Laterria Smith receives a hug at a vigil to remember her son Jayden Perkins, who was killed in Chicago in March 2024. Photograph: Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune via Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenLaterria Smith receives a hug at a vigil to remember her son Jayden Perkins, who was killed in Chicago in March 2024. Photograph: Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune via Getty ImagesAlarm as US domestic violence killings remain high despite drop in homicidesNon-profits say requests for legal help and housing on rise amid Trump funding cuts for prevention and response
As cities and states across the US report historic drops in homicides, domestic violence killings remain alarmingly high.
In Chicago, where homicides fell from 805 in 2021 to 425 in 2025, killings tied to domestic violence increased by 15% between 2024 and 2025. In Kansas City, Missouri, homicides in general have dropped since 2023, but 2025 was the second deadliest year for homicides tied to domestic violence. In Ohio, too, 2025 was the deadliest year for domestic violence killings, while homicides in general followed the national decrease. Across the US, the share of violent crimes that involve domestic violence has increased from 25% in 2020 to 27.5% in 2024, according to a 2026 FBI report.
Sometimes the killings make national headlines, like in April, when eight children were killed and two women were injured in Shreveport, Louisiana, or when several people were murdered in rural Oregon and in Billings, Montana, last month.
But national non-profit groups say they are receiving calls daily from people who are at high risk of being killed by their intimate partner. They are also hearing more from people seeking housing or legal help, they say.
“The number one need articulated over and over again is housing, and number two is legal support,” said Nikhita Ved, chief programs officer for the National Domestic Violence Hotline. “The folks that reach out might have had a family member who was killed or are people who fear they will be killed by their intimate partner, or they’re seeing severe signs.”
In 2020, the hotline received nearly 637,000 calls. In 2025, it answered a million, according to their data.
Though it’s nearly impossible to pinpoint a single cause for stubbornly high rates of domestic violence homicides in pockets of the US, the resources to prevent such tragedies are well-known, Ved adds. Still, they are not funded at a level that matches the scale of need.
The concerns about funding have only increased during the second Trump administration. Early into Trump’s second presidency, administration officials cut hundreds of millions in grants from research institutions, and domestic violence prevention and response non-profits that serve people of color, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities. In the notices to the affected groups, the federal government said their grants were being terminated because their work no longer aligns with the administration’s goals.
Some of those grants, like those for pet-friendly domestic violence shelters and domestic violence hotlines, were ultimately restored. But the National Network to End Domestic Violence warns that Trump’s proposed 2027 budget includes a nearly $30m reduction in funding for grant programs for transitional housing and legal assistance.
“Cuts are always devastating, because this work, it’s always been underfunded,” Ved said.
“There’s a diminishing in resources and in groups knowing if they can continue their work,” echoed Anita Raj, executive director of the Newcomb Institute and a professor of public health at Tulane University in New Orleans.
“Non-profits are having to decrease their workforce, which is a grave concern in Louisiana,” she adds. “We’re not a wealthy state, and our ability to backstop funding that’s been lost has a really chilling effect on the ability that we have to provide resources.”
When the president spoke out about the issue, he described “the scourge of domestic violence” as a criminal issue that he plans to address through deportations and going after human-trafficking rings. Raj said that this framing obscured the risk factors that most commonly lead to a homicide, like stalking, controlling behavior and threats to harm their partner or themselves. All of which have nothing to do with someone’s immigration status.
“Stop focusing on a demographic profile and focus on a behavioral profile,” Raj said. “[Intimate partner violence and homicides] problems that are not just as simple as a criminal justice issue and it’s not going to be improved by immigration enforcement,” she said.
When asked about the increase in domestic violence homicides and concerns about the 2027 budget’s impact on domestic violence, the White House referred the Guardian to its office of management and budget (OMB). The OMB did not respond to questions.
Raj warns that though tragedies like the recent killings in Louisiana, Oregon and Montana receive a lot of media attention, they are just the tip of the iceberg. She hopes to see more lawmakers and journalists talk about early signs of abuse, which can range from using fear and threats of violence to control a partner to hitting and choking. She also wants to see more education for young people about conflict resolution and healthy relationships, especially those who are growing up in homes where they are witnessing domestic violence.
“The danger of [this focus], is that it’s the tip of the iceberg and are the most extreme cases of something that’s so ubiquitous,” Raj said.
