Beyond "Do you feel safe at home?" The physician's role in reducing intimate partner homicide

Abstract

Each year, more than a thousand women in the United States die as a result of intimate partner homicide. Firearms are involved in 60 percent of these murders. This article reviews the role firearms play in domestic violence and suggests actions physicians can take to reduce intimate partner homicide involving them. In addition to screening patients for domestic abuse, physicians can strive to improve data collection on intimate partner violence, foster better communication between victims and the police, and support policies that hold police officers and prosecutors accountable for taking guns out of the hands of abusers.