Family Violence National Statistics

▪  The National Domestic Violence Hotline has received more than 700,000 calls for assistance
   since February 1996.
   -National Domestic Violence Hotline, December 2001
▪  Nearly ¹/₃ of American women (31%) report being physically or sexually abused by a
   husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives.
   - Commonwealth Fund Survey, 1998
▪  It is estimated that 503,485 women are stalked by an intimate partner each year in the
   United States.
   - National Institute of Justice, July 2000
▪  Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against current or former spouse,
   boyfriend, or girlfriend each year to 4 million women who are physically abused by their
   husbands or live-in partners each year.
   - Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, U.S.
     Department of Justice, March 1998
▪  Studies show that child abuse occurs in 30-60% of family violence cases that involve families
   with children.
   – "The overlap between child maltreatment and woman battering." J.L. Edleson, Violence Against Women, Feb, 1999
▪  While women are less likely than men to be victims of violent crimes overall, women are 5 to
   8 times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate partner.
   – Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, U.S.
     Department of  Justice, March, 1998
▪  Violence by an intimate partner accounts for about 21% of violent crime experienced by
   women and about 2 % of the violence experienced by men.
   – Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, U.S.
      Department of Justice, March, 1998
▪  In 92% of all domestic violence incidents, crimes are committed by men against women.
   – Violence Against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, January, 1994
▪  Of women who reported being raped and/or physically assaulted since the age of 18, three
   quarters (76%) were victimized by a current or former husband, cohabitating partner, date
   or boyfriend.
   – Prevalence Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against
     Women Survey, U.S. Department of Justice, November, 1998
▪  In 1994, women separated from their spouses had a victimization rate 1 ¹/₂ times higher
   than separated men, divorced men, or divorced women.
   – Sex Differences in Violent Victimization, 1994, U.S. Department of Justice, September, 1997
▪  In 1996, among all female murder victims in the U.S., 30% were slain by their husbands or
    boyfriends.
   – Uniform Crime Reports of the U.S. 1996, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1996
▪  31,260 women were murdered by an intimate from 1976-1996.
   – Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, U.S.
      Department of  Justice, March, 1998
▪  A child’s exposure to the father abusing the mother is the strongest risk factor for
   transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next.
  – Report of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family, APA, 1996
▪  40% of teenage girls age 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age who has been hit or
   beaten by a boyfriend.
   – Children Now/Kaiser Permanente poll, December, 1995
▪  Females accounted for 39% of the hospital emergency department visits for violence-related
    injuries in 1994 but 84% of the persons treated for injuries inflicted by intimates.
   – Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, U.S.
      Department of Justice, March, 1998
▪  Family violence costs the nation from $5 to $10 billion annually in medical expenses, police
   and court costs, shelters and foster care, sick leave, absenteeism, and non-productivity.
   – Medical News, American Medical Association, January, 1992
▪  Husbands and boyfriends commit 13,000 acts of violence against women in the workplace
   every year.
   – Violence and Theft in the Workplace, U.S. Department of Justice, July, 1994
▪  The majority of welfare recipients have experienced domestic abuse in their adult lives and a
    high percentage are currently abused.
    – Trapped by Poverty, Trapped by Abuse: New Evidence Documenting the Relationship Between Domestic Violence
       and Welfare, The Taylor Institute, April, 1997
▪  1 in 5 female high school students reports being physically or sexually abused by a dating
    partner.
   – Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), August 2001