Louisiana Ranks #1 in Rate of Women Murdered by Men According to VPC Study Released Annually for Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October

Louisiana,
with a rate of 2.53 per 100,000, ranked first in the nation in the rate
of women killed by men according to the new Violence Policy Center (VPC)
report When Men Murder
Women: An Analysis of 2007 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recent data available from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's unpublished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 Louisiana
were: Alaska at 2 with a rate of 2.44 per 100,000; Wyoming at 3 with a
rate of 2.33 per 100,000; Arkansas at 4 with a rate of 2.29 per 100,000;
Nevada at 5 with a rate of 2.23 per 100,000; Alabama at 6 with a rate
of 2.22 per 100,000; New Mexico at 7 with a rate of 2.21 per 100,000;
South Carolina at 8 with a rate of 2.04 per 100,000; Oklahoma at 9 with
a rate of 2.03 per 100,000; and, Arizona at 10 with a rate of 1.92 per
100,000. Nationally, the rate of women killed by men in single victim/single
offender instances was 1.30 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, 1,865
females were murdered by males in single victim/single offender incidents
in 2007. Where weapon use could be determined, firearms were the most
common weapon used by males to murder females (847 of 1,657 homicides
or 51 percent). Of these, 76 percent (640 of 847) were committed with
handguns. In cases where the victim to offender relationship could be
identified, 91 percent of female victims (1,587 out of 1,743) were murdered
by someone they knew. Of these, 62 percent (990 out of 1,587) were wives
or intimate acquaintances of their killers. More than 10 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.