Throughout 2024, the Guardian aimed to report on every woman allegedly killed by a man, drawing on the work of campaigns such as Counting Dead Women, the Femicide Census and Killed Women.
In recent years in the UK, a woman has been killed by a man every three days on average, yet most of their stories have gone unheard. The Guardian wants to help change that.
This year, the toll of women whose deaths have led to a man being charged has reached 80. Here, we mark each of their lives.
None of these incidents are linked in any way other than that a woman has been killed and a man charged in connection with her death.
For context, in 2023, the US had 19,252 cases of murder or voluntary manslaughter. The US is projected to have a 16% nationwide drop in homicides in 2024 (“homicide” includes involuntary manslaughter, so it’s not technically one-to-one).
We’ll be really generous to murder and voluntary manslaughter and assume that those actually dropped by what would be a substantial 20% (even though it could be lower than 16% too). Then we have about 15,400 of these cases. Under that assumption (which I think is pretty reasonable as most likely a very conservative undercount), this represents about 4.5% of intentional killings in the US. To my understanding, the overwhelming majority is male-on-male. After that, I have no clue where female-on-female and female-on-male land.
(EDIT: That being said, it’s entirely possible and likely that this linked database is an undercount. Although overall, it seems pretty scrupulous; I doubt the size would increase by more than maybe 10% if it were to be complete.)
I can tell you with certainty that it is an undercount. It stops at the end of November. My cousin was murdered by her husband in late December. Not his first time physically abusing her, and despite him being booked this time last year for it, nothing was done. This is the result.
I’m so sorry for your loss. Restraining orders in this country are a joke.