Domestic Violence

[Madspirit]

http://www.endabuse.org/resources/facts/

Domestic Violence is a Serious, Widespread Social Problem in America: The Facts

Prevalence of Domestic Violence

Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend per year1 to three million women who are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend per year.2

Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime.3

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.4

Nearly 25 percent of American women report being raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or date at some time in their lifetime, according to the National Violence Against Women Survey, conducted from November 1995 to May 1996.5

Thirty percent of Americans say they know a woman who has been physically abused by her husband or boyfriend in the past year.6

In the year 2001, more than half a million American women (588,490 women) were victims of nonfatal violence committed by an intimate partner.7

Intimate partner violence is primarily a crime against women. In 2001, women accounted for 85 percent of the victims of intimate partner violence (588,490 total) and men accounted for approximately 15 percent of the victims (103,220 total).8

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.9

In 2001, intimate partner violence made up 20 percent of violent crime against women. The same year, intimate partners committed three percent of all violent crime against men.10

As many as 324,000 women each year experience intimate partner violence during their pregnancy.11

Women of all races are about equally vulnerable to violence by an intimate.12

Male violence against women does much more damage than female violence against men; women are much more likely to be injured than men.13

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.14

Women are seven to 14 times more likely than men to report suffering severe physical assaults from an intimate partner.15

Domestic Homicides

On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day. In 2000, 1,247 women were killed by an intimate partner. The same year, 440 men were killed by an intimate partner.16

Women are much more likely than men to be killed by an intimate partner. In 2000, intimate partner homicides accounted for 33.5 percent of the murders of women and less than four percent of the murders of men.17

Pregnant and recently pregnant women are more likely to be victims of homicide than to die of any other cause18 , and evidence exists that a significant proportion of all female homicide victims are killed by their intimate partners.19

Research suggests that injury related deaths, including homicide and suicide, account for approximately one-third of all maternal mortality cases, while medical reasons make up the rest. But, homicide is the leading cause of death overall for pregnant women, followed by cancer, acute and chronic respiratory conditions, motor vehicle collisions and drug overdose, peripartum and postpartum cardiomyopthy, and suicide.20

Health Issues

The health-related costs of rape, physical assault, stalking and homicide committed by intimate partners exceed $5.8 billion each year. Of that amount, nearly $4.1 billion are for direct medical and mental health care services, and nearly $1.8 billion are for the indirect costs of lost productivity or wages.21

About half of all female victims of intimate violence report an injury of some type, and about 20 percent of them seek medical assistance.22

Thirty-seven percent 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.23

Domestic Violence and Youth

Approximately one in five female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner.24

Eight percent of high school age girls said “yes” when asked if “a boyfriend or date has ever forced sex against your will.”25

Forty percent of girls age 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend.26

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.27
Domestic Violence and Children

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.28
Slightly more than half of female victims of intimate violence live in households with children under age 12.29

Studies suggest that between 3.3 - 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence annually.30

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.31

One in five (21 percent) women reported she had been raped or physically or sexually assaulted in her lifetime.32

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

In 2000, 48 percent of the rapes/sexual assaults committed against people age 12 and over were reported to the police.34

In 2001, 41,740 women were victims of rape/sexual assault committed by an intimate partner.35

Rapes/sexual assaults committed by strangers are more likely to be reported to the police than rapes/sexual assaults committed by “nonstrangers,” including intimate partners, other relatives and friends or acquaintances. Between 1992 and 2000, 41 percent of the rapes/sexual assaults committed by strangers were reported to the police. During the same time period, 24 percent of the rapes/sexual assaults committed by an intimate were reported.36

Stalking

Annually in the United States, 503,485 women are stalked by an intimate partner.37
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.38
Eighty percent of women who are stalked by former husbands are physically assaulted by that partner and 30 percent are sexually assaulted by that partner.39

