Domestic Violence Statistics

Survey of Recent Statistics

This survey is provided as a service for legal practitioners and advocates who may find it useful to include current statistical data in their arguments to the court. It is not intended to be a comprehensive listing of research in the area of domestic violence.

All citations conform to the format for court documents described in The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (18th Ed.).

The ABA Commission on Domestic violence does not engage in research, and cannot vouch for the quality or accuracy of any of the data excerpted here. Users are advised to independently confirm data with source documents cited.

Prevalence of Domestic Violence

In a 1995-1996 study conducted in the 50 States and the District of Columbia, nearly 25% of women and 7.6% of men were raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or dating partner/acquaintance at some time in their lifetime (based on survey of 16,000 participants, equally male and female).
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 181867, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence, at iii (2000), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/181867.htm

Approximately 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States.
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 183781, Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, at iv (2000), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/183781.htm

Intimate partner violence made up 20% of all nonfatal violent crime experienced by women in 2001.
Callie Marie Rennison, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 197838, Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief: Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, at 1 (2003), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/ipv01.pdf

Intimate partners committed 3% of the nonfatal violence against men.
Callie Marie Rennison, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 197838, Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief: Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, at 1 (2003), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/ipv01.pdf

In 2000, 1,247 women and 440 men were killed by an intimate partner. In recent years, an intimate partner killed approximately 33% of female murder victims and 4% of male murder victims.
Callie Marie Rennison, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 197838, Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief: Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, at 1 (2003), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/ipv01.pdf

Access to firearms yields a more than five-fold increase in risk of intimate partner homicide when considering other factors of abuse, according to a recent study, suggesting that abusers who possess guns tend to inflict the most severe abuse on their partners.
Jacquelyn C. Campbell et al., Risk Factors For Femicide in Abusive Relationships: Results From A Multi-Site Case Control Study, 93 Am. J. of Public Health 1089, 1092 (2003), abstract available at http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/93/7/1089

Of females killed with a firearm, almost two-thirds were killed by their intimate partners. The number of females shot and killed by their husband or intimate partner was more than three times higher than the total number murdered by male strangers using all weapons combined in single victim/single offender incidents in 2002.
The Violence Pol'y Ctr., When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2002 Homicide Data: Females Murdered by Males in Single Victim/Single Offender Incidents, at 7 (2004), available at http://www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2004.pdf

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, between 1998 and 2002:

Of the almost 3.5 million violent crimes committed against family members, 49% of these were crimes against spouses.
84% of spouse abuse victims were females, and 86% of victims of dating partner abuse at were female.
Males were 83% of spouse murderers and 75% of dating partner murderers
50% of offenders in state prison for spousal abuse had killed their victims. Wives were more likely than husbands to be killed by their spouses: wives were about half of all spouses in the population in 2002, but 81% of all persons killed by their spouse.
Matthew R. Durose et al., U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 207846, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Family Violence Statistics: Including Statistics on Strangers and Acquaintances, at 31-32 (2005), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/fvs.pdf

Stalking According to the Stalking Resource Center:

1,006,970 women and 370,990 men are stalked annually in the United States.
1 in 12 women and 1 in 45 men will be stalked in their lifetime.
77% of female and 64% of male victims know their stalker.
87% of stalkers are men.
59% of female victims and 30% of male victims are stalked by an intimate partner.
81% of women stalked by a current or former intimate partner are also physically assaulted by that partner.
31% of women stalked by a current or former intimate partner are also sexually assaulted by that partner.
The average duration of stalking is 1.8 years.
If stalking involves intimate partners, the average duration of stalking increases to 2.2 years.
61% of stalkers made unwanted phone calls; 33% sent or left unwanted letters or items; 29% vandalized property; and 9% killed or threatened to kill a family pet.
28% of female victims and 10% of male victims obtained a protective order. 69% of female victims and 81% of male victims had the protection order violated.

Stalking Resource Ctr., The Nat'l Ctr. for Victims of Crime, Stalking Fact Sheet, http://www.ncvc.org/src/Main.aspx (citing Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Justice, NCJ 169592, Stalking in America: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey (1998)

In a study done between 1994 and 1998 in ten U.S. cities (Baltimore, Houston, Texas, Kansas City (KS), Kansas City (MO), Los Angeles, New York, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, St. Petersburg/Tampa, and Wichita:

76% of femicide victims had been stalked by the person who killed them.
67% had been physically abused by their intimate partner.
89% of femicide victims who had been physically abused had also been stalked in the 12 months before the murder.
79% of abused femicide victims reported stalking during the same period that they reported abuse.
85% of attempted femicide cases involved at least one episode of stalking within 12 months prior to the attempted femicide.
54% of femicide victims reported stalking to police before they were killed by their stalkers.

Stalking Resource Ctr., The Nat'l Ctr. for Victims of Crime, Stalking Fact Sheet, http://www.ncvc.org/src/main.aspx?dbID=DB_Intimate_Partner_Femicide122 (citing Judith McFarlane et al., 3 Homicide Studies 300-316 (1999)

Stalking on Campus In a study carried out from February to May 1997 involving 4,446 college women,

13% of college women were stalked during one six to nine month period.
80% of campus stalking victims knew their stalkers.
3 in 10 college women reported being injured emotionally or psychologically from being stalked.
Bonnie Fisher et al., U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 182369, The Sexual Victimization of College Women (2000), available at http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/182369.pdf

17 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native women are stalked in their lifetime, compared to 8.2 percent of white women, 6.5 percent of African-American women, and 4.5 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander women.
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 169592, Stalking in America: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey (1998), available at http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/169592.pdf See also Violence Against Women Office, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 186157, Stalking and Domestic Violence: A Report to Congress (2001), available at http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojp/186157.pdf (discussing stalking behaviors, cyberstalking, impact on victims, law enforcement response, legislation and case law); Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 183781, Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, at iv (2000), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/183781.htm

Sexual Assault According to the National Violence Against Women Survey:

Women are more likely to be victims of sexual violence than men: 78% of the victims of rape and sexual assault are women and 22% are men.
Most perpetrators of sexual violence are men. Among acts of sexual violence committed against women since the age of 18, 100% of rapes, 92% of physical assaults, and 97% of stalking acts were perpetrated by men. Sexual violence against men is also mainly male violence: 70% of rapes, 86% of physical assaults, and 65% of stalking acts were perpetrated by men.
In 8 out of 10 rape cases, the victim knows the perpetrator. Of people who report sexual violence, 64% of women and 16% of men were raped, physically assaulted, or stalked by an intimate partner. This includes a current or former spouse, cohabitating partner, boyfriend/girlfriend, or date.
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 183781, Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, at iv (2000), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/183781.htm

Another national survey found that 34% of women were victims of sexual coercion by a husband or intimate partner in their lifetime.
Kathleen C. Basile, Prevalence of Wife Rape and Other Intimate Partner Sexual Coercion in a Nationally Representative Sample of Women, 17 Violence and Victims 511 (2002).

