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FACTS
ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 1.
Physical abuse by male social
partners may be the single most common source of injury among women, more common
than auto accidents, muggings and rape combined. According to testimony by Evan Stark, Ph.D. and Anne
Flitcraft, MD to the Attorney General's Task Force (1992) on Family Violence,
NYC, reporting on the major findings from a five-year study at Yale New Haven
Hospital. 95%
of reported cases of domestic violence involve a male batterer and female
victim. 2.
The
highest rates of intimate violence affected women ages 16 to 24. Woman age 16 to
19 and women age 20 to 24 had nearly identical rates of intimate victimization -
about 1 violent victimization for every 50 women. In general, women over age 65
were the least likely to experience an act of violence. Bureau of Justice Statistics,
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), 1992-1996 3.
Boys
who witness their fathers' violence are 10 times more likely to engage in spouse
abuse in later adulthood than boys from non-violent homes. (US Department of Justice, 1993) 4.
Female victims of domestic
violence are more likely to be slain by their husbands while separated from
them. In a study of three large homicide samples in Chicago, New
South Wales (Australia), and Canada, researchers found that wives are much more
likely to be slain by their husbands when separated from them than when
co-residing. Wives are particularly at risk in the first two months after
leaving. The New South Wales data available for slain wives found that 47
percent were killed within two months and 91 percent within a year of
separating. (Violence and Victims, Volume 8, Number 1, Spring 1993,
"Spousal Homicide Risk and Estrangement") 5.
If
every woman victimized by domestic violence last year were to join hands in a
line, the string of people would expand from New York to Los Angeles
and back again. (According to the Senate
Judiciary Committee, July 31, 1990) 6.
In
the United States, there are three times as many animal shelters as there are
battered women's shelters (According to the Senate Judiciary Committee, July 31, 1990) |