The 'Human Cost' of Raising Children
American parents are killing each other, and State Attorney Generals are covering them up

January 16, 2004

Cover-up is defined as "an effort or strategy of concealment, especially a planned effort to prevent something potentially scandalous from becoming public". If a system of control is imposed on American parents, then the effects of the system must be constantly scrutinized to verify proper operation. The Family Law system that operates in all states, is allowed to: identify bread-winning parents, deny them due process, deny them contact with their children, and then impose a financial obligation on them that will claim a percentage of their income for up to 18 years.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reports that across all states in 2002:

• 32.1% of the total 3,251 female homicide victims represent wives and girlfriends killed by their husband or boyfriend.(18.5% by husbands plus 13.7% by boyfriends)
• 6.5% of the total 3,251 female homicide victims represent daughters killed by their parent.
• 2.7 % of the total 10,779 male homicide victims represent husbands and boyfriends killed by their wife or girlfriend (1.2% by wives plus 1.4% by girlfriends).
• 2.2% of the total 10,779 male homicide victims represent sons killed by their parent.
• 22.9% of the total 14,054 homicide victims represent victims killed by an acquaintance.
• 17.0% of the total 14,054 homicide victims represent victims killed in California.

The data reported above excludes homicide data from Washington DC and Florida, and also omits data related to victim relationships to an ex-spouse and common-law spouse. Another potentially interesting relationship that was excluded involves victims who were killed involving a murder suicide (victim is offender).

The Justice Statistics and Research Association (JSRA) reports, "The primary source of information on crime in the United States is law enforcement agencies that submit monthly counts of index crime to the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) system of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Data on homicides are collected through the Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) section. Implemented in the 1960s, the SHR is designed to provide limited incident-specific information on each murder and nonnegligent manslaughter that occurs in the United States.", " While the SHR provides information that would otherwise not be available, it has some key limitations. As with the UCR program in general, participation in the SHR is voluntary, and not all law enforcement agencies report." "Another potential source of information about homicides is the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which provides for the collection of 53 data elements, organized into six data segments, on each incident."

The major problem inherent to the structure of the present NIBRS system is that it does not allow parent vs. parent homicide statistics to be gathered. The only NIBRS data element that allows identifying Family Law related deaths is element 35, which assigns a victim / offender relationship regarding each homicide. Data element 35 can be assigned many values, but the Family Law related values include: SE (spouse), BG (boyfriend / girlfriend), CH (child), XS (ex-spouse), CS (common-law spouse), and VO (victim is offender}.

• Why did mainstream America (except Dan Rather) suspect Gary Condit of killing Sandra Levy? Was it because 13.7% of the total 3,251 female homicide victims were killed by their boyfriend?
• Why does mainstream America suspect Scott Peterson and Robert Blake of killing Lacy and Bonny-Lee? Is it because 18.5% of the total 3,251 female homicide victims were killed by their husband?
• Why does mainstream America still suspect O.J. Simpson of killing Nicole? Is it because 22.9% of the total 14,054 homicide victims were killed by an acquaintance?
• Why does mainstream America suspect any California parent of killing the other parent of their child? Is it because California leads the nation by producing 17.0% of the total 14,054 homicide victims?

The common denominator, regarding the example homicides above, is that the victims and suspected offenders are all parents (or suspected parents) of a common child, and also that the victims and suspected offenders all reside in California. The only way to allow parent vs. parent homicide data to be gathered is to add a completely new data element that allows the number of children to be entered that are common to the victim and offender. Not only would it be easy to associate parent vs. parent homicide statistics, but may reveal trends based on the number of common children and the amount of child support demanded of the offender by the state in which they reside.

Lawmakers will never recognize the Family Law motive for murder until they are shown the effect it has on parents by pointing to reported numbers. The lawmakers are denied visibility of the parent vs. parent homicide statistics, as well as the financial demands imposed on parents that vary as a function of children. An unknown number of parents are being killed in America due to the unknown financial demands that are (or might be) imposed on them by the state that they reside in.

"Causality - action, reaction, cause, and effect, there is no escape from it, we are forever slaves to it. Our only hope, our only peace, is to understand it, to understand the 'why'. 'Why' is what separates us from them, you from me. 'Why' is the only real source of power, without it you are powerless, and this is how you come to me, without the 'why', without power, another link in the chain." (Matrix Reloaded)

Jim Untershine