Scary Crime Statistics

I just read a chilling and fascinating article in the Washington Post about a man who was accused of killing his identical twin brother.  The lengthy trial ended without a unanimous verdict because of the lack of evidence in the case (the brothers shared DNA).  If you read the article you can acutely feel the young man's pain.  He lost his identical twin brother and then had to suffer the pain of being falsely accused of his murder.

The article offers a chilling illustration of the relationship victims have with their killers.  There were 12,996 murders in the United States in 2010.  In half of these cases (5,724), the relationship of the victim to the killer is unknown.  Of the homicides where the relationship is known, only 1,615 victims were killed by a stranger.  Forty-four percent of these victims were killed by someone they knew.  An acquaintance, a neighbor, a friend, or a family member.  Nineteen percent of these victims were killed by a family member--husband, wife, son, daughter, father, mother, brother, sister, boyfriend, girlfriend, cousin, aunt, or uncle.

Such a sad, sad statistic.