SPRINGFIELD -- A series of startling statistics was read during Monday's Effingham County Victim/Witness Assistance Program & Effingham County Domestic Violence Task Force Candleight Vigil at the Effingham County Sheriff's Office.Each number left no doubt that domestic violence is a serious problem in Georgia.

-- From 2003-1016, at least 1,671 Georgians lost their lives due to domestic violence

 -- Georgia ranks eighth in the nation for its rate of men killing women

-- Firearms were the cause of death in 71 percent of recorded domestic violence fatalities in 2016

-- Children witness domestic violence homicides in 37 percent of the case studies shown by Georgia's Domestic Violence Fatality Review Project.

-- In 2015, law enforcement officers responded to 65,487 family violence incidences in Georgia

-- Also in 2015, there were 24,710 protective and stalking orders issued in the state

-- In 2016, there were 53,414 crisis calls to Georgia's certified domestic violence agencies

-- Also in 2016, 1,557 victims had their requests for shelter denied because space was not available.

Effingham County is not immune to the problem, according to Heather Wadrose, executive director of the Effingham County Victim/Witness Assistance Program.

"While Effingham Victim/Witness is available to victims and witnesses of all types of crimes, the majority of our assistance goes to the victims of domestic violence -- on average, 61 percent," she said. "In 2015, we served 135 victims of domestic violence, 188 in 2016 and 143, so far, in 2017."

See the Nov. 8 edition of the Effingham Herald for more details.