Domestic violence in Las Vegas becoming more violent

When COVID-19 hit, Elizabeth Abdur-Raheem began to notice more victims of domestic violence with increasingly severe, visible injuries coming into shelters where she worked.

Previously, she said, abusers were careful to keep the violence hidden, but that changed when people were left at home. Even as people have re-emerged from isolation in the five years since, Abdur-Raheem has not seen that trend entirely reverse.

“There’s an increasing level of violence when it comes to domestic violence and the injuries that are occurring,” Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said in a March interview. “The data is not showing me that. That’s my perception, and it’s anecdotal from the reports that I read every single day.”

While police reports of domestic violence are declining, experts warn it is not time to rejoice. Resource centers across the valley remain packed, and many who work in the centers as well as those in the criminal justice system agree on a troubling trend: Individual instances are becoming more violent.

That trend showed up in the most recent report by the Nevada Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, which tracks data across the state.

“Each incident itself was more gruesome, more violent,” said Abdur-Raheem, who runs the coalition. “Each individual incident involved more people, so more people were being harmed in each incident.”

Domestic violence down, but domestic violence homicides up

Nevada ranks second in the country for domestic violence, according to data from the World Population Review.

The Las Vegas Justice Court has two judicial departments with exclusive domestic violence dockets. Together, the two departments hear around 150 domestic violence cases per day.

Metro’s numbers show a decline in police reports of domestic violence. In 2024, there were 17,898 police reports of domestic violence, down from 2023’s 18,165 police reports of domestic violence.

Despite the incident number going down, domestic violence remains the leading cause of homicides.

According to Metro’s May 4 report on murders, domestic violence is the top cause, with 10 in 2025 as of May 4, and seven over the same time period in 2024.

Abdur-Raheem said the use of firearms in domestic violence cases also has increased.

Scared to call police?

Metro’s numbers only represent the times when officers wrote them down in a report, not the number of calls. But even just looking at police calls has limitations, according to those in the field.

“Just because Metro doesn’t get a 911 call doesn’t mean the rates are going down,” said Liz Ortenburger, CEO of domestic violence resource center SafeNest.

In 2023, 1,264 cases occurred in which law enforcement was not called, according to the Nevada Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence.

One reason could be that undocumented people, or people with undocumented family members, are increasingly fearful of calling the police, Ortenburger said.

Amy-Marie Merrell, who runs Cupcake Girls, also cited immigration fears as a potential reason for a decline in police calls. She said her organization, which works with sex workers as well as victims of domestic violence, has not seen any decrease in domestic violence in the valley.

“Domestic violence is getting more and more underreported because people aren’t feeling safe to call the police because they’re worried about ICE; they’re worried about police violence. What we’re seeing is a lot of people who don’t call the police when they really should be calling the police if the police were safe to call,” Merrell said.

‘Data doesn’t tell the full story’

“The data doesn’t always tell the full story, especially with complexities and dynamics of domestic violence cases,” Judge Amy Wilson, who sees around 70 to 80 domestic violence cases a day, wrote in an email.

Another reason could be the stigma and shame people feel in reporting incidents, Abdur-Raheem said.

She and Linda Perez, CEO of domestic violence center The Shade Tree, both cited research that shows victims are likely to go back to their abusers seven times.

While Metro may have fewer calls, domestic violence resource centers across the valley are packed.

“We are extremely busy at the The Shade Tree,” Perez said.

Perez is a survivor of domestic violence herself, something she said is key to supporting those who come for help. She also grew up in a home with domestic violence, which research shows makes it 80 percent more likely to be either an abuser or victim of domestic violence.

How to make change

McMahill said the criminal justice system needs to take domestic violence more seriously.

“When offenders actually have to pay in the criminal justice system for the things that it is that they do, I think it does change behavior sometimes, and we need more of that,” McMahill said.

Ortenburger disagreed with using the courts as a solution. She said she wants to see schools provide more education on healthy relationships, consent and boundaries.

Abdur-Raheem said that she has seen an increase in schools asking for support to handle teen dating violence, which signified to her that schools were becoming increasingly concerned about relationships between their students.

CCSD said that it follows Nevada’s bullying laws.

“The Nevada Academic Content Standards for Health include instruction regarding healthy relationships, consent and boundaries. CCSD students typically receive standards-based instruction related to these topics in elementary, middle and high school,” a spokesperson for the school district said.

“The work in bringing down the rates of domestic violence doesn’t actually have to do with anything we’re doing after there’s a 911 call, because, guess what, the violence has already happened,” Ortenburger said.

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com.

Follow @ktfutts on X and @katiefutterman.bluesky.social.