Alaska leads U.S. in violence against women

ANCHORAGE - Fifteen women were killed by men in Alaska in 2002, the highest rate per capita in the nation, according to a study by a nonprofit gun control advocacy group.

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The Violence Policy Center, based in Washington, D.C., released the study in conjunction with Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which started Friday. It analyzes data submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and looks only at homicides involving one female victim and one male offender.

All 15 women killed knew their attacker, the study said. In eight cases, the offender was a husband, common-law husband, ex-husband or boyfriend.

Ranked behind Alaska's rate of 4.84 per 100,000 in population was Louisiana with 2.91, followed by New Mexico, Nevada and Wyoming.

Judy Sullivan Pickens, executive director of Abused Women's Aid in Crisis, an Anchorage shelter, called the findings shocking.

"If you look at Louisiana, we're ahead not by a small stretch but by a significant one," she told the Anchorage Daily News.

Susan Sullivan, director of Victims for Justice, said the ranking did not surprise her.

"It's consistent with so many other areas where Alaska has the unfortunate distinction of being No. 1 or in the top 10," she said.

Since 1976, Alaska every year has ranked in the top five states with its rate of rape and held the top spot at least 10 times, according to a report by Anchorage's Safe City Program that also was based on FBI statistics.

The Violence Policy Center study said seven of the 15 females who died in 2002 were killed with guns. Two were killed with knives or other cutting instruments, two by bodily force and four by blunt objects.

The study focuses on gun violence and suggests lawmakers could do more to remove firearms from domestic violence situations.

Stephen Branchflower, director of the state Office of Victims' Rights, said gun violence is only part of the story.

"The question that needs to be answered is why Alaska, and Anchorage in particular, is at the top of the charts when it comes to violence against, and homicides of women by any means - not just by means of a firearm."

Pickens' organization last year provided more than 16,000 nights of shelter to women and children escaping domestic violence. She said geographic isolation, prevalence of alcohol and guns, and an overburdened legal and correctional system contribute to high domestic violence in Alaska.

Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage, a former prosecutor, said the state is doing enough to remove guns from domestic violence situations but that it could do more to fund shelters and help victims.

Under state law, convicted felons cannot possess firearms. People convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence cannot possess a firearm for the duration of their probation, French said.

"That was a wildly controversial proposition when it went through," he said.

The Legislature this year extended the length of domestic violence protective orders from six months to one year, French said.