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1U.S. Department of Justice, Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, March 1998
2The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman’s Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women’s Health, May 1999
3Heise, L., Ellsberg, M. and Gottemoeller, M. Ending Violence Against Women. Population Reports, Series L, No. 11., December 1999
4The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman’s Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women’s Health, May 1999
5The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The National Institute of Justice, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence, July 2000.
6Lieberman Research Inc., Tracking Survey conducted for The Advertising Council and the Family Violence Prevention Fund, July – October 1996
7Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003
8Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003
9U.S. Department of Justice, Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, March 1998
10Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003
11Gazmararian JA, Petersen R, Spitz AM, Goodwin MM, Saltzman LE, Marks JS. “Violence and reproductive health; current knowledge and future research directions.” Maternal and Child Health Journal 2000;4(2):79-84.
12Bureau of Justice Statistics, Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey, August 1995
13Murray A. Straus and Richard J. Gelles, Physical Violence in American Families, 1990
14Examining the Work of State Courts, 1995: A National Perspective from the Court Statistics Project. National Center for the State Courts, 1996
15National 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
16Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003
17Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003
18Horon, I., & Cheng, D., (2001). Enhanced Surveillance for Pregnancy-Associated Mortality - Maryland, 1993 - 1998. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 285, No. 11, March 21, 2001.
19Frye, V. (2001). Examining Homicide's Contribution to Pregnancy-Associated Deaths. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 285, No. 11, March 21, 2001
20Nannini, A., Weiss, J., Goldstein, R., & Fogerty, S., (2002). Pregnancy-Associated Mortality at the End of the Twentieth Century: Massachusetts, 1990 – 1999. Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association, Vol. 57, No. 23, Summer 2002.
21Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States, April 2003.
22National Crime Victimization Survey, 1992-96; Study of Injured Victims of Violence, 1994
23U.S. Department of Justice, Violence Related Injuries Treated in Hospital Emergency Departments, August 1997
24Jay G. Silverman, PhD; Anita Raj, PhD; Lorelei A. Mucci, MPH; and Jeanne E. Hathaway, MD, MPH, “Dating Violence Against Adolescent Girls and Associated Substance Use, Unhealthy Weight Control, Sexual Risk Behavior, Pregnancy, and Suicidality,” Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 286, No. 5, 2001
25The Commonwealth Fund Survey of the Health of Adolescent Girls, November 1997
26Children Now/Kaiser Permanente poll, December 1995
27U.S. Department of Education, Violence and Discipline Problems in U.S. Public Schools: 1996-1997
28Strauss, 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
29U.S. Department of Justice, Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, March 1998
30Carlson, Bonnie E. (1984). Children's observations of interpersonal violence. Pp. 147-167 in A.R. Roberts (Ed.) Battered women and their families (pp. 147-167). NY: Springer. Straus, M.A. (1992). Children as witnesses to marital violence: A risk factor for lifelong problems among a nationally representative sample of American men and women. Report of the Twenty-Third Ross Roundtable. Columbus, OH: Ross Laboratories.
31U.S. Department of Justice, Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November 1998
32The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman’s Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women’s Health, May 1999
33National 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
34Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Reporting Crime to the Police, 1992-2000, March 2003
35Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003
36Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Reporting Crime to the Police, 1992-2000, March 2003
37Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence, National Institute of Justice, 2000
38Center for Policy Research, Stalking in America, July 1997
39Center for Policy Research, Stalking in America, July 1997

[gollygee]

1. I'll K&R this too

and wait for the inevitable cries of "Men sometimes get abused too!"

[Madspirit]

2. kick

[madmusic]

3. Study: Child abuse rises when spouse goes to war

The stress of having an Army spouse in a combat zone leads to a 60 percent increase in the rate of moderate to severe maltreatment of children by the spouse left behind, researchers said Tuesday.

The researchers found that the increased abuse and neglect was overwhelmingly committed by female spouses. They found no significant increase by male spouses left behind, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The maltreatment could have long-term consequences because abused children were more likely to suffer from depression and other health problems well into adulthood, the North Carolina researchers said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-abuse_01aug01,1,6477940.story

[madmusic]

4. Screen mums for abuse potential - experts

By KIM THOMAS - The Press | Wednesday, 8 August 2007

Child health experts are calling for screening to identify expectant mothers most likely to expose their child to abuse and neglect.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4156449a20475.html

[madmusic]

5. National survey highlights child abuse shame

5:00AM Wednesday August 08, 2007
By Martin Johnston

One in every ten children has been sexually abused, according to national survey which confirms New Zealand's high levels of violence.

Six in ten had experienced physical violence and eight in ten emotional violence, the survey of more than 2000 children aged 9 to 13 found.

The survey, completed in class at 28 schools in 1998, defined physical violence as being punched, kicked, beaten or hit, or getting into a physical fight; sexual violence as having unwanted sexual touching or being asked to do unwanted sexual things; and emotional violence as being threatened, called names, ganged up on, left out, not spoken to, "narked on", gossiped about, and "having tales told about me".


Abuse rates

A national survey of 2077 children aged 9 to 13 found:

* 11 per cent said they had been sexually abused.

* 63 per cent said they had been physically abused.

* 80 per cent said they had been emotionally abused.

Source: Massey University

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10456409

[Madspirit]

11. Don't Worry

I post a lot of posts about child abuse too!
Thank-you for caring about this.
Lee

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. And I remember a thread where one person said

that this really wasn't a problem that the national government should be involved in. These statistics show me that Kucinich's Dept. of Peace is a good idea.

[Stargazer99]

8. The supposition that it is not a government problem

has got to be a response from an ignorant conservative. It is about as far as their intellect and ability to deny the facts will take them.

[musette_sf]

7. K & R!!!! n/t

[madmusic]

9. Jailed dads don't damage teens: study

July 31, 2007 - 2:09PM


Having a dad in jail may not be as damaging for a teenager's development as once thought, an Australian study has found.

Children of prisoners are known to have more behavioural problems than other kids, but Brisbane researchers have found that these problems stem from social disadvantage in general, rather than their parent's incarceration.

"Our study shows that it is more likely to be other disadvantages experienced by these children - such as low socio-economic status, marital disorder, an unstable family life, mothers who drink and smoke and have poor mental health - that cause these problems," Dr Kinner said.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Jailed-dads-dont-damage-teens-study/2007/07/31/1185647880588.html

[eridani]

10. The factors that damage these teens are the same ones that put their dads in jail n/t

[OneBlueSky]

12. I do some part-time consulting work for the local battered women's shelter . . .

and I can tell you, it's a huge problem . . . in our small county, with a population of less than 300,000, last year the shelter served 2,425 women who had been abused by their spouses or partners . . . and those are only the ones who sought help . . . donating to your local shelter is a good way to promote real social change . . .