Sobering Statistics
See “Sources of Statistics” below for “as of” dates which change all the time.
- 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.
- 44 percent of lesbians and 61 percent of bisexual women experience rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner, compared to 35 percent of straight women.
- 26 percent of gay men and 37 percent of bisexual men experience rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner, compared to 29 percent of straight men.
- 46 percent of bisexual women have been raped, compared to 17 percent of straight women and 13 percent of lesbians.
- 22 percent of bisexual women have been raped by an intimate partner, compared to 9 percent of straight women.
- 40 percent of gay men and 47 percent of bisexual men have experienced sexual violence other than rape, compared to 21 percent of straight men.
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.
The CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey