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| Former NFL player Rae Carruth and his murdered girlfriend Cherica Adams, who was pregnant at the time of the shooting. |
Black females murdered by men are most often killed with a gun, almost always by someone they know, according to new the Violence Policy Center (VPC) report “When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2008 Homicide Data” (https://www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2010.pdf). 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 The study uses the most recent data available from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s unpublished Supplementary Homicide Report and is released each year to coincide with Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October. According to the study:
o In 2008, 542 black females were murdered by males in single victim/single offender homicides. Black women were murdered at a rate more than two and a half times higher than white women: 2.74 per 100,000 versus 1.02 per 100,000. Ten percent of black female victims were less than 18 years old.
o Firearms–especially handguns–were the most common weapon used by males to murder black females in 2008. For the 486 homicides where the murder weapon could be identified, 58 percent of black female victims (283 victims) were shot and killed with guns. Of these, 77 percent (217 of 283) were killed with a handgun.
o Where the relationship could be determined, 92 percent of black females killed by males in single victim/single offender incidents knew their killers (445 of 482). Twelve times as many black females were murdered by a male they knew (445 victims) than were killed by male strangers (37 victims) in single victim/single offender incidents in 2008.
o The number of black females shot and killed by their husband or intimate acquaintance (158 victims) was more than four times as high as the total number murdered by male strangers using all weapons combined (37 victims) in single victim/single offender incidents in 2008.
o The overwhelming majority of homicides of black females by male offenders in single victim/single offender incidents in 2008 were not related to any other felony crime. Most often, black females were killed by males in the course of an argument–most commonly with a firearm. In 2008, for the 433 homicides in which the circumstances between the black female victim and the male killer could be identified, 86 percent (374 out of 433) were not related to the commission of any other felony.
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.”
The study also ranks each state by its rate of total female homicide for females of all races involving one female murder victim and one male offender. Nevada, with a rate of 2.96 per 100,000, ranked first in the nation in the rate of women killed by men. Ranked behind Nevada were: Vermont at 2 with a rate of 2.54 per 100,000; Alabama at 3 with a rate of 2.07 per 100,000; North Carolina at 4 with a rate of 2.05 per 100,000; Tennessee at 5 with a rate of 1.97 per 100,000; Texas at 6 with a rate of 1.72 per 100,000; Arkansas at 7 (tie) with a rate of 1.71 per 100,000; Missouri at 7 (tie) with a rate of 1.71 per 100,000; South Carolina at 9 with a rate of 1.69 per 100,000; and, Georgia at 10 with a rate of 1.66 per 100,000. Nationally, the rate of women killed by men in single victim/single offender instances was 1.26 per 100,000.
