Black women are about three times more likely to die at the hands of a partner or ex-partner than members of other racial groups

Intimate-partner homicide is also among the leading causes of death for black women ages 15 to 35. In 2010, 94% of black women killed by men in single victim/single offender incidents knew their killers. Nearly 15 times as many black women were murdered by a man they knew than were killed by a stranger and 64% of black victims who knew their offenders were wives, ex-wives or girlfriends of the offenders. The number of black women shot and killed by their husband or intimate partner was nearly five times as high as the total number murdered by strangers using all weapons combined. In 2011, 492 black females were murdered by males at a rate of 2.61 per 100,000, compared to a rate of 0.99 per 100,000 for white females.