Kristen Rand said numbers released in a Violence Policy Center study on women killed by men should alert everyone to the seriousness of domestic violence.
“And it shows how quickly it can escalate into something that gets out of hand and ends up in a violent situation,” said Rand, the Violence Policy Center’s legislative director.
Rand said the purpose of the annual study compiled by the Washington, D.C.-based center is to make people aware that the problem exists and something needs to be done.
“Often, it is hard for people to get their minds around this because they don’t believe it happens,” Rand said. “It does, and this study unfortunately shows it does.”
In the latest “When Men Murder Women” study, based on 2009 statistics, Alabama ranked second in the nation in the rate of women killed by men, at 2.64 women killed per 100,000. Nevada ranks above Alabama at 2.70.
In 2009, there were 64 women killed by men in Alabama.
Safeplace Executive Director Rachel Cabaniss said the numbers aren’t what anyone likes to see, but they are going down. Safeplace is a comprehensive domestic violence program in northwest Alabama providing shelter to victims of abuse and their children.
“If you go back and look at numbers from the 1970s, before domestic violence programs started, there were years where there were 115 to 120 women killed by men in Alabama,” Cabaniss said. “This shows that once (domestic violence) programs were started, they worked. The number of women killed by men started coming down.”
Ranked behind Nevada and Alabama in the study were Louisiana, Arizona, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, South Dakota, Hawaii and Missouri.
Carol Gundlach, director of the Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said Alabama usually is in the top five in the study each year.
“Being ranked second is not unusual, unfortunately,” Gundlach said.
She agrees the homicide rate has dropped drastically in the state since domestic violence programs such as Safeplace began educating the public about domestic violence.
“Plus, laws have changed that protect victims of domestic violence,” she said.
Gundlach noted that most of the states ranked in the top 10 on the list are southern or western states.
“It’s all states where people have ready or easy access to guns, and that’s not an argument for gun control,” she said. “It’s just easier to kill people if you have easy availability to weapons.”
The study points out there were 1,818 women murdered by men in 2009, and guns were the weapons used 52 percent of the time. Rand said of the 64 women killed in Alabama in 2009, 80 percent were killed by a gun.
Gundlach said the most dangerous time in a potentially volatile relationship is when the victim is trying to leave.
Cabaniss said victims must realize they are victims before the statistics can change.
“I’ve had people say their husband was not an abuser, just a controller,” Cabaniss said. “That’s the same thing, but not every victim knows it or wants to admit it. A lot of people don’t think they are being abused because the situation hasn’t gotten physical. When it gets to the point of being a physically abusive relationship, it can easily escalate to a homicide.
“When the abuser believes he is losing control, it can get dangerous and often does.”
Cabaniss said that proves studies like the one by the Violence Policy Center are needed.
“It’s needed to show people how bad the situation can be,” she said. “It helps us take a look at ourselves and look at what we are doing or not doing.
“When people see it happening to people they know, that’s when they realize there is a problem and they want to get involved.”
Cabaniss said when Safeplace opened 30 years ago, a study was done to prove there was a domestic violence problem in the area.
“People said no, there wasn’t a domestic violence problem,” she said. “But the shelter was full the first night it opened. In 30 years, we’ve served more than 50,000 people.”
Rand said domestic violence awareness has helped fight the problem but more needs to be done.
“It is getting better, but it seems like it’s just a long process,” she said.
“When the community takes it personal, that’s when we’ll see a drastic reduction in domestic violence,” Cabaniss said. “We have to make it a priority to prevent domestic, abusive situations.”
Tom Smith can be reached at 256-740-5757 or tom.smith@TimesDaily.com.

By the numbers
Domestic violence facts
1,818 women were killed nationwide by men in 2009.

In cases where the victim-to-offender relationship could be identified, 93 percent of the female victims were killed by a man they knew.

63 percent of the women killed by men in 2009 were either wives or intimate acquaintances of their killers.

Nearly 14 times as many women were murdered in 2009 by a man they knew than were killed by male strangers.

Women homicides in Alabama
2009 — 64
2008 — 50
2007 — 53
2006 — 52
2005 — 44
2004 — 41
2003 — 38
2002 — 42
2001 — 71
2000 — 38
Source: Violence Policy Center