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.
• 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. 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. 77% of female victims know their stalker. 87% of stalkers
are men. 81% of women stalked by a current or former intimate partner
are also physically 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 obtained a protective order. 69% of
female 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. 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)
Sexual Assault According to the National Violence Against Women
Survey:
• 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. Dean G. Kilpatrick, Rape and
Sexual Assault, Aug. 7, 2006, http://www.musc.
edu/vawprevention/research/sa.shtml
• 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
According to the Texas Council on Family Violence:
• 2 out of every 5 Hispanic Texas females (39%) reported experience
severe abuse.
• 40% of Hispanic Texans who reported experiencing at least one
form of domestic violence took no action. 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. Texas
Council on Family Violence, Statistics, 2002 http://makethecall.
org/texas_stats.htm
Immigrants
• Married immigrant women experience higher levels of physical and
sexual abuse than unmarried immigrant women, 59.5 percent compared
to 49.8 percent, respectively. The Facts on Immigrant Women and
Domestic Violence (2006), http://endabuse.org/resources/facts/Immigrant.
pdf
Teens
• 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).
• 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).
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
• 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)
• 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
• 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).
• 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).
Physical Injury and Medical Treatment
• 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
available at http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/victcost.txt; Harris Meyer, The
Billion Dollar Epidemic, 35 Am. Med. News 7 (1992).
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.Available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/fvs.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).
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.
• 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. 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. 77% of female victims know their stalker. 87% of stalkers
are men. 81% of women stalked by a current or former intimate partner
are also physically 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 obtained a protective order. 69% of
female 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. 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)
Sexual Assault According to the National Violence Against Women
Survey:
• 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. Dean G. Kilpatrick, Rape and
Sexual Assault, Aug. 7, 2006, http://www.musc.
edu/vawprevention/research/sa.shtml
• 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
According to the Texas Council on Family Violence:
• 2 out of every 5 Hispanic Texas females (39%) reported experience
severe abuse.
• 40% of Hispanic Texans who reported experiencing at least one
form of domestic violence took no action. 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. Texas
Council on Family Violence, Statistics, 2002 http://makethecall.
org/texas_stats.htm
Immigrants
• Married immigrant women experience higher levels of physical and
sexual abuse than unmarried immigrant women, 59.5 percent compared
to 49.8 percent, respectively. The Facts on Immigrant Women and
Domestic Violence (2006), http://endabuse.org/resources/facts/Immigrant.
Teens
• 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).
• 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).
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
• 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)
• 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
• 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).
• 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).
Physical Injury and Medical Treatment
• 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
available at http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/victcost.txt; Harris Meyer, The
Billion Dollar Epidemic, 35 Am. Med. News 7 (1992).
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.Available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/fvs.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).
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