Louisiana :Women's Murders highest rate in U.S.

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2009/09/report_louisiana_women_get_mur.html

Report: Louisiana women get murdered at highest rate in the U.S.
By Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Times-Picayune
September 22, 2009, 12:00PM
More women get murdered by men in Louisiana than anywhere else in the United States, according to a new report by the Violence Policy Center.
While the national rate of women being murdered by men stands at 1.30 per 100,000, Louisiana’s rate in 2007 was 2.53 per 100,000, highest in the nation, the report says. In second was Alaska with a rate of 2.44 per 100,000, and in third place was Wyoming at 2.33 per 100,000.
The report drew its information from the FBI’s unpublished Supplementary Homicide report. The most recent data available is from 2007.
That year, men killed 57 women in Louisiana. Seven victims were less than 18 years old. Four victims were 65 years of age or older. The victims’ average age was 36, according to the report.
Thirty-four of the victims died from gunshot wounds. Six were stabbed or cut to death; two were clubbed to death; and six were beaten to death.
"These findings alarmingly demonstrate how domestic violence can escalate to homicide," the center’s Legislative Director Kristen Rand said in a news release. "More resources need to be made available to protect women and prevent such tragedies."

Louisiana Family Violence Program

http://gov.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=pagebuilder&tmp=home&cpID=191


FAMILY VIOLENCE PROGRAM GENERAL OVERVIEW
Since 1979, the Governor’s Office on Women’s Policy – or its predecessor agency – has administered grants to public and private non-profit organizations through its Family Violence Program. Service providers statewide and the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence (LCADV) provide a variety of services to victims of family violence – mostly women and children. Services include emergency shelter, crisis intervention, advocacy, coordination of services, information and referral systems advocacy, community education and public awareness, emergency transportation, safety planning, crisis line, legal advocacy and children’s services. The focus of programs supported by family violence funds in Louisiana is primarily shelter services/alternative housing. Emergency shelters provide 24-hour residential services for women and their children. Many shelters offer transitional housing or transitional living situations. Shelters have nonresidential programs that provide individual and group counseling, support groups for women and their children and referral to shelter. They also provide emergency assistance/crisis counseling through 24-hour crisis lines, case management, information and referral, legal advocacy and educational services.
Defining Domestic Violence:
Domestic violence is characterized as a pattern of coercion used by one person to exert power and control over another person in the context of a dating, family or household relationship.* Domestic violence happens to people of all ages, races, ethnicities and religions. It occurs in both opposite-sex and same-sex relationships. Economic or professional status does not indicate domestic violence. *Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network
Family Violence: A Societal Ailment
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 50 percent of all women will experience physical violence in an intimate relationship and for 24 to 30 percent of those women the battering will be regular and on-going. Ninety-Five percent of all violence victims are women.
July 1, 2007 - June 30, 2008: Data Points:
Number of women receiving domestic violence services: 10,411
Number of children receiving domestic violence services: 4,521
Number of teenagers/young adults served: 2,712
Number of elderly served: 154
Number of protective orders assisted: 4,334