Domestic Violence Stats Show Almost Half Of Women Murdered By Men Are Killed By Their Partners

New Stats Reveal Shocking Fact About Those Who Murder Women
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New statistics revealed by a campaign group show a harrowing trend - 46% of women killed by men are murdered by their boyfriends, husbands or exes.

The Femicide Census was unveiled by Women's Aid on Thursday chronicling all the cases of femicide - women killed for being female - in the UK.

Some definitions of femicide consider the killing to be carried out on women simply because they are female, while others include various factors.

We know femicide is a huge problem in other parts of the world, but these figures show how often it happens within our borders

"On average, two women per week are killed by a partner or ex-partner," Polly Neare, the chief executive of Women's Aid said.

"We need to know what happened to these women before their deaths - for example if there were previous reports of domestic violence, if they have had previous contact with the police or other agencies, but the warning signs were not picked up on.

"We are launching the Femicide Census to identify common themes so that we can learn from them, and so that we can reduce deaths by working with all relevant agencies and professionals to better protect women."

Several years of work by Ingala Smith have shown a rise in the number of femicides over the past few years, as shown by data on nearly 700 women killed between 2009 and 2013.

"Through naming the women and including pictures I'm trying to make the horror of what is happening feel more real.

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"I want it to be upsetting – this should be absolutely shocking.

"I want us to stop seeing these killings as isolated incidents and to see the connections and patterns because you cannot solve a problem unless you understand it."

The study also shows 6% of femicides are carried out by women's sons, with the most common methods being knife, blunt object or strangulation.

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