- One in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.
- An estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year.
- Historically, females have been most often victimized by someone they knew.
- Females who are 20 – 24 years of age are at the greatest risk of nonfatal intimate partner violence.
- Most cases of domestic violence are never reported to the police.
- According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, on average, more than three women and one man are murdered by their intimate partners in this country every day.
- In 70 – 80% of intimate partner homicides, no matter which partner was killed, the man physically abused the woman before the murder.
- It is estimated that anywhere between 3.3 million and 10 million children witness domestic violence annually.
- Boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own partners and children when they become adults.
- Thirty to 60% of perpetrators of intimate partner violence also abuse children.
- The cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion each year, $4.1billion of which is for direct medical and mental health services.
- There are 16,800 homicides and $2.2 million worth of (medically treated) injuries due to intimate partner violence annually, which costs $37 billion.
- Fifty percent of battered women who are employed are harassed at work by their abusive partners.
- Approximately one-half of the orders obtained by women against intimate partners who physically assaulted them were violated.
- More than two-thirds of the restraining orders against intimate partners who raped or stalked the victim were violated.
- Intimate partner violence affects people regardless of income.
Sources of Statistics
National Coalition against Domestic Violence
American Bar Association
Domestic Violence Resource Center
U.S. Gen. Accounting Office, GAO/HEHS-99-12, Domestic Violence: Prevalence and Implications for Employment Among Welfare Recipients (1998)
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).
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).
Bureau of Justice Statistics, Family Violence statistics, June 2005
Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Intimate Partner Violence in the U.S. 1993-2004, 2006.