Of more than 10,000 women killed between 2003 and 2014, the CDC
found that 55 percent were murdered at the hand of a male partner. Previous research found that only 5 to 7 percent of male murder victims died at the hand of a romantic partner, as The Atlantic notes. The report also found that about a third of female victims killed by their partners had recently been in an argument with them, and that 15 percent of victims killed by their partners were pregnant. Most of the murders involved guns.
There’s a clear humanitarian case for keeping firearms out of the hands of domestic abusers, since domestic abusers frequently use those firearms to kill their partners, who are often women. But it’s tough to get society at large to demonstrate that it cares much for women as a population. It’s tougher still to get society at large to give a damn about marginalized women. (Black women, by the way, are most likely to be killed by current or former intimate partners.)
Hurting women isn’t just a leading indicator for killing women. Domestic abuse is a warning sign for a host of other types of violence, from terrorism to mass shootings. Quite simply, research is showing that spousal abuse isn’t a private matter that exists within the walls of a home. Leaving it unchecked is dangerous to society at large.