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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Domestic Violence At The Heart Of West Virginia’s Murders?

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Monday, October 26, 2009   

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - If you could stop domestic violence, you would stop a huge portion of the murders in West Virginia, according to the state's chief medical examiner. The office of the examiner, Dr. Jim Kaplan, has tracked the connection between the state's violent deaths and domestic abuse. He says one-third of the state's murders are tied to domestic violence. And, he says, according to a close analysis of one year's killings, maybe the worst part is what happens to children.

"There were minor children present at the actual homicide scene in about 32 percent of the deaths. These are 19 children that witnessed the death of their parents, or some important person to them."

Kaplan says they also discovered that most of the killers used guns. And, he says, in the year they studied closely, the situation with West Virginia's murder-suicides looks much the same.

"Of the murder-suicides that occur in our state, virtually all of them are domestic violence-related in one fashion or another."

Some critics of domestic violence advocacy say the problem has been exaggerated by the claims of women in divorce proceedings, and that men are victimized as often as women. Kaplan says he doesn't think that's the case, because in two-thirds of the murders linked to domestic violence, the killers were men, and that in those cases, two-thirds of the victims were women. He says the few women accused of abusing their partners almost never go on to homicide.

The analysis is being published as part of October's Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Anyone concerned about a domestic violence situation can call 1-800-799-safe.


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