ALBANY, GA -- It's one of the more grim statistics dealing with domestic violence, and it's grim news for Georiga, which had the sixth highest murder rate in the nation for women killed by men.
The list was put together by the Violence Policy Center, looking at homicide data from 2009.While the news is startling, it's no shock to the people who work at The Liberty House, an organization helping women escape abusive relationships
“Just in Albany alone we've seen a lot and if we can just look at that and imagine Georgia as a whole, then we know that number is great,” said Keisha Massey, Program Director at the Liberty House. “Every situation we look at we think of it as preventing a homicide, because that is ultimately what could happen.”
We talked to the Albany Police Department about the study and they say a trend they're seeing lately is opposite of what the study found.
“We've actually had more men killed by women in the last two years versus women killed by men. There have been two so far this year and one last year,” said Investigator Kawaski Barnes with the Family Protection Unit.
“We have seen that, where women have been in abusive relationship for a long period of time and have taken abuse after abuse and have actually lashed out and got fed up and killed their abusers,” said Massey.
But police say there is some good and promising news in all of this, at least locally.
“Albany police department has experienced a 22 percent decrease in domestic violence cases overall compared to the same time last year,” said Kawaski Barnes.
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