What We Know to be True About the Crime of DV Homicide

According to reporting, the Mainer who opened fire at an ice rink in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, was targeting their ex-wife and family members. We send our greatest sympathies to the people and the community who are affected by the actions of this individual. 

An investigation is ongoing, as law enforcement in both Maine and Rhode Island do their work. While there’s much we don’t yet know about this case, it feels important in this moment to reiterate what we know to be true about the crime of domestic violence homicide.  

We have decades of solid data from Maine and beyond to inform our understanding of DV homicide prevention. Three things are indisputable:  

• Guns are the primary means used by those who kill their intimate partners and family members. The latest report from the Maine Domestic Abuse Homicide Review Panel cites firearms as the method used in 50% of cases.  

• There is a link between mass shooting events and domestic violence. More than half of mass shootings are shootings of family members or intimate partners, with still more shooters who target people outside of their families having a history of domestic abuse.  

• The people most likely to perpetrate this kind of violence are adult men. In a 20-year review of homicide data in Maine, the Domestic Abuse Homicide Review Panel found 85% of the perpetrators to be men.  

If we are to prevent domestic violence homicide in future, we must focus our efforts based on the totality of what we know. Attempts to reframe well-documented patterns about who and what causes this kind of tragedy are not in the best interests of victim/survivors, or our communities.