Drunk Women and Homicide

Hidden in the findings of the South African Medical Research Council, taken in the Western Cape a few years back, is a study on the role of alcohol use in female homicide cases. It was not what I expected.
“Woman who consume excessive alcohol face an increased risk of signing their warrant for their own death by way of interpersonal homicide.”
The survey was conducted by Cape Town based Gender and Health Research Unit and showed that over half of the female homicide victims admitted to the mortuary on any given year, had a blood alcohol concentration well over the legal limit for driving. The homicide was usually caused by an intimate partner. The victims were usually killed by a sharp or blunt weapon. (It is a standing joke on how the Western Cape Coloureds always have a knife.) South Africa has one of the highest violent crime rates in the world and by, coincidence also one of the highest, per capita, consumption rates of hard alcohol. In a study in 2006 South Africans – 20,1 lt per adult per year and those crazy vodka swilling Russians only 16, 3 lt per year.
Why this information caught my attention is, for years I could not work out why two of my female relatives were always getting involved with men that beat them. I studied all sorts of reports by psychologists and other educated people and learned very little of value. A lot of theories of how these women chose those type of men because of… again a whole lot of theories. None of this was of any use to me in order to help those relatives. The one relative I acted and used force to get rid of a couple of the violent men, and got no thanks for that, in fact I ended up the bad guy. Having observed this, when the other relative, years, later requested I “do” something to eliminate her then spouse I respectively declined to get involved. I did even a few years after that remove her from the situation, but she just went back. I had many years of worrying I would get a phone call that one of these women was dead. It did happen once so far but the cause of death was not due to violence. Both were like many members of my family, alcoholics; one admitted it but did little combat the problem and died from it. The other nearly took my head off when I suggested she is just like me in that regard.
Reading this a light bulb went off, it is often the woman that has to change!  Recalling my still living relative and how she behaves and talks when drunk I think she would try the patience of a Saint. While one can hardly condone murder it is sometimes understandable.

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THE MEXICAN HORSE THIEF
Here is a story of developing and breaking an addiction, while dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome at the same time.
THE CHRONICLES OF THE MEXICAN HORSE THIEF II