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DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FACTS
WHY IT MATTERS Domestic violence is the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior perpetrated by an intimate partner against another. It is an epidemic affecting individuals in every community, regardless of age, economic status, race, religion, nationality or educational background. Violence against women is often accompanied by emotionally abusive and controlling behavior, and thus is part of a systematic pattern of dominance and control. Domestic violence results in physical injury, psychological trauma, and sometimes death. The consequences of domestic violence can cross generations and truly last a lifetime.
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 approx im atel y 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 assaulted 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
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
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REPORTING RATES Domestic violence is one of the most chronically underreported crimes.20 Only approximately one-quarter of all physical assaults, one-fifth of all rapes, and one-half of all stalkings perpetuated against females by intimate partners are reported to the police.1 PROTECTION ORDERS
Approximately 20% of the 1.5 million people who experience intimate partner violence annually obtain civil protection orders.1 Approximately one-half of the orders obtained by women against intimate partners who physically assaulted them were violated.1 More than two-thirds of the restraining orders against intimate partners who raped or stalked the victim were violated.
STATE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LAWS
States