December 8, 2025 / CBS News
Almost 5.4 million Americans have reported being victims of domestic violence over the last five years, the Bureau of Justice Statistics says. Nearly 80% of those victims were women. The FBI reports domestic homicides more than doubled from 1,065 in 2019 to 2,339 in 2024, alarming experts.
“Domestic violence remains one of the most persistent public health and safety crises in our country,” Nathaniel Fields, CEO of the nonprofit Urban Resource Institute, told CBS News.
The issue is personal for Lisa DeSort, whose 20-year-old daughter, Azsia Johnson, was shot and killed in New York City in 2022. CBS News returned with DeSort to the spot where the shooting occurred in October, during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. DeSort placed flowers at a tree where Johnson’s ex-boyfriend, Isaac Argro, allegedly shot her. Johnson had been hiding in shelters in the months before the killing but allowed Argro to meet their 3-month-old baby one night in June 2022.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged then-23-year-old Argro with Johnson’s murder; he has pleaded not guilty and the case could go to trial next year. Bragg told CBS News his office is currently handling more than 500 intimate partner violence cases.
“Intimate partner violence” is a subset of domestic violence, which can include violence by any family member; definitions vary by agency. Experts say intimate partner violence poses particular challenges for law enforcement and victim services and often goes unreported.
“We talk about it when it’s in the news, when some celebrity, some high-profile person, has committed domestic violence, but not when it affects everyday people,” Fields said. He urged leaders to increase awareness of warning signs—controlling behavior, escalating violence—and to identify domestic violence earlier. URI runs prevention programs for students and incarcerated people; Fields said their work showed the need to start earlier, reaching youth in junior high as well as high school.
A CBS News analysis of FBI data found 24% of all reported violent crime was domestic in nature, roughly the same rate as 2019 before pandemic-related spikes in violent crime.
The killing of Gladys Ricart 26 years ago—shot as she prepared to leave for church to marry another man—left a deep mark on Washington Heights, Manhattan. The shooting, captured on home video, spurred community action. Ricart’s niece, Lethy Liriano, now leads the annual Brides’ March, where hundreds don wedding gowns and march to call attention to domestic violence. “By hearing each other’s stories, we are understanding that none of us are at fault for not knowing a horrific violent event was going to come,” Liriano said at this year’s march.
In interviews with more than a dozen survivors, activists and experts, many described domestic violence as intergenerational. DeSort said she had been a victim herself and saw warning signs in Johnson’s boyfriend: checking her phone, arriving unannounced, demands to know her whereabouts. DeSort said he beat Johnson when she was six months pregnant.
“Immediately I caught onto the signs and I told her you can’t be with this type of person,” DeSort said.
Advocates and agencies say sustained awareness, early education about healthy relationships, and stronger support for victims are needed to address a crisis that remains widespread and deadly.