Two weeks ago, the last time we revisited a subject in this space, we were a little flippant, for which we apologize. On the topic of people leaving dogs and kids in cars during summer, we said it was a stupid thing to do and advised against the practice of making stupid decisions.
That should be the easiest advice in the world to follow, we think, even though we are absolutely confident that it falls on deaf ears.
We are thinking about stupid decisions because we can’t seem to get away from the subject of domestic violence this week. Unfortunately, this is not a flippant subject and sadly we discuss it often.
The most recent case, apparently a murder-suicide of a family of five in Saco over the weekend, dovetails with national headlines about various offenders this week.
Maine has very few murders, thank God. Per capita we live in one of the safest states in the union in terms of violent crime, unless of course you are a woman.
According to the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, no less than 11 of Maine’s 24 murders in 2013 were directly attributable to domestic violence. According to the same source, domestic violence routinely accounts for between 45-55 percent of Maine’s homicide total.
In 2012, again according to the coalition, an allegation of domestic violence was reported every 94 minutes. That means one reported incident every hour and a half for every day of the year. If that thought doesn’t give you pause, think about this: That only accounts for reported cases, and only within the state of Maine.
