A consistent and substantial drop in domestic violence in the United States, falling by more than half since 1993, according to a new Department of Justice report, follows the path of reductions in other crimes. It also suggests that a leading cause of injury for women in Maine could be further reduced if the reasons for the declines were better understood.

According to the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, the rate of nonfatal partner violence fell from 5.8 per 1,000 individuals to 2.6 per 1,000, and the number of women killed by “intimates” – current or former partners – dropped from 1,572 in 1993 to 1,159 in 2004. The number of men killed fell even more dramatically, from 698 to 385 during that time. Going back to the late 1970s, beyond the scope of the study, the DOJ reports that male death numbers then were similar to female numbers, at around 1,500 annually, and so have fallen even further.

One likely reason for this good news is a change in demographics, most notably that the population is older. But other reasons, such as greater social pressure against domestic violence, increased legal services for victims of violence and greater economic independence of women may contribute to the downward trend. The bureau’s report does not offer conclusions of its own. But finding out what has changed to allow women and men to be safer in their homes, at work and throughout their lives is well worth the department’s efforts. It might explain, for instance, whether the flattening out of the statistics was an anomaly or a sign that the numbers would soon begin to rise again.

Yet another possibility for the overall decline is what experts said caused some of the rise in violent crimes in the 1980s – increases in illegal drugs. Last summer, John Roman, a senior research associate in the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute, pointed out the Midwest and South had the largest recent increases in violent crime and the fastest growth of methamphetamine use. Only about 6 percent of men and women reported domestic-violence attacks in which the attacker was under the influence of drugs, according to the bureau report.

By pointing out the sharp decline in domestic violence, the bureau provides both perspective and hope that domestic violence can be further reduced. The department should be commended for presenting this valuable work and encouraged to look further into the causes behind the decline.