DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FATALITIES
July 1, 2020 – June 20, 2021
As we do each October in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, ICADV acknowledges those individuals who have lost their lives due to intimate partner violence. This is the 2nd year that we will mark this month under the cloud of the COVID-19 pandemic and the struggles and barriers it has added to our already challenging work to end intimate partner violence. Domestic violence service providers know without a shadow of a doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic led to a drastic increase in intimate partner violence and intimate partner violence-related fatalities. From July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021, ICADV recorded 98 intimate partner violence-related fatalities, an increase of 181% over the same time period of 2019-2020. And we must also acknowledge that these 98 are only the ones that we know about. With limited sources, and knowing that intimate partner violence fatalities are often misidentified if identified at all, we know that there were more than what we recorded. When you consider that the average number of IPV-related fatalities had remained static for at least a decade prior, this spike can be safely categorized as another consequence of the pandemic.
There was another spike seen within these 98 fatalities of 2020/21; death by firearm. It is already a known fact that the presence of a firearm in a home where there is intimate partner violence greatly increases the likelihood of a fatality. However, where firearms typically account for roughly 67% of intimate partner violence-related fatalities in Indiana, that number rocketed to 98% this year with only 2 of the 98 fatalities involving another means of injury.
Please view and share this year’s infographic.
