Alabama

By the Numbers

Summary

  • In 2018, there were 28 reported domestic violence homicides in Alabama.1
  • In 2018, 64% (n=18) of reported domestic violence homicides were committed with a firearm.2
  • In 2015, there were 3,427 active protection orders in the National Crime Information Center for Alabama, 1,008 of which had a disqualifying Brady Indicator.3

Fatalities

There were 307 reported domestic violence homicides*in Alabama between 2009 and 2018. In 2018, there were 28 reported domestic violence homicides, 64% (n=18) of which were committed with a firearm. The victim’s relationship to the offender was as follows: wife/ex-wife 29%, husband / ex-husband 14%, girlfriend/ ex-girlfriend 32%, and boyfriend/ ex-boyfriend 21%.4

Reported Domestic Violence Homicides
Domestic Violence Homicides by Firearm
Reported Domestic Violence Homicides in Alabama, 2009-2018

Notes:

  1. The Statistical Analysis Center of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency releases an annual report entitled “Domestic Violence in Alabama” that reports statistics on domestic violence assault, homicide, robbery, and rape.
  2. Alabama Law Enforcement Agency uses the term domestic violence homicide when the relationship of the victim and offender is husband, wife, common-law spouse, ex-husband, ex-wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, ex-girlfriend, or ex-boyfriend.
  3. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency report did not include the raw number of domestic violence homicides by firearm; these numbers were extrapolated using reported percentages.

Intimate Partner Violence* Victimization and Related Impacts*

The lifetime prevalence* of any contact sexual violence*, physical violence,* and/or stalking victimization* by an intimate partner* in Alabama is:

Females

37.5% Experienced IPV
62.5% No IPV

Among female victims in Alabama who experienced contact sexual violence, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime, 74.2% were concerned for safety, 36.2% were injured, 28.9% needed medical care, and 22.9% needed legal services.5

Males

29.5% Experienced IPV
70.5% No IPV

Statistically reliable estimates of the percentage of male victims in Alabama who experienced contact sexual violence, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime who were concerned for safety, injured, needed medical care, or needed legal services are not available.6

Domestic Violence Protection Orders

Protection Orders Active in the National Crime Information Center for Alabama, 2006-2015

There were 3,427 active protection orders in the National Crime Information Center for Alabama in 2015, 1,008 of which had a disqualifying Brady Indicator.7*

Protection Orders in the National Crime Information Center
Protection Orders with Disqualifying Brady Indicator

Note:

State participation in the National Crime Information Center protection order file is voluntary, thus the extent to which states enter the orders into the system varies. Regardless of how each state refers to such orders, these records are uniformly referred to as “protection orders” in the National Crime Information Center database.

Definitions

  • Contact sexual violence: Combined measure that includes rape, being made to penetrate someone else, sexual coercion, and/or unwanted sexual contact.
  • Domestic Violence Homicide: Alabama Law Enforcement Agency uses the term domestic violence homicide when the relationship of the victim and offender is husband, wife, common-law spouse, ex-husband, ex-wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, ex-girlfriend, or ex-boyfriend.
  • Intimate partner: Romantic or sexual partner and includes spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, people with whom they dated, were seeing, or “hooked up.”
  • Intimate partner violence: The five types of intimate partner violence measured in the NISVS include sexual violence, stalking, physical violence, psychological aggression, and control of reproductive/sexual health. Sexual violence includes rape, being made to penetrate someone else, sexual coercion, unwanted sexual contact, and non-contact unwanted sexual experiences.
  • Intimate partner violence related impacts: For each perpetrator of domestic violence, the NISVS survey asks victims about specific direct impacts related to intimate partner violence to better understand the consequences of contact sexual violence, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner.
  • Lifetime prevalence:Proportion of a population who, at some point in life, have ever experienced the characteristic or condition.
  • Protection orders with a disqualifying Brady Indicator: Protection orders related to domestic violence that have been identified as those that prohibit the individual from receiving or possessing firearms under federal law.
  • Physical violence: A range of behaviors from slapping, pushing, or shoving to severe acts that include being hit with a fist or something hard, kicked, hurt by pulling hair, slammed against something, tried to hurt by choking or suffocating, beaten, burned on purpose, or used a knife or gun.
  • Stalking victimization: Pattern of harassing or threatening tactics used by a perpetrator that is both unwanted and causes fear or safety concerns in the victim.

This page was updated March 26, 2021. Please note that data used are the most recent available data.