Spousal abuse

Laci Peterson: Went missing on Christmas Eve

What's the greatest cause of death of pregnant women in the United States? Complications caused by pregnancy? Cancer? Road crashes? No - it's not any of these. It's murder.

Two recent high profile homicides have caught the attention of the American public for precisely that reason - both the victims were pregnant, and their deaths are part of a pattern of the ultimate in violent spousal abuse.

Adam Brookes reported on part of the American way of life - and death.

ADAM BROOKES:
At the beginning of 1991 Deborah Randall was in her eighth month of pregnancy. She was 30 and it was her first child. On the evening of January 24, she was shot six times by her boyfriend, the father of her unborn baby. Deborah was rushed to hospital and put on life support. The baby was delivered by emergency Caesarean. Deborah's mother, Georgia was there.

GEORGIA SIMMONS:
Only thing I was concerned about is which child was going to live. My daughter, my grand baby, both? Or how they would come out in this. I wandered from one floor of the hospital to the next.

BROOKES:
Deborah died from her injuries. Her murderer, the baby's father, Richard Johnson junior went to prison for life. The baby survived. Donny is now 13. He lives with his grandmother Georgia in a tiny clap board house in a rough part of Richmond, Virginia. He's a quiet boy, big for his age at six foot. A football player on the field as well as the video screen. Georgia keeps him close to home. In her retirement she's been thrust into a second motherhood. She calls Donny her son and has tried to give him an ordinary upbringing, but it's hard to shake off the ghastly circumstances of his birth.

GEORGIA SIMMONS:
She should be here with her son. Her son is the son that she would want. She's the mother that he would want. He's just like her in so many ways.

BROOKES:
The murder of Deborah Randall was hardly an isolated atrocity, the leading cause of death among pregnant women in America is homicide.

REPORTER:
These are the last known pictures of Lorry Hacking alive.

BROOKES:
Right now two high profile murder cases are dominating America's news.

REPORTER:
Legal documents released Tuesday allege Hacking confessed to an unidentified civilian at the psychiatric ward that he killed his wife while she slept.

BROOKES:
Lorry Hacking had just discovered she was pregnant when she disappeared in July. Her husband Mark is a suspect.

REPORTER:
Although Scott and Lacy Peterson appear to have a comfortable life...

BROOKES:
Lacy Peterson, also pregnant, disappeared a year-and-a- half ago. Her corpse and unborn child washed ashore near San Francisco four months later. Her husband, Scott, is on trial. Both women were middle class, attractive, suburban. The news channels are covering hour by repetitive hour every twist and turn of these two cases.

REPORTER:
The surveillance tape does more than show hacking on the town... This obsessive coverage obscures as much as it reveals about why and how often pregnant women are murdered.

DR JACQUELYN CAMPBELL:
(Johns Hopkins University)
Often times the media does not notice when a woman is killed or it's not publicised that she was pregnant when she was killed. It happens all the time unfortunately. We have many cases every year that no-one ever actually pays very much attention to.

BROOKES:
The research suggests that the murder of pregnant women occurs as an extension of domestic abuse. Domestic abuse, say the researchers, is rampant. Here at the house of Ruth in Baltimore, this nurse tries to repair the damage done by violent husbands, lovers, boyfriends.

PHYLLIS SHARPS:
(House of Ruth, Baltimore)
Insomnia, nightmares, appetite loss...

BROOKES:
Pregnancy she says is no shield against violence.

PHYLLIS SHARPS:
Some studies will show as few as 4%, but others show as high as 15 to 20% of women have been hit, pushed, slapped, kicked or otherwise hurt during a pregnancy. I think in America we have this myth that pregnancy is just a wonderful, happy time. But that's not true for all families and all couples.

BROOKES:
A recent study examined deaths among pregnant women between 1988 and 1996 in Washington DC. It found that 38% of those deaths were homicides. In Maryland in the 1990s pregnant women were twice as likely to be murdered as other women of the same age.

PHYLLIS SHARPS:
All women, regardless of income, education, ethnic racial background, are at risk for being abused by an intimate partner. And there is no specific profile.

BROOKES:
So domestic abuse is highly unpredictable, it doesn't stop during pregnancy and it can and does lead to murder. So much so that a pregnant woman here in America is at greater risk of being killed by her partner than of dying from cancer or car crash or drugs overdose. Many researchers are now arguing that doctors should screen routinely for domestic abuse, as part of prenatal care. Jacqui Campbell is one of them. She searched for the motives and triggers that can turn a partner into an abuser into a murderer.

DR JACQUELYN CAMPBELL:
One of the things we find is that although abuse doesn't usually start during pregnancy, that a man who abuses his wife during pregnancy is a particularly violent man and that presents a high risk for homicide. When a woman leaves, it's a particularly dangerous time. This is one of the risk factors for homicide that part of what's going on here is that these men are very controlling and the ultimate loss of control is when your wife leaves you.

BROOKES:
As the diseases and complications that once killed pregnant women disappear, the researchers and the families are left with the stark new truth, to be pregnant in America still carries risk, but that risk lies in the home, with the men for whom a baby is a threat.

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This transcript was produced from the teletext subtitles that are generated live for Newsnight. It has been checked against the programme as broadcast, however Newsnight can accept no responsibility for any factual inaccuracies. We will be happy to correct serious errors.