Domestic Violence & Firearms Statistics in St. Petersburg

Every 16 hours an intimate partner with a gun kills a woman in the U.S.  Domestic violence assaults involving a gun are 12 times more likely to end in death than assaults with other weapons.

Summary: 

In St. Petersburg during the 3 year period 2015-17, domestic violence was involved in:

• 14.5% of criminal homicides
• 24% of sex offenses
• 27% of aggravated assaults
• 51.5% of simple assault, threats, and stalking

We do not know how frequently firearms were used in domestic violence.  If the frequency of firearm use for each category above holds true for domestic violence, we can estimate that:

• over half of criminal homicides involving domestic violence involved a firearm
• one-quarter of sex offenses & aggravated assaults involved a firearm

In St. Petersburg during the 3 year period 2015-17, in instances of violent crime involving domestic violence, arrests were made 54% of the time.  In instances of simple assault, threats and stalking involving domestic violence, arrests were made 40% of the time.
In the state of Florida, the murder rate in domestic violence cases rose from 162 in 2017 to 196 in 2018 or 20.9 %.  Rape cases increased by 13% from 1580 to 1783 during this period.

Sources:

1. Centers for Disease Control data by county
   https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/states/florida/florida.htm
2. Centers for Disease Control, Firearm Mortality Data
   https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/firearm_mortality/firearm.htm
3. FL Dept. of Law Enforcement, Crime Data by Jurisdiction 1996-2017
   http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/FSAC/Data-Statistics/UCR-Offense-Data.aspx
   
4. FL Dept. of Law Enforcement Uniform Crime Statistics, Domestic Violence
   http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/FSAC/Data-Statistics/UCR-Domestic-Violence

        – updated January 2020