Nevada keeps high femicide rate

Nevada ranks sixth in the nation in the rate of women murdered by men. The state has placed in the top 10 of this list nine of the past 10 years. Last year was the one exception, when the state dropped to number 16.

Using FBI figures, the Violence Policy Center found Nevada has a rate of 1.83 homicides of women per 100,000 population. The figures are for 2012, the most recent year for which the data is complete. The VPC said in part, “The overwhelming majority of these homicides were not related to any other felony crime, such as rape or robbery. Nationwide, for homicides in which the circumstances could be identified, 85 percent of the homicides were not related to the commission of another felony. Most often, females were killed by males in the course of an argument between the victim and the offender.”

“Reducing domestic violence homicide is the responsibility of all Nevada's communities,” said Nevada Network Against Domestic Violence director Sue Meuschke. “As this report points out, women in Nevada are at a higher risk of being victims of homicide perpetrated by people they know and love. Much more must be done in our state to change this outcome beginning with common sense laws that keep firearms out of the hands of abusers. According to this report 70 percent of the domestic homicides committed in Nevada were committed with a firearm, much higher than the national average of 53 percent.”

In company with Nevada on this list are Alaska, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Arizona, Georgia and Tennessee.