South Carolina’s History of Deadly Violence Against Women

South Carolina was in the top 10 states for 23 out of the past 25 years (1996 – 2020)1 and ranks 17th in the nation in terms of household firearm ownership rates.2 However, South Carolina has experienced a decline in the rate of females killed by males since it first ranked #1 in 1998 as detailed in the 2000 edition of the Violence Policy Center’s (VPC) annual report When Men Murder Women.3 In 202. [...] Rate of females killed by males in South Carolina and nationally, 1996 — 20224 *Rates are per 100,000 and not adjusted for age **FBI crime data are not shown for 2021 due to unreliability of data caused by the transition between FBI crime data reporting systems (depicted by grey area of graph) a Due to changes in the way Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) crime data are collected and reported,. [...] Black women make up nearly half of all female homicide victims killed by males in South Carolina but only one-quarter of the female population in the state further illustrating the racial disparities in gun violence among female residents of South Carolina (Figure 2). [...] Black percentage of South Carolina female population (left figure)5; Black percentage of South Carolina female homicide victims (right figure) 4, 2022 27.2% 48.2% White Black White Black MOST COMMON WEAPONS For homicides in which the weapon used to be identified, 77.6 percent of victims (38 out of 49) were killed with guns (Figure 3). [...] Percentage of female homicide victims killed by someone they knew4 86.8% Killed by someone the victim knew Killed by a stranger AGE Victim age was available for all female homicide victims in South Carolina in 2022.