Domestic violence deaths in Illinois increased 110% last year, according to a new report from the Illinois Domestic Violence Prevention Coalition. Courtesy of the Illinois Domestic Violence Prevention Coalition
Domestic violence deaths in Illinois rose 110% last year, according to a new report by advocacy groups, which cited the lingering effects of the pandemic and increased access to guns as reasons for the increase.
According to the Illinois Coalition to Prevent Domestic Violence’s annual Domestic Violence Homicide Report, 120 people died as a result of domestic violence in 2023, up from 57 the previous year.
“These figures show we need to do more to stop preventable deaths,” Vicki Smith, the coalition’s former executive director, told us this week.
Of the domestic violence deaths, 107 were homicides and the remaining 13 were suicides, according to the report. The gun use rate was 68% in 2020, up from 49% in 2022.
Deaths have occurred in 27 of the state’s 102 counties, with Cook County leading the way with 37 deaths, followed by Will, Lake, Peoria and Madison counties.
Smith said the factors involved in each case are often complex, as is domestic violence itself, but the coalition believes part of the increase is down to a post-COVID environment where people are more willing to leave abusive relationships they’ve endured during the pandemic.
“People in unhealthy relationships take steps to end the relationship, and when that happens, the person doing the harm seeks to gain more power and control, making them more likely to use violence,” Smith said.
To turn the tide, the coalition advocates for increased public education on how to identify abusive relationships and how to find resources to help people safely escape them.
They also hope the alarming numbers will help spur the Illinois Legislature to pass a bill this fall known as Karina’s Bill, named after Chicago woman Karina Gonzalez, who authorities say was shot and killed by her husband last year along with her 15-year-old daughter, Daniella, after she obtained a protective order against him.
If passed, the bill would require law enforcement to confiscate firearms when an emergency protective order is issued in conjunction with a firearm relief action, and would require judges to issue search warrants when a relief action is issued if the court determines there is probable cause that the person in question possesses a firearm and poses a threat to the victim.
The bill would also prohibit gun owners from transferring their firearms to others instead of surrendering them to law enforcement.
Smith said the bill stalled in the state Legislature this spring as lawmakers awaited the outcome of the U.S. Supreme Court’s case, United States v. Rahimi. In an 8-1 decision handed down June 21, the Supreme Court upheld a federal law banning people subject to domestic violence restraining orders from owning guns.
“Now that that has been decided, we are hopeful the state will move the bill forward,” Smith said.
Last year, an Arlington Heights couple died in a domestic violence murder-suicide in their own home. Their deaths are part of a reported 110% increase in domestic violence homicides last year. Christopher Placek/cplacek@dailyherald.com, 2023
Facts and figures
Here are some more tidbits from the report:
Of the 120 deaths, 105 were committed by male perpetrators and 61% of the victims were female. Among female perpetrators, 85% of the victims were male.
· Ages of victims ranged from under 1 year old to 86 years old. 8% of fatalities were victims aged 17 or younger, down from 33% in 2022. The most common age group of victims was 26-35 years old, followed by 36-45 years old and 46-55 years old.
The most common relationship of the victim was a girlfriend, accounting for 17% of deaths, followed by an ex-girlfriend in 13%. A parent was the victim in 12% of cases.
To read the full report, please visit https://tinyurl.com/yeff668r
Plan for the problem?
That’s not to say law enforcement is expecting trouble when thousands of politicians, and perhaps an equal number of protesters, descend on Chicago next month for the Democratic National Convention. But just to be safe, Cook County Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans announced this week, at the request of the Chicago Police Department, that the county’s court system has prepared to handle an increase in cases.
Democrats are hoping to avoid the kind of violence that disrupted their 1968 convention in Chicago, but police aren’t taking any chances. As part of the plan, Cook County will open a temporary courthouse on Chicago’s north side to deal with the overcrowding. AP
That includes setting up a temporary courthouse on West Belmont Avenue in case there are too many defendants for the regular criminal courts to handle.
“We have been meeting for weeks with more than 50 people from county, city, state and federal agencies to prepare for the possibility of multiple arrests,” Evans said in the release. “We want to allow police to focus on maintaining peace and ensuring the rights of those arrested are strictly respected.”
Officials said the temporary centre was open from 8 a.m. to late night and 57 judges, in addition to those already assigned to the criminal and pretrial divisions, were trained on the requirements of the Pretrial Fairness Act.
Additionally, jury trials scheduled to take place at the city’s Leighton Criminal Court from Aug. 12-30 will be moved to the courthouse in Rolling Meadows if they can’t be rescheduled.
Ignoring the signs
All five Kane County courthouses have signs at their entrances listing items that are prohibited from being brought into them.
But a recent Sheriff’s Office report showed that courthouse security officers manning the screening machines last year confiscated 720 prohibited items, including knives, pepper spray, scissors, box cutters, torch lighters, aerosol cans and nail files, according to Deputy Sheriff Amy Johnson.
Many will be confiscated and then thrown away, but some may end up on display boards at the sheriff’s National Night Out event, which will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 6 at the sheriff’s office, 37W755 Route 38 in St. Charles.
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