Wyoming

Fatalities

There are significant discrepancies in Wyoming’s reported domestic violence murder data, so use caution when interpreting the following information – some of which has been tallied for this page. Correspondence with the Wyoming’s Division of Criminal Investigation, the office issuing Crime in Wyoming reports, highlighted gaps in the system. For example, each law enforcement agency within the state reports domestic violence and other crime data independently and may use different definitions of those categories, resulting in the observed discrepancies.

There were 21 domestic violence murders* included in Wyoming’s Domestic Violence Reports between 2012-2019. However, this count does not appear to include all domestic violence murders, as multiple murders of persons with qualifying domestic relationships to the perpetrators appear in other areas of the Crime in Wyoming Reports that have been excluded from the Domestic Violence Reports (and apparently vice versa). When including all qualifying murders as listed under the Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter subheading of each year’s reports, there were 34 domestic violence murders in Wyoming between 2012-20193

Domestic Violence Murders as Reported in Domestic Violence Report

Domestic Violence Murders by Tally of Murders with Qualifying Victim-Perpetrator Relationship

Domestic Violence Murders in Wyoming, 2012-2019

Notes:

The Domestic Violence Report within Wyoming’s Division of Criminal Investigation’s “Crime in Wyoming” report includes crimes involving the following relationships of victim to offender: spouse, former spouse, parent, child, sibling, other relative, other household member, former other household member, dating, and former dating partners. These are the relationships referred to as “qualifying” on this page.
The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program compiles crime data annually from 56 law enforcement agencies across Wyoming, which includes data submitted as part of the Domestic Violence Reporting Program. Domestic violence information was provided by Wyoming law enforcement agencies and compiled by the Criminal Records Section, Division of Criminal Investigation, Office of the Attorney General, in compliance with W.S. 7-20-107(a)(b) and W.S. 6-4-404. The Cheyenne Police Department had not submitted domestic violence reports in 2017 in time for the publishing of the report.

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 Wyoming is:

Females

33.9%, an estimated 71,000 women

33.9% Experienced IPV

66.1% No IPV

Among female victims in Wyoming who experienced contact sexual violence, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime, 57.5% were concerned for safety, 33.5% were injured, 16.7% needed medical care, and 16.5% needed legal services.4

Males

30.5%, an estimated 66,000 men

30.5% Experienced IPV

69.5% No IPV

Statistically reliable estimates of the percentage of male victims in Wyoming 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.5

Domestic Violence Protection Orders

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

There were 1,011 active protection orders in the National Crime Information Center for Wyoming in 2015, 718 of which had a disqualifying Brady Indicator.*6

Protection Orders in the National Crime Information Center

Protection Orders with Disqualifying Brady Indicator

Notes:

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 murder: The Domestic Violence Report within Wyoming’s Division of Criminal Investigation’s “Crime in Wyoming 2017” report includes crimes involving the following relationships of victim to offender: spouse, former spouse, parent, child, sibling, other relative, other household member, former other household member, dating, and former dating partners. Murder also includes nonnegligent manslaughter and is defined by the Uniform Crime Reporting Program as the willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another. One offense is counted for each person willfully killed by another. Suicides, accidental deaths, and justifiable homicides are excluded.
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.

By the Numbers

Summary