Article: Nevada ranks first in domestic violence killings

BY MIKE BLASKY
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Posted: Sep. 20, 2011 | 4:17 p.m.
A report released Tuesday says Nevada had the highest rate of domestic violence killings of men against women in the nation.

The study looked at FBI statistics from 2009 in which one man killed one woman, a typical indicator of domestic violence. Nevada's rate of homicides per 100,000 people was 2.7. Alabama was second with a rate of 2.64 per 100,000 people.

The annual report was released by the nonprofit Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C., which has an anti-gun agenda. Their study ranked Nevada first in four of the last five reports.

William Sousa, a criminal justice professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said the report should be examined with some skepticism.

Because of the large tourist population in cities such as Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada's base population is actually much higher than census data indicates.

"If they're using the wrong base number, that (the high numbers) shouldn't be a surprise," he said.

Sousa pointed to states such as South Dakota, which tied for eighth in the study, which have very low populations.

Larger states, such as Texas, New York, and California, did not appear in the study's top 10.

Sousa said domestic violence is a nationwide problem facing many communities.

The study "does a disservice to some states, and in other states it makes it seem like less of a problem then it really is," he said.

The FBI does not recommend comparing states when analyzing its data.

"If the FBI is saying that about their own numbers, that should give us a sense of what the study really is," Sousa said.

But police take domestic violence seriously, although the crime is hard to prevent.

Nevada had its first Statewide Domestic Violence Fatality Review Summit last year, where Las Vegas police said they investigate about 25,000 domestic violence cases annually.

At the time, police said they had identified at least 110 high-risk offenders through a tracking program designed to monitor people more likely to kill their spouse.

Any recent efforts would not have been reflected in the report's two-year-old data.

Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.