The National Women's Study, a three-year longitudinal study of a national probability sample of 4,008 adult women (2,008 of whom represent a cross section of all adult women and 2,000 of whom are an over sample of younger women between the ages of 18 and 34), found:

13% of adult women had been victims of completed rape during their lifetime
22% of rape victims were assaulted by someone they had never seen before or did not know well.
9% of victims were raped by husbands or ex-husbands.
11% were raped by fathers or stepfathers.
10% were raped by boyfriends or ex-boyfriends.
16% were raped by other relatives.
29% were raped by other non-relatives, such as friends and neighbors.
See Dean G. Kilpatrick et al., Rape in America: A Report to the Nation (1992); Heidi S. Resnick et al., Prevalence of Civilian Trauma and PTSD in a Representative National Sample of Women, 61 J. of Consulting and Clinical Psychol. 984 (1993); Dean G. Kilpatrick et al., A 2-Year Longitudinal Analysis of the Relationship Between Violent Assault and Substance Use in Women, 65 J. of Consulting and Clinical Psychol. 834 (1997); Kilpatrick et al., Rape, Other Violence Against Women, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Critical Issues in Assessing the Adversity-Stress-Psychopathology Relationship, in Adversity, Stress, & Psychopathology 161-176 (Bruce P. Dohrenwend ed., 1998); Dean G. Kilpatrick, Rape and Sexual Assault, Aug. 7, 2006, http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/research/sa.shtml

Trafficking The UN defines trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

An estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international boarders each year, and approximately 80% of trafficking victims are women and girls.
U.S. State Dep't, 2005 Trafficking in Persons Report (June 2005), available at http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/

Of the 45,000 to 50,000 that are brought to the U.S., 30,000 come from Asia, 10,000 from Latin America and 5,000 from other regions e.g., the former Soviet Union. The primary Asian source countries to the U.S. are China, Thailand and Vietnam. Although trafficking into the U.S. and Europe has gained a lot of attention in recent years, anti-trafficking advocates in Asia have been addressing these issues on the continent for decades.
Firoza Chic Dabby, Asian & Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence, Trafficking: Considerations and Recommendations for Domestic Violence Advocates, http://www.apiahf.org/apidvinstitute/CriticalIssues/trafficking.htm (last visited August 14, 2006) (citing Lora Jo Foo, Asian American Women: Issues, Concerns, and Responsive Human and Civil Rights Advocacy, (2002)).)

Domestic Violence by Race and Ethnicity

Native Americans According the Southwest Center for Law and Policy:

Native Americans are victims of rape or sexual assault at more than double the rate of other racial groups.
For Native American victims of violence, the offender was slightly more likely to be a stranger than an intimate partner, family member or acquaintance.
Native Americans described the offender as an acquaintance in 34% of rapes/sexual assaults, and as an intimate partner or family member in 25% of sexual assaults.
Southwest Ctr. for L. and Pol'y, Statistics (2005), http://www.swclap.org/statistics.htm ; Steven W. Perry, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 203097, A Bureau of Justice Statistics Statistical Profile, 1992-2002: American Indians and Crime (2004), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/aic02.htm

African Americans African Americans, especially African American Women, suffer deadly violence from family members at rates decidedly higher than for other racial groups in the United States. However, it is observed that research concerning family violence among African Americans is inadequate.

Overall, African Americans were victimized by intimate partners a significantly higher rates than persons of any other race between 1993 and 1998. Black females experienced intimate partner violence at a rate 35% higher than that of white females, and about 22 times the rate of women of other races. Black males experienced intimate partner violence at a rate about 62% higher than that of white males and about 22 times the rate of men of other races.
Callie Marie Rennison. and Sarah Welchans, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 178247, Intimate Partner Violence (2000), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/ipv.txt

African-American women experience significantly more domestic violence than White women in the age group of 20-24. Generally, Black women experience similar levels of intimate partner victimization in all other age categories as compared to White women, but experience slightly more domestic violence. (Estimates are provided from the National Crime Victimization Survey, which defines an intimate partner as a current or former spouse, girlfriend, or boyfriend. Violent acts include murder, rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault.)
Callie Marie Rennison, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 187635, Intimate Partner Violence and Age of Victim, 1993-1999, at 4, (2001), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/ipva99.htm

Approximately 40% of Black women report coercive contact of a sexual nature by age 18.
Africana Voices Against Violence, Tufts University, Statistics, 2002, www.ase.tufts.edu/womenscenter/peace/africana/newsite/statistics.htm

The number one killer of African-American women ages 15 to 34 is homicide at the hands of a current or former intimate partner.
Africana Voices Against Violence, Tufts University, Statistics, 2002, www.ase.tufts.edu/womenscenter/peace/africana/newsite/statistics.htm

In a study of African-American sexual assault survivors, only 17% reported the assault to police.
Africana Voices Against Violence, Tufts University, Statistics, 2002 www.ase.tufts.edu/womenscenter/peace/africana/newsite/statistics.htm

Hispanics

The rate of intimate partner violence for Hispanic women, like women of other races, peaked at ages 20-24.
Overall, the victimization rates of Hispanic women peaked at lower levels than non-Hispanic women in every age group, but spread over a wider range of ages.
(Estimates are provided from the National Crime Victimization Survey, which defines an intimate partner as a current or former spouse, girlfriend, or boyfriend. Violent acts include murder, rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault.) Callie Marie Rennison, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 187635, Intimate Partner Violence and Age of Victim, 1993-1999, at 4, (2001), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/ipva99.htm

