FACTS ABOUT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

[Juan and Yenan]

FACTS ABOUT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

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. (The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman’s Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women’s Health, May 1999)

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

Women of all races are about equally vulnerable to violence by an intimate. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey, August 1995)

On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day. (Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003)

In a national survey of more than 6,000 American families, 50 percent of the men who frequently assaulted their wives also frequently abused their children. (Strauss, Murray A, Gelles, Richard J., and Smith, Christine. 1990. Physical Violence in American Families; Risk Factors and Adaptations to Violence in 8,145 Families. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers)

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. (U.S. Department of Justice, Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November 1998)

One in five (21 percent) women reported she had been raped or physically or sexually assaulted in her lifetime. (The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman’s Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women’s Health, May 1999)

Annually in the United States, 503,485 women are stalked by an intimate partner. (Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence, National Institute of Justice, 2000)

Seventy-eight percent of stalking victims are women. Women are significantly more likely than men (60 percent and 30 percent, respectively) to be stalked by intimate partners. (Center for Policy Research, Stalking in America, July 1997)

In cases of marital or dating violence, which accounted for 82% of all protection order cases, 90% of defendants were male. (Adams & Powell, Tragedies of Domestic Violence: A qualitative analysis of civil restraining orders in Massachusetts, Office of the Commissioner of Probation, Massachusetts Trial Court, p. 9, 1995)