For the first time since national researchers began tracking data in 1996, South Carolina is no longer in the top 10 on the list of states where women are killed by men at high rates.
With 44 women murdered by men in 2018, the most recent year for which federal data is available, Palmetto State ranks 11th in the country, according to the annual report “When Men Kill Women”, published on Wednesday .
“I have very cautious optimism,” said Sara Barber, executive director of Coalition SC against domestic violence and sexual assault. “I hope this is the beginning of us continuing to fall.”
With 1.68 in every 100,000 women killed by men in 2018, the state is still above the national average of 1.28. Alaska had the highest rate of 3.40, while Iowa’s six homicides gave a rate of 0.38.
The Washington, DC-based Violence Policy Center has compiled the report annually for the past 24 years, using data from the FBI Supplemental Homicide Report on murders involving a single assailant and a single female victim.
And every year, South Carolina hovered in the top 10, taking first place four times. When the Post and Courier published its Pulitzer-winning investigation into the high tax rate in 2014, “Until death do us part,” state lawmakers vowed to reform the system. They enacted some additional protections for the victims, but committed to prohibiting low-level offenders from owning weapons.
For some, the standards are as worrying as the rates. Half of the deaths resulted from discussions between the victim and his killer. Almost all of the victims – 98 percent – knew their killers, and more than half had romantic relationships.
Among the dead was Tennille Grant, a 41-year-old woman from North Charleston who was fatally stabbed in the neck in April 2018, allegedly by an ex-boyfriend who harassed, harassed and abused her. Also killed was 52-year-old Silvia Flores, another woman from Charleston County who was shot dead at her home in May of that year by an ex-boyfriend who later led the police in a high-speed chase before killing himself. And there was Rashad Patton, 37, who was shot by her husband during a suicide-murder at her Berkeley County home in November 2018.
This year’s report highlighted a national disparity: black women are three times more likely to be killed by men than white women, making up 14% of the population, but 32% of the 2018 homicides included in the 2018 data. Black women have nine times more likely to be murdered by an acquaintance than by strangers, and intimate partner violence is the leading cause of premature death for black women aged 15 to 44.
It’s a worrying statistic, but not surprising, said Jada Charley, president of SAFE Homes Rape Crisis Coalition.
“The fear in the African American community is that any type of criminal law or criminalization affects us disproportionately,” said Charley. “I think African American victims across the country are afraid to call the police. They fear for their own safety, they are afraid of not being believed, they are afraid of what happens involving the criminal justice system, they are afraid that they or their partners can be murdered by law enforcement. “
The solution, she says, is to focus on local support programs that understand the needs of their community and help victims without relying on assistance from the justice system.
For My Sister’s House CEO, Tosha Connors, this means addressing violence before it even becomes physical. Since the start of the pandemic, online counseling and other services have helped them reach victims who would be at increased risk of abuse if they left their attackers in a shelter. Survivors in marginalized communities often have to deal with the expectation that they will be loyal and independent, she said, making it difficult to seek mental help that could help them escape a relationship safely.
South Carolina met to reduce its death toll in late 2014 in reaction to the Post and Courier series “Until death do us part”, which revealed that more than 300 women were killed in domestic violence over a decade, while state lawmakers have done little to stem the bloodshed. In the following year, several legislative measures were enacted, including tougher penalties for offenders. So-Gov. Nikki Haley also appointed a state task force to study deaths from domestic violence.
Other changes, including hiring and training additional prosecutors to ensure that domestic violence cases are being dealt with properly in lower courts, did not take effect until 2016. And officials warned that it may take a few years for the state to see the benefits of these new measures. Proponents are hopeful that the slipping of their ignominious presence in the top 10 is a sign that the changes are beginning to bear fruit.
Talk to Sara Coello at 843-937-5705 and follow her on Twitter @smlcoello.