According to the Texas Council on Family Violence:

77% of all Hispanic Texans indicate that either they, a family member and/or a friend have experienced some form of domestic violence, indicating that approximately 5.2 million Hispanic Texans are personally affected by the epidemic of domestic violence. If the current prevalence rates remain the same, by the year 2030, more than 12.2 million Hispanic Texans could be personally affected by domestic violence.
64% of all Hispanic Texans indicate that they or a member of their family have experienced at least one form of domestic violence in their lifetime.
36% of all Hispanic Texans report being severely abused in their lifetime.
2 out of every 5 Hispanic Texas females (39%) reported experience severe abuse.
1 out of every 5 Hispanic Texas females (18%) reported being forced to have sex against their will.
40% of Hispanic Texans who reported experiencing at least one form of domestic violence took no action.
63% of all Hispanic Texans recall recent communications concerning domestic violence.
50% of all Hispanic Texans believe domestic violence is caused by circumstances beyond the batterers control showing that the Hispanic Texas community needs more information on domestic violence.
82% of all Hispanic Texans believe that it is never appropriate to stay in an abusive relationship, yet 46% acknowledge that leaving an abusive relationship can be more dangerous than staying.
83% of all Hispanic Texans agree that a husband who abuses his wife is more likely to also abuse his children; yet only 47% indicate a belief that domestic violence passes from generation to generation.
86% of all Hispanic Texans report that they would vote for a candidate who helps domestic violence victims. They are the ethnic group most likely to indicate such.
Texas Council on Family Violence, Statistics, 2002 http://makethecall.org/texas_stats.htm

Asian & Pacific Islanders

12.8% of Asian and Pacific Islander women reported experiencing physical assault by an intimate partner at least once during their lifetime; 3.8% reported having been raped. The rate of physical assault was lower than those reported by Whites (21.3%); African-Americans (26.3%); Hispanic, of any race, (21.2%); mixed race (27.0%); and American Indians and Alaskan Natives (30.7%). The low rate for Asian and Pacific Islander women may be attributed to underreporting.
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 181867, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence,at 26 (2000), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/181867.htm ; see also Asian & Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence, Fact Sheet: Domestic Violence in Asian Communities, 2005, http://www.apiahf.org/apidvinstitute/PDF/Fact_Sheet.pdf

The National Asian Women's Health Organization (NAWHO) interviewed 336 Asian American women aged 18-34 who reside in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas, via telephone:

16% of the respondents reported having experienced "pressure to have sex without their consent by an intimate partner."
12 % of respondents reported that an intimate partner had hurt or had attempted to hurt them by means of hitting, kicking, slapping, shoving, object throwing, or threatening their lives with a weapon.
27% experienced emotional abuse by an intimate partner
National Asian Women's Health Organization, Silent Epidemic: A Survey of Violence Among Young Asian American Women, (2002), available at http://www.nawho.org/pubs/NAWHOSilentEpidemic.pdf

Project AWARE (Asian Women Advocating Respect and Empowerment) in Washington, DC, conducted an anonymous survey in 2000-2001 to examine the experiences of abuse, service needs, and barriers to service among Asian women. Using a sample of 178 Asian women:

81.1% of the women reported experiencing at least one form of intimate partner violence (domination/controlling/psychological, physical, and/or sexual abuse as categorized by the researchers) in the past year.
67% "occasionally" experienced some form of domination or controlling psychological abuse; 48% experienced it "frequently" in the past year.
32% experienced physical or sexual abuse at least "occasionally" during the past year.
Of the 23 women who reported not having experienced intimate partner violence themselves, more than half (64%) said they knew of an Asian friend who had experienced intimate partner violence. Smaller proportions of respondents reported that their mothers (9%) and sisters (11%) had experienced intimate partner violence.
28.5% of the survey participants knew of a woman who was being abused by her in-laws.
Karen A. McDonnell & Shamira E. Abdulla, Project AWARE, Asian/Pacific Islander Resource Project (2001).

Cambodians In a study conducted by the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence in Boston, using a self-administered questionnaire at ethnic fairs:

44-47% of Cambodians interviewed said they knew a woman who experienced domestic violence, by either physical abuse or injury.
37% of the respondents know a man who is being beaten by his partner.
Marianne R. Yoshioka et al., Asian Family Violence Report: A Study of the Cambodian, Chinese, Korean, South Asian, and Vietnamese Communities in Massachusetts (2004), http://www.atask.org/Resources_AFVR.htm

Chinese In a random telephone survey of 262 Chinese men and women in Los Angeles:

18.1% of respondents reported experiencing "minor physical violence" by a spouse or intimate partner within their lifetime, and 8% of respondents reported "severe physical violence" experienced during their lifetime. ["Minor-severe" categories were based on the researcher's classification criteria.]
More acculturated respondents (as assessed by the researchers) were twice as likely to have been victims of severe physical violence. [Although the author states "It is possible that traditional cultural values serve as a protective buffer against stressors engendered by immigration", higher rates among more acculturated respondents may be due to their increased likelihood to report abuse.]
Alice G. Yick, Predictors of Physical Spousal/Intimate Violence in Chinese American Families, 15 J. Fam. Violence 249 (2000).

Filipinas In a survey conducted by the Immigrant Women's Task Force of the Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Services:

20% of 54 undocumented Filipina women living in the San Francisco Bay Area reported having experienced some form of domestic violence, including physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, either in their country of origin or in the United States.
Chris Hogeland and Karen Rosen, Coalition For Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Services, Dreams Lost, Dreams Found: Undocumented Women In The Land of Opportunity, (1991).

