A recent examination of scores of domestic violence gun homicides from 2017 through 2020 found that law enforcement repeatedly ignored the most glaring signs that a victim was at high risk of being killed, reports Reveal. According to more than three dozen interviews with domestic violence and criminal justice experts around the U.S., most law enforcement agencies provide little or no training in recognizing red flags or using them to protect victims and their families. Many police departments also don’t use lethality assessments, widely seen as the best way to steer high-risk victims into support services.
The failure to heed red flags is one of the factors contributing to soaring rates of domestic violence and gun homicides in the U.S. – up 58 percent since 2010, to the highest level in nearly three decades, according to FBI data. According to a 2014 study, 20 percent of people killed in domestic violence homicides are not intimate partners but family members, friends, neighbors, police and bystanders. In addition, more than two-thirds of mass shootings in the U.S. from 2014 through 2019 were domestic violence incidents or were perpetrated by people with a history of domestic abuse.