It's tempting to label the murder of three women and the wounding of nine others at the LA Fitness center in Collier as the isolated, tragic actions of one disturbed man. How else can we make sense of the misdeeds of George Sodini -- a mass murderer who targeted his victims based not only on their gender, but also on his belief that all women must pay for his past failed relationships?

This horrific crime demands an acknowledgment of the role that violence against women plays in not only the fitness club shootings, but also in other crimes. After all, Mr. Sodini didn't just go into a health club and randomly shoot members before killing himself; he pre-selected an Aug. 4 class he knew to be all women. Consider these incidents in the last three years alone:

• Robert Stewart opened fire at the Pinelake Health and Rehabilitation Center in March 2009 in Carthage, N.C., killing eight people and wounding three. His estranged wife, a nurse at the center, was the alleged target of the shooting.

• Bruce Jeffrey Pardo killed nine people, including his ex-wife and her parents, at a Christmas party last year at his former in-laws' home in Covina, Calif.

• Charles Carl Roberts IV fatally shot five girls in an Amish one-room schoolhouse in Lancaster County in October 2006. He had separated the female students from the male students before the shooting.

• Duane Roger Morrison held six female students hostage and sexually assaulted them at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colo., in September 2006 before he killed one of the students.

Beyond these crimes that receive widespread media attention, there are countless acts of violence that rarely make the news. Last year alone, Blackburn Center Against Domestic & Sexual Violence in Westmoreland County provided services to 2,833 victims of domestic and sexual violence and answered 3,466 calls on its hot line. This region is a snapshot of the nation: One in every four women in the United States will experience domestic violence in her lifetime; one in five women has experienced an attempted or completed rape. Being female is the No. 1 risk factor for being sexually assaulted or assaulted by an intimate partner.

To end these kinds of incidents in our communities, we must address the marginalization and objectification of women that ultimately results in traumatic injury, loss of life and loss of community. Violence against women ranges from demeaning images of women and girls in the media to violence in relationships to the extreme of a mass murderer who targets his intended victims based on their gender, his belief in entitlement to a relationship and the right to make all women pay for his rejection.

Gender biases and inequities are complex and deeply rooted in our culture. When society permits the marginalization of women and does not address its consequences, women will continue to be demeaned and targeted. The change needed to end this violence requires both personal and systemic transformation that challenges the existing status quo.

Historically, society has viewed violence against women as something women have the responsibility to control. Without a fundamental shift in cultural norms, women who are victims of domestic and sexual violence will continue to be held accountable for someone else's behavior. Until we stop asking "Why did she stay?" or "Why was she out alone at night?" and until society instead shines the spotlight on the behavior of perpetrators and declares violence against women unacceptable, incidents like the LA Fitness shooting will continue.

Along with providing victim services, Blackburn Center works to transform thinking and practices that result in the inequity and oppression of women in our communities. Advocates for this kind of change know that this work involves some risk -- challenging the status quo can result in discomfort and loss of support. But it is time to take this risk and this step. Without it, there will never be enough battered women's shelters or rape crisis counselors and the tragedies will continue.

Further investigation may find a number of critical junctures where the system failed to help Mr. Sodini and to protect the public. However, it would compound this tragedy to avoid the uncomfortable but necessary discussion of violence against women; the toll it takes on individuals, families and communities; and the responsibility and accountability that we all share to put an end to it.