Japanese In a face-to-face interview study of a random sample of 211 Japanese immigrant women and Japanese American women in Los Angeles County conducted in 1995:

61% reported some form of physical, emotional, or sexual partner violence that they considered abusive - including culturally demeaning practices such as overturning a dining table, or throwing liquid at a woman.
52% reported having experienced physical violence during their lifetime. When the probability that some women who have not been victimized at the time of the interview, but may be abused at a later date is calculated, 57% of women are estimated to experience a partner's physical violence by age 49.
Mieko Yoshihama, Domestic Violence Against Women of Japanese Descent in Los Angeles: Two Methods of Estimating Prevalence, 5 Violence Against Women 869 (1999); Mieko Yoshihama & Brenda W. Gillespie, Age Adjustment and Recall Bias in the Analysis of Domestic Violence Data: Methodological Improvements Through the Application of Survival Analysis Methods, 17 J. Fam. Violence 199 (2002).

Koreans In a study of 256 Korean men from randomly selected Korean households in Chicago and in Queens (which then had the largest Korean population on the East Coast) in 1993:

18% of the respondents reported committing at least one of the following acts of physical violence within the past year: throwing something, pushing, grabbing, shoving, or slapping their wife.
6.3% of the men committed what the researcher classified as "severe violence" (kicking, biting, hitting with a fist, threatening with a gun or knife, shooting, or stabbing).
Jae Yop Kim & Kuy-taik Sung, Conjugal Violence in Korean American Families: A Residue of the Cultural Tradition, 15 J. Fam. Violence 331 (2000).

In a survey of 214 Korean women and 121 Korean men in the San Francisco Bay Area conducted in 2000:

42% of the respondents said they knew of a Korean woman who experienced physical violence from a husband or boyfriend.
About 50% of the respondents knew someone who suffered regular emotional abuse.
Shimtuh, Korean American Domestic Violence Program, Korean American Community of the Bay Area Domestic Violence Needs Assessment Report (2000).

South Asians A study of 160 South Asian women (who were married or in a heterosexual relationship), recruited through community outreach methods such as flyers, snowball sampling, and referrals in Greater Boston, found that:

40.8% of the participants reported that they had been physically and/or sexually abused in some way by their current male partners in their lifetime; 36.9% reported having been victimized in the past year.
65% of the women reporting physical abuse also reported sexual abuse, and almost a third (30.4%) of those reporting sexual abuse reported injuries, some requiring medical attention.
Anita Raj & Jay G. Silverman, Intimate Partner Violence Against South-Asian Women in Greater Boston, 57 J. Am. Med. Women's Ass'n 111 (2002).

Immigrants

A recent study in New York City found that 51 percent of intimate partner homicide victims were foreign-born, while 45 percent were born in the United States.
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Femicide in New York City: 1995-2002 (2004), available at http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/ip/femicide1995-2002_report.pdf

48% of Latinas in one study reported that their partner's violence against them had increased since they emmigrated to the United States.
Mary Dutton et al., Characteristics of Help-Seeking Behaviors, Resources, and Services Needs of Battered Immigrant Latinas: Legal and Policy Implications, 7 Geo. J. on Poverty L. and Pol'y 245 (2000).

A survey of immigrant Korean women found that 60 percent had been battered by their husbands.
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 181867, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey (2000), available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/181867.htm

Married immigrant women experience higher levels of physical and sexual abuse than unmarried immigrant women, 59.5 percent compared to 49.8 percent, respectively.
Mary Dutton et al., Characteristics of Help-Seeking Behaviors, Resources, and Services Needs of Battered Immigrant Latinas: Legal and Policy Implications, 7 Geo. J. on Poverty L. and Pol'y 245 (2000). See also, Family Violence Prevention Fund, The Facts on Immigrant Women and Domestic Violence (2006), http://endabuse.org/resources/facts/Immigrant.pdf

Teens

18-24 year-olds comprised only 11.7% of the population in 1998 and 2002, but were the majority of victims of violence committed by a boyfriend or girlfriend (42%).
Matthew R. Durose et al., U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 207846, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Family Violence Statistics: Including Statistics on Strangers and Acquaintances, at 11 (2005), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/fvs.pdf

Approximately one in five female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner.
Jay G. Silverman et al., Dating Violence Against Adolescent Girls and Associated Substance Use, Unhealthy Weight Control, Sexual Risk Behavior, Pregnancy, and Suicidality, 286 J. Am. Med. Ass'n 572-579 (2001).

In a study of eighth and ninth graders, 25 percent indicated that they had been victims of dating violence, including eight percent who disclosed being sexually abused.
Vangie A. Foshee et al., The Safe Date Project: Theoretical Basis, Evaluation Design, and Selected Baseline Findings, 12 Am. J. of Preventive Med. 39 (1996).

In a survey of 232 high school girls, 17.8% of the participants indicated that they had been forced to engage in sexual activity against their will by a dating partner.
David R. Jezl, Christian E. Molidor & Tracy L. Wright, Physical, Sexual & Psychological Abuse in High School Dating Relationships: Prevalence Rates and Self-esteem Issues, 13 Child & Adolescent Soc. Work J. 69 (1996).

Among female students between the ages of 15-20 who reported at least one violent act during a dating relationship, 24% reported experiencing extremely violent incidents such as rape or the use of weapons against them.
P.Y. Symons et al., Prevalence and Predictors of Adolescent Dating Violence, 7 J. of Child & Adolescent Pediatric Nursing 14 (1994).

Girls who reported that they had been sexually or physically abused were more than twice as likely as non abused girls to report smoking (26% versus 10%), drinking (22% versus 12%), and using illegal drugs (30% versus 13%). In addition, 32 percent of girls who had been abused reported bingeing and purging, compared to 12 percent of girls who had not been abused.
Cathy Schoen et al., The Commonwealth Fund, The Commonwealth Fund Survey of the Health of Adolescent Girls (1997).

In a study of 724 adolescent mothers between the ages of 12-18, one of every eight pregnant adolescents reported having been physically assaulted by the father of her baby during the preceding 12 months. Of these, 40 percent also reported experiencing violence at the hands of a family member or relative.
Constance M. Wiemann et al., Pregnant Adolescents: Experiences and Behaviors Associated with Physical Assault by an Intimate Partner, 4 Maternal & Child Health J. 93 (2000).

Physical aggression occurs in 1 in 3 teen dating relationships.
Sarah Avery-Leaf & Michele Cascardi, Dating Violence Education: Prevention and Early Intervention Strategies, in Preventing Violence in Relationships 82 (Paul A. Schewe ed., 2002).

