Article: Domestic violence deaths jump in '09

Report » Six die in dating relationships; 21 by a firearm
By Lindsay Whitehurst
The Salt Lake Tribune

Salt Lake Tribune
Updated:01/09/2010 09:40:48 PM MST

The number of domestic violence-related deaths in 2009 jumped from 2008, but the number of people killed is still lower than totals in recent years, according to a new report released by the Utah Domestic Violence Council.
"Over the years, it appears we're in kind of an up and down cycle," said Judy Kasten Bell, the council's executive director. "There's no real reason that we can attribute to the rise from last year."
Twenty-seven people died in 2009, compared with 22 the year before. The slumping economy could be a factor, she said, with trying times pushing already-unhealthy relationships to the brink.
"The economy isn't creating any more domestic violence and causing more death, but it is exacerbating already existing situations," she said. The 2009 total, however, is below the 29 people killed in 2006 and 33 in 2005.
The report, gathered from public sources like newspapers and electronic media, counts domestic violence-related homicides and suicides.
Relationship violence seems to be starting long before marriage, Kasten Bell said. Last year, three people were killed and three committed suicide in dating relationships, including a 17-year-old boy who shot himself after holding his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend at gunpoint in the Valley Fair Mall parking lot. She was not injured.
Also killed was 23-year-old Brittany Nichols, stabbed by her live-in boyfriend, Johnny Maurice Bell.
"Seventeen, 23, those are very young ages," Kasten Bell said.
To combat domestic violence, communities, neighborhoods and churches should talk about factors that make a healthy relationship, she said. Showing interest about a relationship by asking if a person feels happy and safe can make a victim feel more comfortable to speak up and seek help in abusive situations.
"If we don't talk about it and shut our eyes to the fact that very unhealthy relationships are in our community, we're going to see this continue," she said.
The total also includes violence unrelated to romantic relationships, including the February death of 45-year-old Jeffery Ackerman at the hands of his nephew after both used drugs, and the August slaying of Marvin Sidwell, 51, by his brother-in-law, Steven Strate, during a fight.
Both men were killed by guns; 21 of the 27 domestic violence deaths in 2009 involved use of a firearm.
"That has us very concerned," Kasten Bell said. "It would be interesting to take a better look at. Are weapons of use more easily available and that's why a death is taking place instead of injuries, which are also terrible?"
lwhitehurst@sltrib.com
Domestic violence-related deaths
2008 » 22
2007 » 18
2006 » 29
2005 » 33
2004 » 23