. U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics. Washington, DC; WhenMen Murder Women: An Analysis of 2010 Homicide Data: Females Murdered by Males in Single Victim/Single Offender Incidents, Violence Policy Center, Washington, DC.,2012, http://www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2012.pdf ; When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2011 Homicide Ddata: Females Murdered by Males in Single Victim/SingleOffender Incidents, Violence Policy Center, Washington, D.C., 2013, www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2013.pdf;  http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide ix When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2010 Homicide Data: Females Murdered by Males in Single Victim/Single Offender Incidents, Violence Policy Center, Washington,D.C.. 2012,  http://www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2012.pdf; When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2011 Homicide data: Females Murdered by males in Single Victim/Single

Offender Incidents, Violence Policy Center, 2013, www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2013.pdf , (and see prior annual When Men Murder Women analyses). Additionally, handguns aremore likely than rifles or shotguns to be used in homicides in which men kill women. In 2010 and 2011, handguns were used, respectively, in 70 and 73 percent of the caseswhere men used firearms to kill women. Ibid. x Kellermann AL, Rivara FP, Rushforth NB, et al. Gun ownership as a risk factor for homicide in the home. New England Journal of Medicine. 1993;329(15):1084-1091xi J. C. Campbell, J.C.,Webster, D., Koziol-McLain, J. and et al., Risk Factors For Femicide in Abusive Relationships: Results From A Multi-Site Case Control Study,  AmericanJournal of Public Health, 93(7), 2013.