Fifty to eighty percent of teens report knowing someone involved in a violent relationship.
Maura O'Keefe & Laura Trester, Victims of Dating Violence Among High School Students, 4 Violence Against Women 195 (1998). See also Family Violence Prevention Fund, The Facts on Teenagers and Intimate Partner Violence, http://www.endabuse.org/resources/facts/Teenagers.pdf (2006); and National Center for Victims of Crime, Teen Dating Violence Sheet, http://www.ncvc.org/dvrc (2004).

Elders

According to the best available estimates, between 1 and 2 million Americans age 65 or older have been injured, exploited, or otherwise mistreated by someone on whom they depended for protection.
Committee on Nat'l Statistics & Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, Elder Mistreatment: Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation in an Aging America (Richard J. Bonnie & Robert B. Wallace eds., 2003).

Estimates of the frequency of elder abuse range from 2% to 10% based on various sampling, survey methods, and case definitions.
Mark S. Lachs & Karl Pillemer, Elder Abuse, 364 The Lancet 1192 (2004).

Data on elder abuse in domestic settings suggest that 1 in 14 incidents, excluding incidents of self-neglect, come to the attention of authorities.
Karl Pillemer & David Finkelhor, The Prevalence of Elder Abuse: A Random Sample Survey, 28 The Gerontologist 51 (1988).

Current estimates put the overall reporting of financial exploitation at only 1 in 25 cases, suggesting that there may be at least 5 million financial abuse victims each year.
John F. Wasik, The Fleecing of America's Elderly, Consumers Digest, March/April 2000.

It is estimated that for every one case of elder abuse, neglect, exploitation, or self neglect reported to authorities, about five more go unreported.
National Ctr. on Elder Abuse, The Am. Pub. Hum. Serv. Ass'n, The National Elder Abuse Incidence Study (1998), available at www.aoa.gov/eldfam/Elder_Rights/Elder_Abuse/ABuseReport_Full.pdf

In 1996, nearly 450,000 adults aged 60 and over were abused and/or neglected in domestic settings. Factoring in self neglect, the total number of incidents was approximately 551,000.
National Ctr. on Elder Abuse, The Am. Pub. Hum. Serv. Ass'n, The National Elder Abuse Incidence Study (1998), available at www.aoa.gov/eldfam/Elder_Rights/Elder_Abuse/ABuseReport_Full.pdf

A University of Iowa study based on 1999 data found 190,005 domestic elder abuse reports from 17 states; 242,430 domestic elder abuse investigations from 47 states; and 102,879 substantiations from 35 states. Significantly higher investigation rates were found for states that require mandatory reporting and tracking of reports.
Gerald J. Jogerst et al., Domestic Elder Abuse and the Law, 93 Am. J. of Pub. Health 2131 (2003).

In 2000, states were asked to indicate the number of elder/adult reports received in the most recent year for which data were available. Based on figures from 54 states, the total number of reports was 472,813.
Pamela B. Teaster, The Nat'l Ctr. On Elder Abuse, et al., A Response to the Abuse of Vulnerable Adults: The 2000 Survey of State Adult Protective Services (2003).

In 2003, state Long Term Care Ombudsman programs nationally investigated 20,673 complaints of abuse gross neglect, and exploitation on behalf of nursing home and board and care residents. Among seven types of abuse categories, physical abuse was the most common type reported.
U.S. Admin. on Aging, National Ombudsman Reporting System Data Tables (2003). See also Nat'l Ctr. on Elder Abuse, Fact Sheet: Elder Abuse Prevalence and Incidence, http://www.elderabusecenter.org/pdf/publication/FinalStatistics050331.pdf (2005).

Same-Sex Violence Domestic violence occurs within same-sex relationships as it does in heterosexual relationships. The acronym LGBT is often used and stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

11% of lesbians reported violence by their female partner and 15% of gay men who had lived with a male partner reported being victimized by a male partner.
Patricia Tjaden, Symposium on Integrating Responses to Domestic Violence: Extent and Nature of Intimate Partner Violence as measured by the National Violence Against Women Survey, 47 Loy. L. Rev. 41, 54 (2003).

Of the LGBT victims who sought services from the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, 36% of clients in 2003 and 38% of clients in 2004 filed police reports regarding intimate partner violence.
Diane Dolan-Soto & Sara Kaplan, New York Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Bisexual Domestic Violence Report, at 6 (2005), available at http://www.avp.org/publications/reports/2005nycdvrpt.pdf .

Eighty-eight percent of victims in 2003 and 91 percent of victims in 2004 reported experiencing prior incidents of abuse, with the majority (45 percent and 47 percent, respectively) reporting having experienced more than 10 prior incidents.
Diane Dolan-Soto & Sara Kaplan, New York Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Bisexual Domestic Violence Report, at 5 (2005), available at http://www.avp.org/publications/reports/2005nycdvrpt.pdf .

One survey found that same-sex cohabitants reported significantly more intimate partner violence than did opposite-sex cohabitants. Among women, 39.2% of the same-sex cohabitants and 21.7 of the opposite- sex cohabitants reported being raped, physically assaulted, and/or stalked by a marital/cohabiting partner at some time in their lifetime.
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 181867, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, at 30 (2000), available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/181867.htm

15.4% of same-sex cohabiting men reported being raped, physically assaulted and/or stalked by a male partner, but 10.8% reported such violence by a female partner.
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 181867, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, at 30 (2000), available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/181867.htm

According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs:

