“Home is the most dangerous place for women” worldwide, says UN. And in the US, Black women are most likely to killed by partners
The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) states that more than half of all female murder victims were killed by a family member in 2017. The study concludes that the home is “the most dangerous place for women.”
According to the U.N. research, about 87,000 girls and women were killed around the world by members of their family or “intimate partners.” This is about 58% of all female homicide victims.
The study was published on Sunday to coincide with the U.N. International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. The campaign sought to increase awareness about the statistics of gender-based violence around the world.
While it is important to note that most homicide victims are men, women are most likely to be killed inside their homes by relatives and/or intimate partners. 82% of victims of homicide initiated by family are women. For men, it is 18%.
“Women continue to pay the highest price as a result of gender inequality, discrimination and negative stereotypes,” UNODC’s executive director Yury Fedotov said in a press release. “Targeted criminal justice responses are needed to prevent and end gender-related killings.”
But the U.N. study states that while “countries have taken action to address violence against women and gender-related killings in different ways, by adopting legal changes, early interventions and multi-agency efforts, as well as creating special units and implementing training in the criminal justice system… there are no signs of a decrease in the number of gender-related killings of women and girls.”
According to a United States study by the Centers of Disease Control (CDC), 53% of all female victims of homicide were killed by an intimate partner, and Black women were the most likely demographic group to die at the hands of a partner. According to the study, 4.4 out of 100,000 Black women are killed because of domestic violence. Native American women followed with the second highest incidence rate at 4.3 out of 100,000.