Also called: Battery, Partner abuse, Spousal abuse. Domestic violence is a type of abuse. It involves injuring someone, usually a spouse or partner, but it can also be a parent, child or other family member.

Domestic violence is a serious problem. It is the most common cause of injury to women ages 15 to 44. Victims may suffer physical injuries such as bruises or broken bones. They may suffer emotionally from depression, anxiety or social isolation.

It is hard to know exactly how common domestic violence is, because people often don't report it. There is no typical victim. It happens among people of all ages. It affects those of all levels of income and education.

Prevalence of Domestic Violence:

• Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse,
  boyfriend, or girlfriend per year1 to three million women who are physically abused by their
  husband or boyfriend per year.
• Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or
  otherwise abused during her lifetime.
• Nearly one-third of American women (31 percent) report being physically or sexually abused
  by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives, according to a 1998 Commonwealth
  Fund survey.
• Nearly 25 percent of American women report being raped and/or physically assaulted by a
  current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or date at some time in their lifetime, according to
  the National Violence Against Women Survey, conducted from November 1995 to May 1996.
• Thirty percent of Americans say they know a woman who has been physically abused by her
  husband or boyfriend in the past year.
• In the year 2001, more than half a million American women (588,490 women) were victims of
  nonfatal violence committed by an intimate partner.
• Intimate partner violence is primarily a crime against women. In 2001, women accounted for
  85 percent of the victims of intimate partner violence (588,490 total) and men accounted for
  approximately 15 percent of the victims (103,220 total).
• While women are less likely than men to be victims of violent crimes overall, women are five
  to eight times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate partner.
• In 2001, intimate partner violence made up 20 percent of violent crime against women. The
  same year, intimate partners committed three percent of all violent crime against men.
• Women of all races are about equally vulnerable to violence by an intimate.
• Male violence against women does much more damage than female violence against men;
  women are much more likely to be injured than men.
• The most rapid growth in domestic relations caseloads is occurring in domestic violence filings.
  Between 1993 and 1995, 18 of 32 states with three year filing figures reported an increase of 20
  percent or more.
• Women are seven to 14 times more likely than men to report suffering severe physical assaults
  from an intimate partner.

The Facts on Domestic Violence

• The health-related costs of rape, physical assault, stalking, and homicide by intimate partners
  exceed five point eight billion dollars each year (CDC study).
• On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this
  country every day. In 2000, 1,247 women were killed by an intimate partner. The same year,
  440 men were killed by an intimate partner.
• Women are much more likely than men to be killed by an intimate partner. In 2000, intimate
  partner homicides accounted for 33.5 percent of the murders of women and less than four
  percent of the murders of men

Health Issues:

• About half of all female victims of intimate violence report an injury of some type, and about
  20 percent of them seek medical assistance.
• Thirty-seven percent of women who sought treatment in emergency rooms for violence-related
  injuries in 1994 were injured by a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend.

Domestic Violence and Youth:

• Approximately one in five female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually
  abused by a dating partner
• Eight percent of high school age girls said "yes" when asked if "a boyfriend or date has ever
  forced sex against your will."
• Forty percent of girls age 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age who has been hit or
  beaten by a boyfriend.
• During the 1996-1997 school year, there were an estimated 4,000 incidents of rape or other
  types of sexual assault in public schools across the country.

Domestic Violence and Children:

• In a national survey of more than 6,000 American families, 50 percent of the men who
  frequently assaulted their wives also frequently abused their children.
• Slightly more than half of female victims of intimate violence live in households with children
  under age twelve.
• Studies suggest that between three point three and ten million children witness some form of
  domestic violence annually.

Rape:

• Three in four women (76 percent) who reported they had been raped and/or physically
  assaulted since age 18 said that a current or former husband, cohabiting partner, or date
  committed the assault.
• One in five (21 percent) women reported she had been raped or physically or sexually assaulted
  in her lifetime.
• Nearly one-fifth of women (18 percent) reported experiencing a completed or attempted rape at
  some time in their lives; one in 33 men (three percent) reported experiencing a completed or
  attempted rape at some time in their lives.
• In 2000, 48 percent of the rapes/sexual assaults committed against people age twelve and over
  were reported to the police.
• In 2001, 41,740 women were victims of rape/sexual assault committed by an intimate partner.
• Rapes/sexual assaults committed by strangers are more likely to be reported to the police than
  rapes/sexual assaults committed by "non-strangers," including intimate partners, other relatives
  and friends or acquaintances. Between 1992 and 2000, 41 percent of the rapes/sexual assaults
  committed by strangers were reported to the police. During the same time period, 24 percent of
  the rapes/sexual assaults committed by an intimate were reported.

Stalking:

• Seventy-eight percent of stalking victims are women. Women are significantly more likely than
  men (60 percent and 30 percent, respectively) to be stalked by intimate partners.
• Eighty percent of women who are stalked by former husbands are physically assaulted by that
  partner and 30 percent are sexually assaulted by that partner.