6,523 incidence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender violence were recorded in eleven distinct cities and regions across the USA and Toronto, Ontario. 44% of the victims were men and 36% were women. This represented a 13% increase over the 5718 cases reported in 2002 by the same agencies and includes six reported deaths in the context of actual or suspected LGBT violence. Arizona reported one death and New York City reported five deaths.
4,964 or about 79% of the new incidents were reported in Los Angeles. The number of LGBT incidents in other cities and states include Boston (290), New York City (501), San Francisco (388), Colorado (139) , Chicago (65), Columbus, Ohio (46) , Pennsylvania (19) , Burlington, Vermont (21), Tuscon (64).
5,374 (82%) of the victims of domestic violence reported to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs identified themselves as gay; 575 (9%) were cases in which the victim declined to specify a sexual orientation or it was not recorded; 263 (4%) identified as bisexual; and 44 (0.6 %) were not sure or questioned their sexual orientation.
Of the 42% incidence of domestic violence where race was recorded, 1,211 or 44% were white, 684 or 25% were Latino, 413 or 15% were of African descent, 153 or 5% were Asian/Pacific Islander, 125 or 4% were multicultural; just under 36 or 0.01% were indigenous/first people and about 0.01 were Arab/Middle Easterners, Jewish and others.
Nat'l Advoc. for Local Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Communities, Nat'l Coal. of Anti-Violence Programs, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Domestic Violence: 2003 Supplement - An Update from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (2004), at 3-8, 10, available at http://www.avp.org/publications/reports/reports.htm

Welfare Recipients

Studies consistently show that at least 50 to 60 percent of women receiving public benefits have experienced physical abuse by an intimate partner at some point during their adult lives, compared to 22 percent of the general population; some studies indicate rates as high as 82 percent. A significant number of women receiving public benefits also report a history physical and sexual abuse in childhood, and as many as 30 percent of women on public benefits report abuse in a current relationship
Richard Tolman and Jody Raphael, A Review of the Research on Welfare and Domestic Violence, 56 J. of Soc. Iss. 655 (2000); Sharmila Lawrence, Research Forum on Children, Families, and the New Federalism, National Center for Children in Poverty, Domestic Violence and Welfare Policy: Research Findings That Can Inform Policies on Marriage and Child Well-Being, Issue Brief (2002); Eleanor Lyon, Building Comprehensive Solutions to Domestic Violence, Publ'n No. 10, Welfare, Poverty and Abused Women: New Research and Its Implications, (2000).

In a recent study of two California counties (Kern and Stanislaus) public benefits recipients had lifetime abuse rates of 80 percent and 83 percent, respectively.
Joan Meisel, Daniel Chandler & Beth Menees Rienzi, Domestic Violence Prevalence and Effects on Employment in two California TANF Populations, 9 Violence Against Women 1191 (2003).

A Wisconsin study found that 70 percent of domestic violence victims on public benefits did not disclose abuse to their caseworker.
Thomas Moore & Vicky Selkowe, Institute for Wisconsin's Future, Domestic Violence Victims in Transition from Welfare to Work: Barriers to Self-Sufficiency and the W-2 Response (1999). See also Family Violence Prevention Fund, The Facts on Welfare and Domestic Violence, http://endabuse.org/resources/facts/Welfare.pdf (last visited August 13, 2006).

Domestic Violence And The Workplace

Of the approximately 1.7 million incidents of workplace violence that occur in the US every year, approximately 18,700 (1.1 percent) are committed by an intimate: current or former spouse, lover, partner, or boyfriend/girlfriend.
Detis T. Duhart, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 190076, Violence in the Workplace 1993-99, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report (2001) available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/vw99.pdf .

Some abusive partners may try to stop women from working by calling them frequently during the day or coming to their place of work unannounced. Research indicates that about 50 percent of battered women who are employed are harassed at work by their abusive partners.
U.S. Gen. Accounting Office, GAO/HEHS-99-12, Domestic Violence: Prevalence and Implications for Employment Among Welfare Recipients (1998), available at www.gao.gov/archive/1999/he99012.pdf

According to a 2004 Maine study:

Over three-quarters of offenders used workplace resources at least once to express remorse or anger, check up on, pressure, or threaten the victim.
74% had easy access to their intimate partner's workplace, with 21% of offenders reporting that they contacted her at the workplace in violation of a no contact order.
48% of offenders had difficulty concentrating at work, with 19% of offenders reporting a workplace accident or near miss from inattentiveness due to pre-occupation with their relationship.
42% of offenders were late to work.
Kim C. Lim et al., Maine Department of Labor and Family Crisis Services, Impact of Domestic Violence Offenders on Occupational Safety & Health: A Pilot Study (2004), available at http://www.state.me.us/labor/labor_stats/publications/dvreports/domesticoffendersreport.pdf See also Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence, Facts and Statistics: Workplace Statistics, http://caepv.org/getinfo/facts_stats.php?factsec=3 (last visited Aug. 12, 2006)

Offender Recidivism According to a 2000 study which interviewed the former and current partners of male batterers referred to batterer programs by the court:

41% of participants reported that the men committed a re-assault during the 30-month follow-up period.
Nearly 2/3 of the first time re-assaults occurred in the first 6 months.
About 20 percent of the men repeatedly re-assaulted their partners and account for most of the reported injuries.
Edward Gondolf, Reassault at 30-Months after Batterer Program Intake, 44 Int'l J. of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 111 (2000), available at http://www.iup.edu/maati/publications/outcomeabstracts.shtm#outcome4

In an examination of 1,309 cases under a program mandate at the Bronx misdemeanor domestic violence court:

8% of the defendants were rearrested between the initial arrest and case disposition, 35% during the program mandate period, 31% during the one year following the end of the mandate and 44% during the two years following the mandate.
Overall, from the moment of index arrest to two years post release, 62 % of all defendants were rearrested.
Nora K. Puffett & Chandra Gavin, Ctr. for Ct. Innovation, Predictors of Program Outcome and Recidivism at the Bronx Misdemeanor Domestic Violence Court (2004), available at http://www.courtinnovation.org/_uploads/documents/predictorsbronxdv.pdf

Domestic Violence & Children

Slightly more than half of female victims of intimate violence live in households with children under age 12.
Lawrence A. Greenfield et al.,U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 167237, Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouse, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends (1998) available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/vi.pdf

A recent study of low-income pre-school children in Michigan found that nearly half (46.7 percent) of the children in the study had been exposed to at least one incident of mild or severe violence in the family. Children who had been exposed to violence suffered symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, such as bed-wetting or nightmares, and were at greater risk than their peers of having allergies, asthma, gastrointestinal problems, headaches and flu.
Sandra Graham-Bermann & Julie Seng, Violence Exposure and Traumatic Stress Symptoms as Additional Predictors of Health Problems in High-Risk Children, 146 J. of Pediatrics 309 (2005).

