Domestic Violence Statistics

Domestic Violence Statistics

Domestic Violence is the leading cause of serious injury to American women, more common than muggings and car crashes combined. (Stark, E. and Flitcraft, A. “Spouse Abuse,” in Surgeon General’s Workshop on Violence and Public Health: Source Book. Leesburg, VA. October 1985 Atlanta: Center for Disease Control)

A woman is battered every 15 seconds in the U.S. (FBI Uniform Crime Reports, 1991)

Every year between 2 and 4 million American women are battered by their husbands or boyfriends. (Novello, Antonia C. “From the Surgeon General, U.S. Public Health Service, A Medical Response to Domestic Violence, “Journal of the American Medical Association, June 17, 1992)

At least 25% of domestic violence victims are pregnant when beaten. (Helton, A., McFarlane, J. and Anderson, E. Prevention of Battering During: Focus on Behavioral Change. Public Health Nursing, Vol. 4 (3), September 1987)

More than 1 in 3 Americans have witnessed an incident of domestic violence. (Family Violence Prevention Fund. Men Beating Women: Ending Domestic Violence, A Qualitative and Quantitative Study of Public Attitudes on Violence Against Women. New York: Conducted by EDK Associates, 1993)

Nearly half of all incidents of domestic violence against women discovered in the National Crime Survey (48%) were not reported to police. (Langan, P.A. and Inns, C.A. Preventing Domestic Violence Against Women. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1986)

Approximately 3.3 million children witness violence towards their mothers each year. (Carlson, B.E. “Children’s Observations of Interpersonal Violence.” In Battered Women and Their Families: Intervention Strategies and Treatment Programs. New York: Springer Publishing, 1984)

Violent youth are four times more likely to come from homes in which their fathers beat their mothers than are nonviolent youth. (Lewis, Dorothy, et. Al. “Homicidally Aggressive Young Children: Neuropsychiatric and Experiential Correlates.” In American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 140(2), February 1983)

Domestic Violence is repetitive in nature: about one in five women victimized by their spouse or ex-souse reported that they had been a victim of a series of at least three assaults in the last six months. (Zawitz, M., et. Al. Highlights from 20 Years of Surveying Crime Victims: The National Crime Victimization Survey, 1973-92. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, October 1993)

Women are most likely to be murdered when attempting to report abuse or to leave an abusive relationship. (Browne, A. When Battered Women Kill, New York: Free Press, 1987)

Four women are killed every day in America by a husband or boyfriend. (Stout, Karen. Intimate Femicide: A National Demographic Overview,” Violence Update, Vol. 1 (6), February 1991)

Forty-two percent of murdered women are killed by their intimate partners. (Data from FBI’s 1988-91 Uniform Crime Reports. Analysis by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute for Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado)