Intimate Partner Violence-Related Fatalities Among U.S. Youth Aged 0-24 Years, 2014-2018

Little is known about intimate partner violence-related fatalities among young people. This study comprehensively identifies and describes intimate partner violence-related homicides, homicide-suicides, legal intervention deaths, and suicides among young people.

Data from the 2014-2018 National Violent Death Reporting System were analyzed for all decedents aged 0-24 years in 38 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico with known circumstances of death (n=29,702). Intimate partner violence-related deaths were identified using National Violent Death Reporting System variables across all manners of death and supplementary narrative review for suicides. This article reports the proportion of intimate partner violence versus non-intimate partner violence-related deaths by manner of death, descriptive statistics, and rate of intimate partner violence-related death per 100,000 person years. To examine disparities in intimate partner violence-related deaths, generalized estimating equations were used with robust standard errors to account for clustering of deaths within states and fixed effects for years. Statistical analyses were conducted May and August 2021.

A total of 1,927 intimate partner violence-related deaths were identified, which represents 6.5% of violent deaths with known circumstances, at a rate of 0.35 per 100,000 person years. Supplementary narrative review identified 44.7% of all intimate partner violence-related deaths. There were significant differences by race/ethnicity and whether a firearm inflicted the fatal injury for male and female decedents by manner of death.

If the National Violent Death Reporting System does not assess whether intimate partner violence was a precipitating factor across all death manners, the true magnitude of intimate partner violence's contribution to violent death will be underestimated. Future research that identifies factors associated with all manners of intimate partner violence-related deaths among young people will help inform intervention and prevention strategies to save young lives.