Battered women are not the only victims of abuse - it is estimated that anywhere between 3.3 million and 10 million children witness domestic violence annually. Research demonstrates that exposure to violence can have serious negative effects on children's development.
Sharmila Lawrence, National Center for Children in Poverty, Domestic Violence and Welfare Policy: Research Findings That Can Inform Policies on Marriage and Child Well-Being 5 (2002).

One study of 2,245 children and teenagers found that recent exposure to violence in the home was a significant factor in predicting a child's violent behavior.
Mark I. Singer, et al., Cuyahoga County Cmty. Health Research Institute, The Mental Health Consequences of Children's Exposure to Violence (1998).

Children exposed to Intimate Partner Violence were 1.6 times as likely to score in the borderline to clinical level range on externalizing behaviors relative to children of similar age and sex (as measured on three scales of internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors, and social competence according to the standardized psychometric instrument of Achenbach's Child Behavior Checklist, or CBCL).
Mary A. Kernic et al., Behavioral Problems Among Children Whose Mothers are Abused by an Intimate Partner, 27 Child Abuse & Neglect 1231 at 1239 (2003).

Children exposed to maternal Intimate Partner Violence, without experiencing child maltreatment, were 40% more likely to have a total behavioral problem score within the borderline to clinical range than CBCL normative children.
Mary A. Kernic et al., Behavioral Problems Among Children Whose Mothers are Abused by an Intimate Partner, 27 Child Abuse & Neglect 1231 at 1239 (2003). See also Family Violence Prevention Fund, The Facts on Children and Domestic Violence, (2005), available at http://endabuse.org/resources/facts/Children.pdf (Aug 1, 2005).

Physical Injury and Medical Treatment

The U.S. Department of Justice reported that 37% of all women who sought care in hospital emergency rooms for violence-related injuries were injured by a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend.
Michael R. Rand, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 156921, Violence-Related Injuries Treated in Hospital Emergency Departments, (1997) available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/vrithed.txt

Women are significantly more likely than men to be injured during an assault: 31.5% of female rape victims, compared with 16.1% of male rape victims, reported being injured during their most recent rape, and 39-42% percent of female physical assault victims, compared with 20-25% of male physical assault victims, reported being injured during their most recent physical assault.
35.6% of the women injured during their most recent rape and 30.2% of the women injured during their most recent physical assault received medical treatment. Approximately 21.5% of male victims of intimate partner physical assaults that resulted in an injury sought medical treatment.
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 183781, Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, at iv (2000) available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/183781.htm ; Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 181867, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, at iv (2000), available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/181867.htm

4% of men and 5% of women reported receiving serious injuries (knife wounds, internal injuries, broken bones, or loss of consciousness).
Callie Marie Rennison & Sarah Welchans, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 178247, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: Intimate Partner Violence at 6 (2000), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/ipv.pdf

The level of injury resulting from domestic violence is severe: of 218 women presenting at a metropolitan emergency department with injuries due to domestic violence, 28% required hospital admission, and 13% required major medical treatment. 40% had previously required medical care for abuse.
Daniel C. Berrios & D. Grady, Domestic Violence: Risk Factors and Outcome, 155 The W. J. of Medicine 133 (1991).

Fifty-six percent of women who experience any partner violence are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. Twenty-nine percent of all women who attempt suicide were battered, 37% of battered women have symptoms of depression, 46% have symptoms of anxiety disorder, and 45% experience post-traumatic stress disorder.
Kirstie K. Danielson et al., Comorbidity Between Abuse of an Adult and DSM-III-R Mental Disorders: Evidence From an Epidemiological Study, 155 Am. J. of Psychiatry 131 (1998); Evan Stark & Anne Flitcraft, Killing the Beast Within: Woman Battering and Female Suicidality, 25 Int'l J. of Health Sci. 43 (1995); B.M. Housekamp & David W. Foy, The Assessment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Battered Women, 6 J. of Interpersonal Violence 367 (1991); Richard J. Gelles & John W. Harrop, Violence, Battering, and Psychological Distress Among Women, 4 J. of Interpersonal Violence 400 (1989).

From 1987 to 1990, crime costs Americans $450 billion a year. Adult victims of domestic violence incurred 15% of the total cost of crime on victims ($67 billion). A study conducted at Rush Medical Center in Chicago found that the average charge for medical services provided to abused women, children and older people was $1,633 per person per year. This would amount to a national annual cost of $857.3 million.
Ted R. Miller, Mark A. Cohen, & Brian Wiersema, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 155282, Victims Costs and Consequences: A New Look (1996), available at http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/victcost.txt ; Harris Meyer, The Billion Dollar Epidemic, 35 Am. Med. News 7 (1992).

A study conducted at a large health plan in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1994, found that an annual difference of $1775.00 more was spent on abused women who utilized hospital services than on a random sample of general enrollees. The study concluded that early identification and treatment of victims and potential victims will most likely benefit health care systems in the long run.
Catherine L. Wisner et al., Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Do Victims Cost Health Plans More?, 48 J. of Fam. Prac. 429 (1999).

Ninety-two percent of women who were physically abused by their partners did not discuss these incidents with their physicians; 57% did not discuss the incidents with anyone. Additionally, in four different studies of survivors of abuse, 70% to 81% of the patients studied reported that they would like their healthcare providers to ask them privately about intimate partner violence.
Panagiota V. Caralis & Regina Musialowski, Women's Experiences with Domestic Violence and Their Attitudes and Expectations Regarding Medical Care of Abuse Victims, 90 S. Med. J. 1075 (1997); Jeanne McCauley et al., Inside 'Pandora's Box': Abused Women's Experiences with Clinicians and Health Services, 13 Archives of Internal Med. 549 (1998); Lawrence S. Friedman et al., Inquiry About Victimization Experiences: A Survey of Patient Preferences and Physician Practices, 152 Archives of Internal Med. (1992); Michael Rodriguez et al., Breaking the Silence: Battered Women's Perspectives on Medical Care, 5 Archives of Fam. Med. 153 (1996).

