What's wrong with this picture?

How can incidents such as the one of Jennifer S. keep taking place every week across this country after all these years of working to fight domestic violence?  Why do divorce, restraining orders and arrest not prevent a domestic murder?

The GOOD news is that:

The number of violent crimes by intimate partners against women declined from 1993 to 2001.  Down from 1.1 million nonfatal violent crimes by an intimate in 1993, to 588,490 such crimes in 2001.  49% decrease (US Dept of Justice, February 2003, NCJ 197838)

The number of women murdered by intimates between 1976 - 2000 fell 22% from 1,600 to 1,247. (US Dept of Justice, February 2003, NCJ197838)

But as you can see by Jennifer's fate, the BAD new is:

Intimate partner violence - by current or former spouses, boyfriends, or girlfriends - made up 20% of all nonfatal violence against females age 12 or older in 2001.  (US Dept of Justice, February 2003, NCJ 197838)

Nearly one-third of American women (31%) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives, according to a 1998 Commonwealth Fund Survey. (The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman's Lifespan:  1998 Survey of Women's Health, May 1999)

On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day.  In 2000, 1,247 women were killed by an intimate partner.  The same year 440 men were killed by an intimate partner. (Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003)

Women are much more likely than men to be killed by an intimate partner.  In 2000, intimate partner homicides accounted for 33.5% of the murders of women and less than 4% of the murders of men. (Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003)

More than five times as many women are murdered by an intimate acquaintance (605) than by a stranger (113) in the year 2000.  (www.vpc.org/press/0010dv.htm)

In 2001, women accounted for 85% of the victims of intimate partner violence (588,490) and men accounted for approximately 15% of the victims (103,220 total). (Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003)

9% of murder victims in 2002 were killed by their spouse or intimate partner.  78% of those victims were female.  (Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2003).  Crime in the United States, 2002)

7% of adult probationers in 2002 had been convicted of Domestic Violence.  (Glaze, Lauren. (2003) Probation and Parole in the United States, 2002 Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice)