A database of femicides in Puerto Rico supports claims that the police department is failing to seriously investigate the violent deaths of women.

In total, the researchers counted 266 femicides in Puerto Rico during the five-year period, or one every seven days. Women without a high school education were five times more likely to be murdered. Fifty-eight percent of the women were killed using firearms, and a large proportion were murdered in their homes.

The Puerto Rican police are notorious for mishandling reports of intimate partner abuse and for high rates of domestic violence within their own ranks. The U.S. Justice Department found that from 2005 to 2010, the police department received 1,459 complaints alleging domestic violence carried out by its officers. At least 98 officers were arrested multiple times on domestic violence charges between 2007 and 2010.