A 1999 study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that an estimated ten percent of primary care physicians routinely screen for intimate partner abuse during new patient visits and nine percent routinely screen during periodic checkups.
Michael Rodriguez et al., Screening and Intervention for Intimate Partner Abuse: Practices and Attitudes of Primary Care Physicians, 282 J. Am. Med. Ass'n 468 (1999).

A 2001 study in North Carolina found that only 23% of women injured shortly after pregnancy received treatment for their injuries. However, almost all of these women used care for their infants indicating that pediatric practices are important settings for identifying domestic violence.
Sandra L. Martin et al., Physical Abuse of Women Before, During, and After Pregnancy, 285 J. Am. Med. Ass'n 1581 (2001). See also Family Violence Prevention Fund, Get the Facts - Domestic Violence and Health Care, (2006), available at http://www.endabuse.org/programs/healthcare/

Law Enforcement According to the Department of Justice:

Approximately 60% of family violence victimizations were reported to police between 1998 and 2002, up from about half between 1993 and 1998.
Among felony assault defendants convicted in State courts, 45% of persons sent to prison for family assault received a sentence of more than 2 years, compared to 77% of non-family assault offenders sent to prison.
Federal courts convicted 90% of defendants adjudicated for an interstate domestic violence offense.
Black women (67%) reported their victimization to police at significantly higher percentages than black men (48%), white men (45%), and white women (50%). No difference in white male and female percentages reporting emerged (45% versus 50%). Hispanic females reported intimate partner violence to the police at higher percentages than did non-Hispanic females (65% versus 52%).
Among victims of violence by an intimate partner, the percentage of women who reported the crime was greater in 1998 (59%) than in 1993 (48%).
Fear of reprisal by the perpetrator made up 19% of the reasons females did not report their victimization to the police. About 1 in 10 male victims and fewer than 1 in 10 female victims said they did not report the crime to the police because they did not want to get the offender in trouble with the law.
About half of the male victims' reasons and a third of the female victims' reasons for not reporting their intimate partner victimization to the police was because it was a "private or personal matter." While this reason was the most often given by both male and female victims, it was given by male victims in a significantly higher percentage than female victims.
Matthew R. Durose et al., Dep't of Just., NCJ 207846, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Family Violence Statistics: Including Statistics on Strangers and Acquaintances at 2 (2005) available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/fvs.pdf ; Callie Marie Rennison & Sarah Welchans, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 178247, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: Intimate Partner Violence at 1, 7 (2000), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/ipv.pdf

The Effect of Protection Orders

Reports indicate some 86% of the women who received a protection order state the abuse either stopped or was greatly reduced.
James Ptacek, Battered Women in the Courtroom: The Power of Judicial Response (1999), (reviewed in Meda Chesney-Lind, James Ptacek, Battered Women in the Courtroom: The Power of Judicial Response, 35 Crime, L. & Soc. Change 363 (2001)).

A six-month longitudinal study, found that among 65 abused African-American, White, Hispanic, and Asian women applying and qualifying for a protection order against a sexual intimate, only half of the women actually received the order.
Julia Henderson Gist et al., Protection Orders and Assault Charges: Do Justice Interventions Reduce Violence Against Women, 15 Am. J. Fam. L. 59 (2001).

FMI: National Violence Against Women Survey To further understanding of violence against women, the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention jointly sponsored, through a grant to the Center for Policy Research, a national survey that was conducted from November 1995 to May 1996. The National Violence Against Women (NVAW) Survey sampled both women and men and thus provides comparable data on women's and men's experiences with violent victimization. Respondents to the survey were asked about:

Physical assault they experienced as children by adult caretakers.
Physical assault they experienced as adults by any type of assailant.
Forcible rape and stalking they experienced at any time in their life by any type of perpetrator.

Respondents who disclosed that they had been victimized were asked detailed questions about the characteristics and consequences of their victimization, including injuries they sustained and their use of medical services.

NIJ Publications from the National Violence Against Women Survey Stalking in America: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey, Research in Brief, by Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 1998, NCJ 169592. This document provides detailed information from the survey on women's and men's experiences with stalking. Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey, Research in Brief, by Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 1998, NCJ 172837. This document summarizes the findings presented in this Research Report. Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey, Research Report, by Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 2000, NCJ 181867. This document provides detailed information from the survey on women's and men's experiences with intimate partner violence. Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, by Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, national Institute of Justice, 2000 NCJ 183781. To obtain copies of these publications, visit NIJ's Web site at: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij , or contact the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, P.O. Box 6000, Rockville, MD 20849-6000; 800-851-3420 or 301-519-5500; or send an e-mail message to askncjrs@ncjrs.org .

Journal Articles about the National Violence Against Women Survey Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, " Co-Worker Violence and Gender: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey," American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Special Edition on Workplace Violence, Vol. 20, Issue 1 (forthcoming 2001). Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, " Effects of Interviewer Gender on Men's Responses to a Telephone Survey on Violent Victimization," Journal of Quantitative Criminology (forthcoming 2001). Patricia Tjaden, Nancy Thoennes, and Christine Allison, " Comparing Stalking Victimization from Legal and Victim Perspectives," Violence and Victims, Vol. 15, No. 1 (2000): 1-16. Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, " Prevalence and Incidence of Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey," The Criminologist, Vol. 24, No. 3, (May/June 1999): 1, 4, 13-14. Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, " Prevalence and Consequences of Male-to-Female and Female-to-Male Partner Violence as Measured by the National Violence Against Women Survey," Violence Against Women, Vol. 6, No. 2 (February 2000): 142-161. Patricia Tjaden, Nancy Thoennes, Christine Allison, " Comparing Violence Over the Lifespan in Samples of Same-Sex and Opposite-Sex Cohabitants," Violence and Victims, Vol. 14, No. 4 (1999): 413-425. National Violence Against Women Survey Methodology Report by Patricia Tjaden, Steve Leadbetter, John Boyle, and Robert A. Bardwell provides a more detailed account of the survey methods. This document is under review at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To learn about CDC prevention activities related to family violence and intimate partner violence, visit CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Web site at http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/fivpt .