UPDATE: Hattip to ontheleftcoast for suggesting I include a contact number for those who are living in fear of abuse:
1.800.799.SAFE (7233) 1.800.787.3224 (TTY)
Anonymous & Confidential Help 24/7
The Democratic party has made a lot of promises to women.
"We believe that standing up for our country means standing up against sexism and all intolerance. Demeaning portrayals of women cheapen our debates, dampen the dreams of our daughters, and deny us the contributions of too many. Responsibility lies with us all."
"Our policies will recognize that human rights are women’s rights and that women’s rights are human rights."
We agree. And that's why we're committed to making the Democratic party keep its promises. Join us.
UPDATE 2: Hat tip to Benintn for these additional super-helpful links for women in need:
Learn more at the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Find domestic violence hotlines in your area
Join the cause to stop violence against women.
Here in Portland, Oregon, area residents have been rocked by a pair of grim tragedies. Last Tuesday, Rob Beiser of suburban Gladstone pulled up to the Tualatin office where his estranged wife Teresa worked and shot her numerous times. After killing her and wounding two of her co-workers, he turned the gun on himself.
Two days later, the bodies of a family of three in Bethany, another suburban-Portland community, were discovered inside their home. It was determined that the husband, Mukesh Suther had shot his wife Varsha and their nine-year-old son, Ronak.
As genuinely shocking as events like this are, there is also a certainly feeling of familiarity when one learns that the perpetrator was the husband, or the boyfriend, or the ex. In my workplace (very near where the first incident took place), before we had any details about who had been shot and who had done the shooting, we were all concerned and horrified. Once we found out that the person responsible was married to one of the shooting victims, our horror was partially replaced with a kind of sad but familiar resignation, as though it was something we probably should have guessed.
Even as I noticed this, however, I wondered - Is that feeling of "oh, no, not again" really justified? Are we perhaps perpetuating an unfair stereotype when we think in such terms? I mean, I know it seems like I hear about men killing their wives, girlfriends, and ex-wives far more often than the other way around, but is that perhaps media spin distorting reality, as with the obsession with the "missing white woman" to the exclusion of coverage other equally or more urgent cases involving women of color? Is the prominent coverage of men killing their female partners really an accurate presentation of reality?
So I did a little research and found that it indeed is accurate. Very definitely, and quite sadly, accurate.
For example, here in Oregon, 46% of female homicide victims were killed by intimate partners between the years of 1997 and 2003. By contrast, only 4% of male victims died at the hands of intimate partners. The national numbers are pretty close to the same: a 2003study by the Bureau of Justice stated
1,247 women and 440 men were killed by an intimate partner in 2000. In recent years an intimate killed about 33% of female murder victims and 4% of male murder victims.
There are other sources that come to similar conclusions. In May 2006, the Violence Policy Center conducted an analysis of news reports of murder-suicides from January through July of 2005.
This VPC analysis reveals that, in the first half of 2005, there were 591 murder-suicide deaths, of which 264 were suicides and 327 were homicides. Using these figures, more than 10 murder-suicide events occur in the United States each week. Of the 264 suicides, 248 were male and 16 were female. Of the 327 homicides, 255 victims were female and 72 victims were male.
[snip]
In this study, 94 percent of the offenders were male. Other studies analyzing
murder-suicide have found that most perpetrators of murder-suicide are male—more than 90 percent in recent studies of the United States. Another study which only looked at murder-suicides involving couples noted that more than 90 percent were perpetrated by men.
The study goes on to say that "The most common type of murder-suicide was between two intimate partners, with the man killing his wife or girlfriend because of a breakdown in their relationship." In fact, intimate partners were involved in a whopping 74% of the murder-suicides from the study. And of those, 96% of the victims were women.
In fact, according to another Bureau of Justice report, "For every age group female murder victims are more likely than male victims to have been killed by an intimate."
Percent of all murders by intimates, 1976-2005
Male victims Female victims
-------------------------------------------------------------
12-17 -- 5%
18-24 2% 29
25-29 4 37
30-34 6 41
35-39 8 43
40-44 9 42
45-49 10 40
50-59 10 32
60+ 6 21
-- Less than 0.5%
Demographics beyond gender play a substantial role in the incidence of domestic violence, including murder by an intimate partner. The Bureau of Justice noted a variety of other racial, geographic, and economic factors that made that women more likely to suffer such a fate. Generally, women who were between the ages of 25-34, African-American, who were divorced or separated or in the process of ending a relationship, who had lower incomes, were living in rental housing, or lived in an urban area - such women were more likely to die at the hands of an intimate partner between
1993 and 1998.
Interestingly, though, more recent stats suggest a trend of falling rates of homicide by intimate partner for blacks across the board demographically, while rates for white women have not declined or have risen.
I say this is interesting because it is not clear to me yet what factors have sprung up between 1998 and 2005 to account for such a departure from the previously documented trends. Are there new factors in play? Is there some aspect of this type of homicide that hasn't yet been identified? This definitely will require more analysis.
Although statistics for income and housing situation were analyzed for non-lethal domestic violence, there were no similar charts compiled for incidents of intimate partner homicide. However, it was noted that adding the homicide figures would not have changed the overall findings, so I will include for illustration purposes some info regarding income and housing for non-lethal domestic violence by intimate partners.
Female Male
Home ownership
Owned 2.3 0.6
Rented 9.0 1.7
These last two factors are potentially very illuminating. While the most frequent stimulus for murder by an intimate seems to be the ending of a relationship or suspected infidelity, financial pressures and joblessness (and the resultant anxiety or depression) also seem to spur men to murder, or murder-suicide. In the case of the second murder-suicide case I mentioned here in Portland, the husband had lost a job recently, and preliminary news reports have indicated that he was worried about financialproblems.
At least onesociologist is predicting that the current economic landscape could be ripe for such bloodshed.
A 1998 study in the British Medical Journal found "the link between suicide and unemployment is more powerful that other socio-economic measures."
And as we all know, the current economic downturn is unlike anything seen in decades, with pressures on some people coming from all angles at once.
"From the individual's point of view, the loss of a job is certainly bad, but it can become much, much worse when it coincides with a loss of savings and investments, the loss of the family home (through foreclosure, for instance), and dismal prospects for finding another job soon," Blair said.
Of course, that's obviously conjecture made from a great distance. Blanket assumptions that are made in absence of the facts of individual cases are useless and often more harmful than helpful. Nevertheless, I'd say that the disturbing phenomenon of murder-suicide by intimate partners is one that certainly demands some greater in-depth study and analysis. We need to better identify the causes - what makes an abuser migrate from non-lethal to lethal domestic violence, or a seemingly non-violent person leap to murder? Are the poor economy and unemployment likely to increase the frequency of people "snapping" and murdering their partners and family members?
And once we have some answers to questions like that, we need to start figuring out ways to identify men in crisis and prevent stories like the recent ones out of Portland from being written. Because let's face it - lives depend on it.
The lives of women. And children. And men.
In later diaries, I'll be looking at the issues of homicide by intimate partner and domestic violence in general in greater depth and detail. And clearly, racial and socioeconomic divisions in domestic violence statistics warrant a diary of their own.
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Contributions to SheKos from men and women are welcome. Please email Angry Mouse to get on the schedule.