Charlotte and Mecklenburg County like to set records. But not this kind.
Across North Carolina last year, 131 people lost their lives to domestic violence — a fourth of all the homicides in the state. Fourteen of those murders happened in Mecklenburg, twice as many as Forsyth and Guilford, the counties with the next highest numbers of such deaths.
N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper unveiled the latest domestic violence data March 26, taking note of a 2007 state law that requires law enforcement agencies to report domestic violence related homicides to the State Bureau of Investigation. The data show the breadth of the violence. The state’s most populous areas, not surprisingly, reported the most domestic murders. But less populated areas had their share too. Union County had six.
“We owe it to those killed to look for ways to stop these crimes from happening,” Cooper said. He’s right. That’s why a Supreme Court ruling in February upholding a federal gun control law that strips gun rights from people convicted of any domestic violence crime was so vital.
But as Cooper noted, local and state actions can help too. He pointed to three initiatives worth supporting: a pilot program in Pitt County that alerts victims when their request for protective orders has been served; stricter probation of some domestic violence offenders; and a program that helps conceal the addresses of victims from their attackers.
Cooper is also urging broader use of protective orders, noting that of the 131 domestic violence murders in 2008, only eight of the victims had taken out protective orders. Only three of the orders were current when the victims were murdered.
Victims should seek protective orders. Those who love them must prod and push these victims to do so. And judges should work with haste to provide the orders.
But even more must be done. Safe shelters, hotlines, counseling and legal help is needed for the abused. As for the abusers, we must not enable them by being silent. They must be told their behavior is unacceptable. They must be held accountable.
One death by domestic violence is too many; 131 is a travesty. Thousands more escape death only by chance. We do owe it to the dead to stop these crimes from happening. More than that, we owe it to the victims who are still alive.
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