This is the last week of October and the last week of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, with that in mind we’re focusing are article on Oklahomans killed in domestic violence incidents. Often when we hear in the news about women killed in homicides, we don’t hear the context, that the situation is the end results of a long domestic violence situation. If we did, perhaps victims would understand that domestic violence often ends in death, not in the perpetrator “changing” their behavior and being the person, the victim hoped or believed they could be.
Number of Oklahomans killed in domestic violence incidents jumps 16%
By:Barbara Hoberock-February 20, 202512:58 pm
OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma domestic violence homicides hit a record high in 2023, according to figures released Thursday.
Domestic homicide numbers increased 16% from the prior year with a total of 121 victims, according to numbers released by the Oklahoma Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board.
The board works to reduce the number of domestic violence-related deaths by identifying gaps in prevention and protection systems.
It began collecting data in 2002.
“Tragically, domestic violence deaths have been on the rise in Oklahoma, especially across the last five years,” said Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond. “We must continue strengthening our statewide efforts to hold abusers accountable and to provide protection and support for victims in order to turn the page on this epidemic.”
Oklahoma averaged 115 domestic violence homicide victims annually between 2019 and 2023, up from an average of 90 between 2014 and 2018.
In 2023, 30 victims were killed in murder-suicides. Intimate partner violence resulted in 50 deaths.
Women comprised 82% of the intimate partner homicide victims.
Oklahoma consistently ranks in the top 10 nationally in women being murdered by men in single-victim-single-offender incidents.
On average, 59 children witnessed the violent death of a family member as a result of domestic violence every year, according to the board.
Please reach out if you have questions or need help, you’re not alone.
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