A report recently released by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), “Femicide In New York City: 1995-2002,” found women are more likely to be killed by an intimate partner than a stranger. Foreign-born women are at the highest risk. The findings also show the number of women killed by their partners has remained steady, despite an overall decrease in female homicides from 1995-2002. Foreign-born black and Hispanic women are three times more likely than US-born African-American and Hispanic women to be victims of intimate partner femicide, according to the study. Youth and poverty are also named among the risk factors; “a disproportionate number of relatively poor women,” 61 percent, who fall in the under $34,000 income group are victims. Women between the ages of 20 and 29 are most likely to be killed by their intimate partner (34 percent). Carolyn A. Kubitschek, a lawyer and expert on domestic violence, highlights the shortage of domestic violence shelters. “One of the big dilemmas is where can these women go. There are still battered women who need a place tonight and can’t find it,” she told the New York Times. October was Domestic Violence Awareness Month, coordinated by the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, which works to bring domestic violence to the front of public debate. DONATE to the Feminist Majority Foundation and support its National Center for Women in Policing
Uncategorized
