Article: Domestic violence declines but crosses many boundaries

December 31, 2009
AS PEOPLE reflect on the scandals and successes of a year past, the edges tend to soften and details become blurred in their memory. Each New Year’s Eve, on this page, we remember people in Massachusetts who died due to domestic violence. It’s an opportunity to bow our collective heads at the needless loss. But we also hope to sharpen the blurry picture of domestic violence left by the statistics and news snippets that follow each crime. The people listed on this page, most killed by close family members or intimate partners, remind us that the cost of such violence is, above all, a human one.

Many domestic violence deaths adhere to commonly held stereotypes. Most victims - in the state and nationwide - are women, and nearly all who kill in such cases are men. But it’s not only certain types of people who are victims or perpetrators of such murders. The deaths in Massachusetts this year show that violence plagues many kinds of domestic relationships, including those between parents and children and those of the elderly.

The number of such homicides in the Commonwealth - 22 as of this week with a possible 23d, in Mattapan, still under investigation - has declined from 39 in 2007 and 28 in 2008, which may be a sign that awareness and enforcement of domestic violence are improving. Nevertheless, the names here suggest that families, communities, doctors, religious leaders, politicians, and law enforcement officials can still do more. They can identify abusers at high risk for committing homicide, intervene in cases of abuse and in the treatment of known abusers, protect victims, investigate dropped restraining orders, recognize and report domestic violence, and improve data collection and analysis.

In memoriam

Deaths in Massachusetts in 2009 due to alleged acts of domestic violence:

Robyn Lague Mendes, 49, New Bedford
Katherine Gomes, 61, of New Bedford
Arthur Martin, 49, Pittsfield
Luz Forty, 38, Dorchester
Jose Fuentes, 27, Haverhill
Penha Quiterio, 67, Ludlow
Priscilla Walker, 18 months, New Bedford
Priscilla Friberg, 72, Topsfield
Maryse Antoine, 46, Waltham
Silvia Rosa, 44, Leominster
Edilize Cruet, 16, Lawrence
Linda Auger, 42, Braintree
Julius Scott, 74, Dorchester
Yuliya Galperina, 42, Salem
Rebecca Moulton, 27, Pittsfield
Ana Cruz, 38, Springfield
Kaitlynn Griffin, 6, Mansfield
Nettie Becht, 36, New Bedford
Luis Diaz, 43, Dorchester
Mary Beaton, 33, Quincy
Giselle Rodriguez, 23, Clinton
Jane Wyman, 86, Newton