Two U.N. agencies say an average of 140 women and girls were killed by an intimate partner or family member per day last year

Summary

A U.N. report shows that 140 women and girls were killed daily by intimate partners or family members in 2023, totaling 51,100 victims, an increase of 2,300 from 2022.

The rise reflects improved data collection rather than an increase in violence.

The highest rates were in Africa, with 2.9 victims per 100,000 people.

Despite global prevention efforts, these killings, often the result of ongoing gender-based violence, persist at alarming levels.

The report emphasizes the preventability of such violence through timely and effective interventions.

  • @CitricBaseEnglish
    21•2 hours ago

    It’s a shame that this data is being presented this poorly, because this is a really important issue that deserves attention. None of the figures presented in the linked article have the proper context to understand them. Even the UN report itself does not present their findings well.

    So, for instance, 140 women per day is of course more than the ideal number of zero, but there are billions of people on this planet. To actually quantify the gender imbalance of this number, we need to compare it to the number of men who are victims in the same way. From the report:

    Globally, approximately 51,100 women and girls were killed by their intimate partners or other family members […out of…] 85,000 women and girls killed intentionally during the year […] In other words, an average of 140 women and girls worldwide lost their lives every day at the hands of their partner or a close relative.

    The report does not offer corresponding numbers for male (or non-binary) victims. It does, however, say that 11.8% of male victims and 60.2% of female victims are killed by partners or other family members. It also acknowledges that 80% of all homicide victims are men and 20% women, which is beside the point as this is about domestic violence, but it will allow us to do some math to arrive at numbers to compare against.

    • 85,000 * 80/20 = 340,000 men killed total
    • 340,000 * 11.8% = 40,120 men killed by partners or family
    • so we are comparing 40,120 men with 51,100 women
    • women are 27.4% more likely than men to be killed by partners or family.

    …which should have been the headline. 27% more is massive! Domestic violence is a huge issue, and women are more likely to suffer from it!

    There is no need to obfuscate the numbers to be less honest. The honest numbers themselves are shocking enough, and scientifically literate readers won’t dismiss your credibility along with your cause. I look forward to future UN reports communicating these horrifying statistics a bit more clearly.