The shooting death of 47 year-old Jacklyn Berry this past Sunday morning in a Winthrop apartment, allegedly by her 58 year-old husband, Sean Brewer, has highlighted once again that acts of domestic violence pose the greatest threat of physical harm to women in the United States.
The FBI in February issued the results of a five-year study that revealed that an estimated 1600-2000 women are killed each year in the United States by an intimate partner or family member. More women lose their lives to intimate partner violence than by any other means.
In addition, the presence of a gun in a household exponentially increases the risk of death for a woman by an intimate partner.
Although much has been accomplished in the past 32 years to combat the scourge of domestic violence since the passage by Congress of the landmark Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in 1994, tragedies such as Sunday’s incident in Winthrop continue to occur day-in and day-out all across the United States with no end in sight.