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. 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. 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.
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