GENERAL FACTS ABOUT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

There are at least 4 million reported incidents of domestic violence against women every year.  Almost 20% of these are aggravated assaults in the home. (Angela Brown, Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, December 1990)

Women are 10 times more likely than men to be victims of violent crime in intimate relationships. (U.S. Dept. of Justice, Violence Against Women, January 1994)

In 1991, more than 90 women were murdered every week.  Nine out of ten were murdered by men. (Senate Judiciary Committee Report, Violence Against Women: A Week In the Life of America, October 1992)

Weapons are used in 30% of domestic violence incidents. (P. Claus & M. Ranel, Special Report: Family Violence, Bureau of Justice Statistics, undated)

15 to 25% of pregnant women are battered. (Evan Stark & Anne Flitcraft, 1992)

22 to 35% of women who visit emergency rooms are there for injuries related to on-going abuse. (Journal of American Medical Association, 1990)

Medical expenses from domestic violence total at least $3 to $5 billion annually. Businesses forfeit another $100 million in lost wages, sick leave, absenteeism and non-productivity. (Domestic Violence For Health Care Providers, 3^rd Edition, Colorado Domestic Violence Coalition, 1991)

Abusive husbands and lovers harass 74% of employed battered women at work, either in person or over the telephone (Caroline Wolf Harlow, Female Victims of Crime, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1991), causing 20% to lose their jobs (Schecter & Gray, A Framework for Understanding and Empowering Battered Women, 1988)

As violence against women becomes more severe and more frequent in the home, children experience a 300% increase in physical violence by the male batterer.  (M. Strauss and R. Gelles, Physical Violence in American Families, 1990)

Approximately 1 out of every 25 elderly persons is victimized annually (Candace Heisler, Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, 1991)

Of those who experience domestic elder abuse, 37% are neglected and 26% are physically abused.  Of those who perpetrate domestic elder abuse, 30% are the adult children of the abused person. (National Aging Resource Center on Elder Abuse, 1990)

In 1991, only 17 states kept data on reported domestic violence offenses. These reports were limited to murder, rape, robbery and serious bodily injury and no other forms of domestic violence. (Senate Judiciary Committee Report, October 1992)

Injuries that battered women receive are at least as serious as injuries suffered in 90% of violent felony crimes, yet under state laws, they are almost always classified as misdemeanors. (Joan Zorza, The Gender Bias Committee’s Domestic Violence Study, 1989)

In one study, the husbands also raped 37% of the women who had been physically battered by their husbands. (Diane E. Russell, Rape in Marriage, Revised ED., 1990)

Until recently, few states collected enough information to indicate how many crimes reported to the police were committed against women and how many were committed against men. Crimes reported as aggravated assault by husband against wife were not distinguished from crimes reported as aggravated assault by an unknown assailant. (Domestic Crimes in the U.S. Survey, Senate Judiciary Committee, 1991)

Although more than one million women seek medical treatment each year for injuries caused by their husbands, ex-husbands or boyfriends, doctors correctly identified the injuries as resulting from battering only 4% of the time. (E. Stark & A. Flitcraft, Medical Therapy as Repression: The Case of the Battered Women, 1982)

Although divorced and separated women compose only 7% of the population in the United States, they account for 75% of all battered women and report being battered 14 times as often as women still living with their partners. (Patsy Klaus & Michael Rand, Special Report: Family Violence, Bureau of Justice, 1992)

Victimization by intimates and other relatives accounted for only 5% of all violent victimization against men. (U.S. Dept. of Justice, Violence Against Women, NCJ-145325,January 1994)

Currently, there are 2,000 battered women in America who are serving prison time for defending their lives against their batterers (Stacey Kabat, Remarks from presentation at Harvard School for Public Health, June 1991)

FBI Statistics indicate that women convicted for killing their male partners are frequently sentenced to longer prison terms than are men. (Angela Browne, When Battered Women Kill, 1987)

Up to 50% of all homeless women and children in this country are fleeing domestic violence (Elizabeth Schneider, Legal Reform Efforts for Battered Women, 1990) Yet there are nearly three times as many animal shelters in the United States as there are shelters for battered women. (Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings, 1990)

Violent fathers use school records or the presence of children at school to track down the mothers. (Lee Ann Hoff, Battered Women as Survivors, 1990)

Abusers keep or destroy documentation like birth certificates and immunization records, thus preventing or seriously delaying the family’s receiving welfare benefits or housing assistance. (Peter Jaffe, David Wolfe & Susan Kaye Wilson, Children of Battered Women, 1990)

3.3 million children in the United States, between ages 3 and 17 years, are yearly at risk of exposure to parental violence. (Peter Jaffe, David Wolfe & Susan Kaye Wilson, Children of Battered Women, 1990)

Many parents minimize or deny the presence of children while the mothers are being assaulted.  However, interviews with children of battered women reveal that they have seen and heard, and can describe detailed accounts of violent behavior that their mother or father never realized they had witnessed. (Jaffe, Wolfe & Wilson, Children of Battered Women, 1990)

62% of sons over age 14 were injured when they attempted to protect their mothers from attacks by abusive male partners. (Maria Roy, Children In The Crossfire, 1988)

Of children who witness their mothers being abused by their fathers, 40% suffer anxiety, 48% suffer depression, 53% act out with their parents, 60% act out with siblings. (Pfout, Schopler & Henley, “Forgotten Victims Of Family Violence,” in Social Work, July 1982) These children also suffer poor health, low self-esteem, poor impulse control, sleeping difficulties, and feelings of powerlessness. They are at high risk for alcohol and drug use, sexual acting out, running away from home, isolation, loneliness, fear and suicide. (Jaffe, Wolfe & Wilson, Children of Battered Women, 1990)

More than 50% of child abductions result from domestic violence. (Geoffrey Greif & Rebecca Hagar, “Abduction of Children By Their Parents: A Survey of the Problem,” in Social Work, 1991)

Eight times as many women report using physical discipline on their children while with the batterer than when living alone or in a non-abusive relationship. (Lenore Walker, The Battered Woman Syndrome, 1984)

Events can be witnessed in many ways, not just by sight. Children may hear their mother’s screams and crying; the abuser’s threats; sounds of fist hitting flesh, glass breaking, wood splintering, cursing and degrading language. Children also witness the consequences of the abuse after it has occurred - their mother’s bruises and torn clothes, holes in walls, broken furniture, their mother’s tears. They sense the tension in the house, in their mother. (National Center On Women and Family Law, The Effect Of Woman Abuse on Children, 1990)

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