Domestic violence could have roots in economic recovery

Experts point to a variety of pressures in spate of recent crimes

By Nancy Townsley

The Forest Grove News-Times, Dec 2, 2009

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It’s an irony that isn’t lost on La Donna Burgess.

The executive director of the Washington County Domestic Violence Resource Center believes the pending economic recovery could have something to do with a spate of local murder-suicides during November.

In the last 30 days, murder-suicides have occurred in Tualatin, the Bethany area of Beaverton, Forest Grove and Hillsboro, as well as one incident in Multnomah County.

That’s a sharp rise from last fall, Burgess said, and could have more to do with reports of the recession’s retreat than the 2008 financial free-fall.

“A year ago, when people were losing their jobs and everybody seemed to be affected, it was indiscriminate,” said Burgess. “But now, there are reports that things are better. So those who are still out of work are wondering, ‘What’s wrong with me?’

“Now it’s personal, and that adds all kinds of additional stress.”

So much stress, Burgess said, that someone in a fragile mental state could conceivably be pushed over the edge – particularly if they are predisposed to violent behavior.

Systemic issues

“There are families with systemic issues that sometimes develop into acts of domestic violence,” noted Burgess, citing the murder-suicides in Tualatin and Bethany – and even the first murders of the year that occurred in Beaverton last March, when Namegabe Kelekele Mushgero, 51, allegedly bludgeoned to death his 49-year-old wife, Nabinta Kelekele Kalamb, in the couple’s Vose neighborhood apartment.

“In that case, the father had been out of work for a full year,” said Burgess. “That kind of pressure, whether a person can find work or not, can manifest itself in really bad ways.”

Fourteen months ago, when the economy began to turn sour, the Beaverton domestic violence center began receiving additional calls for counseling help. “But it’s nothing like we’re seeing today,” Burgess said.

She concedes that economic stress alone isn’t always the culprit, and that there are typically other warning signs of impending trouble.

Still, she said, joblessness can lead to an inability to pay for basic family needs, which can then spiral into feelings of inadequacy and hopelessness.

“When people are left behind and struggling after a year of unemployment, a year of no improvement, it can be pretty dire,” said Burgess.

According to a 2006 report by The Violence Policy Center, a nonprofit think-tank that researches violence in America, between 1,000 and 1,500 deaths a year are a direct result of murder-suicide cases in the United States. Of these crimes, the vast majority – 74 percent – are committed by male suspects against their wives, most using some sort of firearm.

From 2003 to 2007, Oregon averaged eight cases of murder-suicide a year, according to statistics from the state health department.

Katherine van Wormer is the co-author of the 2009 book “Death by Domestic Violence: Preventing the Murders and Murder-Suicides” and a professor of social work at the University of Northern Iowa who researches crimes of domestic violence. She said she’s seen an increase in reports of murder-suicide cases in the United States since the economy started souring.

“The economy is definitely a factor,” van Wormer said. “Fathers in the family have a sense of failure. And these crimes occur in otherwise low-crime areas because they have nothing to do with the crime rate.”

She said the idea of a “contagion” – that people are more likely to commit similar crimes when they see other instances of it occur – is also important, and adds to the complexity of figuring out why these crimes occur.

“The men here have often provided for the family (and) are suffering a grave crisis such as financial and employment difficulty,” van Wormer said. “Feeling disgraced, they think they can’t protect the family so they decide to wipe them all out. A twisted protective motive seems to operate.”

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