Facts & Myths

FACTS

  • One in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.
  • An estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year
  • 85% of domestic violence victims are women.
  • Historically, females have most often been victimized by someone they knew.
  • Females who are 20-24 years of age are at the greatest risk of nonfatal intimate partner violence.
  • Most cases of domestic violence are never reported to the police.
  • Witnessing violence between one's parents or caretakers is the strongest risk factor of transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next.
  • Boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own partners and children when they become adults.
  • 30% to 60% of perpetrators of intimate partner violence also abuse children in the household.
  • One in 6 women and one in 33 men have experienced an attempted or completed rape.
  • Nearly 7.8 million women have been raped by an intimate partner at some point in their lives.
  • Sexual assault or forced sex occurs in approximately 40-45% of battering relationships.
  • 1 in 12 women and 1 in 45 men have been stalked in their lifetime.
  • 81% of women stalked by a current or former intimate partner are also physically assaulted by that partner; 31% are also sexually assaulted by that partner.
  • Almost one-third of female homicide victims that are reported in police records are killed by an intimate partner.
  • In 70-80% of intimate partner homicides, no matter which partner was killed, the man physically abused the woman before the murder.
  • Less than one-fifth of victims reporting an injury from intimate partner violence sought medical treatment following the injury.
  • Intimate partner violence results in more that 18.5 million mental health care visits each year.
  • 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.
  • 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.There are 16,800 homicides and $2.2 million (medically treated) injuries due to intimate partner violence annually, which costs $37 billion.

 

MYTH

  • Domestic violence occurs only in poor, uneducated and minority families

FACT

  • Studies of domestic violence consistently have found that battering occurs among all types of families, regardless of income, profession, region, ethnicity, educational level or race. However, the fact that lower income victims and abuser are over represented in calls to police, battered women's shelters and social services may be due to a lack of other resources.

 

MYTH

  • The real problem is couples who assault each other. Women are just as violent as men.

FACT

  • A well-publicized study conducted by Dr. Murray Strauss at the University of New Hampshire found that women use violent means to resolve conflict in relationships as often as men. However, the study also concluded that when the context and consequences of an assault are measurered, the majority of victims are women. The U.S. Department of Justice has found that 95% of the victims of spouse abuse are female. Men can be victims, but it is rare.

 

MYTH

  • Alcohol abuse causes domestic violence.

FACT

  • Although there is a high corrrelation between alcohol, or other substance abuse, and battering, it is not a causal relationship. Batterers use drinking as one of many excuses for their violence and as a way to place the responsibility for their violence elsewhere. Stopping the abusers' drinking will not stop the violence. Both battering and substance abuse need to be addressed separately, as overlapping yet independent problems.

 

MYTH

  • Men who batter are often good fathers and should have joint custody of their children if the couple separates.

FACT

  • Studies have found that men who batter their wives also abuse their children in 70% of cases. Even when children are not directly abused, they suffer as a result of witnessing one parent assault another. Batterers often display an increased interest in their children at the time of separation, as a means of maintaining contact with, and thus control over, their partners.

 

MYTH

  • Battered women are masochistic and provoke the abuse. They must like it or they would leave.

FACT

  • Victim provocation is no more common in domestic violence than in any other crime. Battered women often make repeated attempts to leave violent relationships, but are prevented from doing so by increased violence and control tactics on the part of the abuser. Other factors which inhibit a victim's ability to leave include economic dependence, few viable options for housing and support, unhelpful responses from the criminal justice system or other agencies, social isolation, cultural or religious constraints, a commitment to the abuser and the relationship, and fear of further violence. It has been estimated that the danger to a victim increases by 70% when she attempts to leave, as the abuser escalates his use of violence when he begins to lose control.