When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2004 Homicide Data

The Violence Policy Center (VPC) today released "When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2004 Homicide Data". This annual report details national and state-by-state information on female homicides involving one female murder victim and one male offender. The VPC releases the study each year to coincide with Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October. In 2004, according to the most recent data available from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's unpublished Supplementary Homicide Report, firearms were the most common weapon used by males to murder females (811 of 1,663 homicides or 49 percent). Of these, 72 percent (582 of 811) were committed with handguns. In cases where the victims knew their offenders, 62 percent of female homicide victims (966 of 1,563) were wives or intimate acquaintances of their killers. Alaska ranks first in the nation in the rate of women killed by men. Ranked behind Alaska are: New Mexico, Wyoming, Louisiana, Nevada, South Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Tennessee (see chart below). Nationally, the rate of women killed by men in single victim/single offender instances was 1.29 per 100,000.

VPC Legislative Director Kristen Rand states, "These numbers should serve as a wake-up call to the states with the highest rates of female homicide that more needs to be done to protect women."