Prevalence of Domestic Violence

 

     

·        Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend per year1 to 3.9 million women who are physically abused by their husbands or live-in partners per year.2

·        Nearly one-third of American women (31 percent) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives, according to a 1998 Commonwealth Fund survey.3 (note: A more recent survey published in April 2000 found that the number was closer to half of all women having been abused)

·        Thirty percent of Americans say they know a woman who has been physically abused by her husband or boyfriend in the past year.4

·        While women are less likely than men to be victims of violent crimes overall, women are five to eight times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate partner.5

·        From 1992 to 1996, victimization by an intimate accounted for about 21 percent of the violence experienced by females. Yet abuse by women against men was only 2% of the violent crimes committed against men during these same years. 6

·        Women of all races are about equally vulnerable to violence by an intimate.7

·        Male violence against women does much more damage than female violence against men; women are much more likely to be injured than men.8

·        The most rapid growth in domestic relations caseloads is occurring in domestic violence filings. Between 1993 and 1995, 18 of 32 states with three year filing figures reported an increase of 20 percent or more.9

·        Women are 7 to 14 times more likely than men to report suffering severe physical assaults from an intimate partner.10

Domestic Homicides

·        In 1996, approximately 1,800 murders were attributed to intimates; nearly three out of four of these had a female victim.11

·        Among all female murder victims in 1995, 26 percent were known to have been slain by husbands or boyfriends. Only three percent of the male victims were known to have been slain by wives or girlfriends.12

Health Issues

·        About half of all female victims of intimate violence report an injury of some type, and about 20 percent of them seek medical assistance.13

·        Two-thirds of women who sought treatment in emergency rooms for violence-related injuries in 1994 were injured by a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend.14

Domestic Violence and Youth

·        One in ten high school age girls said "yes" when asked if "a boyfriend or date has ever forced sex against your will."15

·        Four in ten teenage girls report knowing someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend.16

·        During the 1996-1997 school year, there were an estimated 4,000 incidents of rape or other types of sexual assault in public schools across the country.17

 

 

Domestic Violence and Children

·        In a national survey of more than 2,000 American families, approximately half of the men who frequently assaulted their wives also frequently abused their children.18

·        Slightly more than half of female victims of intimate violence live in households with children under age 12.19

Rape

·        Three in four women (76 percent) who reported they had been raped and/or physically assaulted since age 18 said that a current or former husband, cohabiting partner, or date committed the assault.20

·        Nearly one-fifth of women (18 percent) reported experiencing a completed or attempted rape at some time in their lives; one in 33 men (3 percent) reported experiencing a completed or attempted rape at some time in their lives.21

Stalking

·        Four in five stalking victims are women.22

·        Four in five women who are stalked by former husbands are physically assaulted by that partner and 30 percent are sexually assaulted by that partner.23

 

 

 

References

1.        U.S. Department of Justice, Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, March 1998.

2.        The Commonwealth Fund, First Comprehensive National Health Survey of American Women, July 1993.

3.        The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across A Woman's Lifespan: The Commonwealth Fund 1998 Survey of Women's Health, May 1999.

4.        Lieberman Research Inc., Domestic Violence Advertising Campaign Tracking Survey (Wave IV) Conducted for The Advertising Council and the Family Violence Prevention Fund, July - October 1996.

5.        U.S. Department of Justice, Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, March 1998.

6.        U.S. Department of Justice, Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, March 1998.

7.        Bureau of Justice Statistics, Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey, August 1995.

8.        Murray A. Straus and Richard J. Gelles, Physical Violence in American Families, 1990.

9.        Examining the Work of State Courts, 1995: A National Perspective from the Court Statistics Project. National Center for the State Courts, 1996.

10.     National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November 1998.

11.     U.S. Department of Justice, Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, March 1998.

12.     Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States 1995: Uniform Crime Reports.

13.     National Crime Victimization Survey, 1992-96; Study of Injured Victims of Violence, 1994.

14.     U.S. Department of Justice, Violence-Related Injuries Treated in Hospital Emergency Departments, August 1997.

15.     The Commonwealth Fund Survey of the Health of Adolescent Girls, November 1997.

16.     Children Now/Kaiser Permanente poll, December 1995.

17.     U.S. Department of Education, Violence and Discipline Problems in U.S. Public Schools: 1996-1997.

18.     Murray A. Straus and Richard J. Gelles, Physical Violence in American Families, 1990.

19.     U.S. Department of Justice, Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, March 1998.

20.     National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November 1998.

21.     National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November 1998.

22.     Center for Policy Research, Stalking in America, July 1997.

23.     Center for Policy Research, Stalking in America, July 1997.