In the wake of the Ray Rice domestic violence scandal, a national study has named Tennessee the tenth worst state in terms of homicide against women.
The nonprofit Violence Policy Center looks at instances of male on female murder across the US.
In 2012, Tennessee had 53 cases with a homicide rate of 1.6 per 100,000 females.
Kristen Rand is the legislative director of the VPC. She says she hopes the rankings serve as a wake-up call for state governments.
“The reality is that kind of violence that we witnessed in the Ray Rice case is going on everyday behind closed doors across America," Rand said.
"Too often, women are not only abused, but they’re killed."
Kentucky appears on the list just behind Tennessee at 1.57 homicides per 100,000 women.
According to the research, half of all cases involved a firearm and over ninety percent of victims knew their attackers.
View the study in its entirety here.
