Nevada has nation’s 4th highest rate for intimate murder of women

Nevada, which consistently ranks low among states with good attributes and high when it comes to dubious distinctions, has the fourth-highest rate in the United States of intimate murders of women — cases in which a current or former partner becomes a predator.  

The state has the fourth highest rate in the nation of women killed by men (2.03 for every 100,000 females) behind Alaska (3.96), Louisiana (2.64) and Arkansas (2.23).

The Violence Policy Center’s annual report “When Men Murder Women” says 30 females were murdered by men in Nevada in 2017, the last year of available statistics. In all but three cases, authorities established the women knew their attacker.  Of the 27 victims who had a relationship with their attacker, 56 percent were wives, ex-wives or girlfriends of their assailants, the report says.   

The average age of the female victims in Nevada was 34.  Nineteen were white, eight were black, and three were Asian or Pacific Islander, according to the report. Guns were used in more than half of the cases in which a weapon could be identified.  

Intimate murders in the U.S. declined 18 percent between 1996 and 2014 but increased 19 percent between 2014 and 2017, according to the study. 

The report refers to a 2003 study indicating women who are in or leaving abusive relationships and fear for their safety often consider acquiring a gun, but are in fact tripling their risk of being murdered by doing so.  

The Violence Policy Center says victims of intimate murder are more likely to be murdered with a firearm than all other means combined, concluding that “the figures demonstrate the importance of reducing access to firearms in households affected by IPV [intimate partner violence].”