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Domestic Violence/ Intimate Partner Violence Statistics
Every 13 seconds a man beats his partner. *
On average, a woman is beaten 9 times before she places the first call to police for help; only 7% of spousal assaults are reported to the police. *
Fifty-seven percent of women who are physically abused by their partners never tell anyone.*
* Statistics commonly cited amongst reputable domestic violence programs.
Approximately 33 million1 or 15% of all U.S. adults, admit that they were a victim of domestic violence. Furthermore, 6 in 10 adults claim that they know someone personally who has experienced domestic violence. The Harris Poll 2006 1. Based on July 2005 U.S. Census estimate released January 2006 (223,000,000 total U.S. adults aged 18 or over).
Among all adults, 39% say that they have experienced at least one of the following:
- Called bad names (31%)
- Pushed, slapped, choked or hit (21%)
- Humiliated publicly (19%)
- Kept away from friends or family (13%)
- Threatened family (10%)
- Forced you to have sexual intercourse without consent (9%)
Each year, IPV results in an estimated 1,200 deaths and 2 million injuries among women and nearly 600,000 injuries among men. CDC Adverse Health Conditions and Health Risk Behaviors Associated with Intimate Partner Violence - United States 2005
As many as 324,000 women each year experience intimate partner violence during their pregnancies. Gazmararian 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.
Violence against women costs companies $72.8 million annually due to lost productivity. Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States. 2003. Center for disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Atlanta, GA.
Seventy-four percent of all murder-suicides involved an intimate partner(spouse, common-law spouse, ex-spouse, or boyfriend/girlfriend). Of these, 96 percent were females killed by their intimate partners. Violence Policy Center (VPC), American Roulette: Murder-Suicide in the United States, April 2006.
Most murder-suicides with three or more victims involved a "family annihilator" -- a subcategory of intimate partner murder-suicide. Family annihilators are murderers who kill not only their wives/girlfriends and children, but often other family members as well, before killing themselves. Violence Policy Center (VPC), American Roulette: Murder-Suicide in the United States, April 2006.
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
Studies suggest that between 3.3 - 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence annually. Carlson, 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).
Pregnant and recently pregnant women are more likely to be victims of homicide than to die of any other cause, and evidence exists that a significant proportion of all female homicide victims are killed by their intimate partners. Frye, V. (2001). Examining Homicide's Contribution to Pregnancy-Associated Deaths. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 285, No. 11, March 21, 2001
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). Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003
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
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. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The National Institute of Justice, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence, July 2000.
Thirty percent of Americans say they know a woman who has been physically abused by her husband or boyfriend in the past year. Lieberman Research Inc., Tracking Survey conducted for The Advertising Council and the Family Violence Prevention Fund, July – October 1996
In the year 2001, more than half a million American women (588,490 women) were victims of nonfatal violence committed by an intimate partner. Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003
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
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. Center for Policy Research, Stalking in America, July 1997
57 % of homeless families identified domestic violence as a primary cause of homelessness. The United States Conference of Mayors, A Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness in America's Cities: 1999, December 1999, p. 94.
While same-sex battering mirrors heterosexual battering both in type and prevalence, its victims receive fewer protections. Seven states define domestic violence in a way that excludes same-sex victims; 21 states have sodomy laws that may require same-sex victims to confess to a crime in order to prove they are in a domestic relationship. Barnes, It's Just a Quarrel', American Bar Association Journal, February 1998, p. 24.
A battered woman who is not a legal resident, or whose immigration status depends on her partner, is isolated by cultural dynamics, which may prevent her from leaving her husband or seeking assistance from the legal system. These factors contribute to the higher incidence of abuse among immigrant women. Orloff et al., With No Place to Turn: Improving Advocacy for Battered Immigrant Women, Family Law Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 2, 313 (Summer 1995).
1 in 4 teens (24%) reported feeling pressure to date; 14% said they would do almost anything to keep a boyfriend or girlfriend. Liz Claiborne Inc. Teen Relationship Abuse Survey 2006
Almost half of teens who have been in a relationship (47%)—and 55% of those who describe theirs as serious—have done something that compromised their own values in order to please their partner. Liz Claiborne Inc. Teen Relationship Abuse Survey 2006
30% reported worrying about their personal physical safety in a relationship. Liz Claiborne Inc. Teen Relationship Abuse Survey 2006
20% of those who have been in a serious relationship have been hit, slapped, or pushed by a boyfriend or girlfriend. Liz Claiborne Inc. Teen Relationship Abuse Survey 2006
1 in 5 female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner. Abused girls are significantly more likely to get involved in other risky behaviors. They are 4 to 6 times more likely to get pregnant and 8 to 9 times more likely to have tried to commit suicide. Silverman, Jay G., Raj, Anita, and Clements, Karen. “Dating Violence Against Adolescent Girls and Associated Substance Use, Unhealthy Weight Control, Sexual Risk Behavior, Pregnancy, and Suicidality.” Pediatrics, August 2004.
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