Nevada Ranks #1 in Rate of Women Murdered by Men for Second Year in a Row According to VPC Study Released Annually for Domestic

For
the second year in a row, Nevada, with a rate of 3.27 per 100,000, ranked
first in the nation in the rate of women killed by men according to the
Violence Policy Center (VPC) report When
Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2006 Homicide Data. The annual
VPC report details national and state-by-state information on female homicides
involving one female murder victim and one male offender. The study uses
the most recent data available from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's
unpublished Supplementary Homicide Report and is released each year to
coincide with Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October.

Ranked behind Nevada
were: South Carolina at 2 with a rate of 2.84 per 100,000; Alabama at
3 with a rate of 2.20 per 100,000; Oklahoma at 4 with a rate of 2.10 per
100,000; Louisiana at 5 with a rate of 1.97 per 100,000; Vermont at 6
with a rate of 1.90 per 100,000; Texas at 7 with a rate of 1.82 per 100,000;
Arkansas at 8 with a rate of 1.74 per 100,000; Arizona at 9 with a rate
of 1.72 per 100,000; and, Tennessee at 10 with a rate of 1.70 per 100,000.
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 findings alarmingly demonstrate how domestic
violence can escalate to homicide. More resources need to be made available
to protect women and prevent such tragedies."

Nationwide, 1,836
females were murdered by males in single victim/single offender incidents
in 2006. Where weapon use could be determined, firearms were the most
common weapon used by males to murder females (907 of 1,675 homicides
or 54 percent). Of these, 73 percent (666 of 907) were committed with
handguns. In cases where it could be determined if the victim knew her
killer, 92 percent of female victims (1,572 out of 1,701) were murdered
by someone they knew. Of these, 60 percent (949 out of 1,572) were wives
or intimate acquaintances of their killers. More than 12 times as many
females were murdered by a male they knew than were killed by male strangers.
In 88 percent of all incidents where the circumstances could be determined,
the homicides were not related to the commission of any other felony,
such as rape or robbery.