Approximately 95% of the
victims of domestic violence are women.
(Department of Justice
figures)
Every 9 seconds in the United
States a woman is assaulted and beaten.
4,000,000 women a year
are assaulted by their partners.
In the United States, a
woman is more likely to be assaulted,
injured, raped, or killed by a male partner
than by any other type of assailant.
Every day, 4 women are murdered
by boyfriends or husbands.
Prison terms for killing
husbands are twice as long as for killing
wives.
93% of women who killed
their mates had been battered by them.
67% killed them to protect themselves
and their children at the moment of murder.
25% of all crime is wife
assault.
70% of men who batter their
partners either sexually or physically
abuse their children.
Domestic violence is the
number one cause of emergency room visits
by women.
73% of the battered women
seeking emergency medical services have
already separated from the abuser.
Women are most likely to
be killed when attempting to leave the
abuser. In fact, they're at a 75% higher
risk than those who stay.
The number-one cause of
women's injuries is abuse at home. This
abuse happens more often than car accidents,
mugging, and rape combined.
Up to 37% of all women
experience battering. This is an estimated
566,000 women in Minnesota alone.
Battering often occurs during
pregnancy. One study found that 37% of
pregnant women, across all class, race,
and educational lines, were physically
abused during pregnancy.
60% of all battered women
are beaten while they are pregnant.
34% of the female homicide
victims over age 15 are killed by their
husbands, ex-husbands, or boyfriends.
2/3 of all marriages will
experience domestic violence at least
once.
Weapons are used in 30%
of domestic violence incidents.
Approximately 1,155,600
adult American women have been victims
of one or more forcible rapes by their
husbands.
Over 90% of murder-suicides
involving couples are perpetrated by the
man. 19-26% of male spouse-murderers committed
suicide.
When only spouse abuse was
considered, divorced or separated men
committed 79% of the assaults and husbands
committed 21%.
Abusive husbands and lovers
harass 74% of employed battered women
at work, either in person or over the
telephone, causing 20% to lose their jobs.
Physical violence in dating
relationships ranges from 20-35%.
It is estimated that between
20% to 52% of high school and college
age dating couples have engaged in physical
abuse.
More than 50% of child abductions
result from domestic violence.
Injuries that battered women
receive are at least as serious as injuries
suffered in 90% of violent felony crimes.
In 1991, only 17 states
kept data on reported domestic violence
offenses. These reports were limited to
murder, rape, robbery, and serious bodily
injury.
More than half of battered
women stay with their batterer because
they do not feel that they can support
themselves and their children alone.
In homes where domestic
violence occurs, children are abused at
a rate 1,500% higher
than the national average.
Up to 64% of hospitalized
female psychiatric patients have histories
of being physically abused as adults.
50% of the homeless women
and children in the U.S. are fleeing abuse.
The amount spent to shelter
animals is three times the amount spent
to provide emergency shelter to women
from domestic abuse situations.
Family violence kills as
many women every 5 years as the total
number of Americans who died in the Vietnam
War.