DID YOU KNOW?

• One in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.1
• An estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year. 2
• 85% of domestic violence victims are women. 3
• Historically, females have been most often victimized by someone they knew.4
• Females who are 20-24 years of age are at the greatest risk of nonfatal intimate partner violence.5
• Most cases of domestic violence are never reported to the police.6
  

CHILDREN WHO WITNESS

• Witnessing violence between one’s parents or caretakers is the strongest risk factor of transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next.7
• Boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own partners and children when they become adults.8
• 30% to 60% of perpetrators of intimate partner violence also abuse children in the household.9
  
  
  

SEXUAL ASSAULT AND STALKING

• One in 6 women and 1 in 33 men have experienced an attempted or completed rape.10
• Nearly  7.8 million women  have been raped by an intimate partner at some point in their lives.11
• Sexual assault or forced sex occurs in approximately 40-45% of battering relationships.12
• 1 in 12 women and 1 in 45 men have been stalked in their lifetime.13
• 81% of women stalked by a current or former intimate partner are also physically ssaulted by that partner; 31% are also sexually assaulted by that partner.13
  
  
  

HOMICIDE AND INJURY

• Almost  one-third of female homicide victims that are reported in police records are killed by an intimate partner.14
• In 70-80% of intimate partner homicides, no matter which partner was killed, the man physically abused the woman before the murder.12
• Less than one-fifth of victims reporting an injury from intimate partner violence sought medical treatment following the injury.15
• Intimate partner violence results in more than 18.5 million mental health care visits each year.16
  
  
  

ECONOMIC IMPACT

• The cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion each year, $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health services.17
• Victims of intimate partner violence lost almost 8 million days of paid work because of the violence perpetrated against them by current or former husbands, boyfriends and dates. This loss is the equivalent of more than 32,000 full-time jobs and almost 5.6 million days of household productivity as a result of violence.17
• There are 16,800 homicides and $2.2 million (medically treated) injuries due to intimate partner violence annually, which costs $37 billion.18

1. Tjaden, Patricia & Thoennes, Nancy. National Institute of Justice and the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, “Extent, Nature and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey,” (2000).
2. Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States. 2003. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Centers for Injury Prevention and Control. Atlanta, GA.
3. Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003.
4. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Criminal Victimization, 2005,” September 2006.
5. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Intimate Partner Violence in the United States,” December 2006.
6. Frieze, I.H., Browne, A. (1989) Violence in Marriage. In L.E. Ohlin & M. H. Tonry (eds.) Family Violence. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
7. Break the Cycle. (2006). Startling Statistics. http://www.breakthecycle.org/html%20files/I_4a_startstatis.htm.
8. Strauss, Gelles, and Smith, “Physical Violence in American Families: Risk Factors and Adaptations to Violence” in 8,145 Families. Transaction Publishers (1990).
9. Edelson, J.L. (1999). “The Overlap between Child Maltreatment and Woman Battering.” Violence Against Women. 5:134-154.
10. U.S. Department of Justice, “Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women,” November 1998.
11. Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States. 2003. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Centers for Injury Prevention and Control. Atlanta, GA.
12. Campbell, et al. (2003). “Assessing Risk Factors for Intimate Partner Homicide.” Intimate Partner Homicide, NIJ Journal, 250, 14-19. Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice.
13. Tjaden, Patricia & Thoennes, Nancy. (1998). “Stalking in America.” National Institute for Justice.
14. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports “Crime in the United States, 2000,” (2001).
15. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Intimate Partner Violence in the United States,” December 2006.
16. Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States. 2003. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Centers for Injury Prevention and Control. Atlanta, GA. Tjaden, Patricia & Thoennes, Nancy.
17. Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States. 2003. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Centers for Injury Prevention and Control. Atlanta, GA.
18. The Cost of Violence in the United States. 2007. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Centers for Injury Prevention and Control. Atlanta, GA.