Domestic Violence Stats

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Real Time Death Toll as of

National Statistics:
Domestic violence
Domestic violence homicides
Dating violence
Domestic violence and children
Domestic violence and male victims
Sexual assault
Stalking
Victim assistance and law enforcement

Oregon Statistics
Washington County

National Domestic violence

One in four women (25%) has experienced domestic violence in her lifetime. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The National Institute of Justice, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence, July 2000. The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman’s Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women’s Health, 1999

Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend to 3 million women who are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend per year. U.S. Department of Justice, Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, March 1998. The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman’s Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women’s Health, 1999

Women accounted for 85% of the victims of intimate partner violence, men for approximately 15%. Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003

Between 600,000 and 6 million women are victims of domestic violence each year, and between 100,000 and 6 million men, depending on the type of survey used to obtain the data. Rennison, C. (2003, Feb). Intimate partner violence. Us. Dpt. of Justice/Office of Justice Programs. NXJ 197838.

Straus, M. & Gelles, R. (1990). Physical violence in American families. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers.

Tjaden, P., & Thoennes, N. (2000). Extent, nature, and consequences of intimate partner violence. National Institute of Justice, NCJ 181867.

Women ages 20-24 are at the greatest risk of nonfatal intimate partner violence. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Intimate Partner Violence in the U.S. 1993-2023, 2006.

Between 1993 and 2004, intimate partner violence on average made up 22% of nonfatal intimate partner victimizations against women. The same year, intimate partners committed 3% of all violent crime against men. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Intimate Partner Violence in the U.S. 1993-2023, 2006.

Separated and divorced males and females are at a greater risk of nonfatal intimate partner violence. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Intimate Partner Violence in the U.S. 1993-2023, 2006.

Women of all races are about equally vulnerable to violence by an intimate partner. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey, August 1995

Average annual rates of intimate partner victimization between 1994 and 2004 are approximately the same for non-Hispanic and Hispanic females and males. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Intimate Partner Violence in the U.S. 1993-2023, 2006.

Intimate partner violence affects people regardless of income. However, people with lower annual income (below $25K) are at a 3-times higher risk of intimate partner violence than people with higher annual income (over $50K).* Bureau of Justice Statistics, Intimate Partner Violence in the U.S. 1993-2023, 2006.

*Please note that those with less resources are more likely to report incidents of violence

On average between 1993 and 2004, residents of urban areas experienced highest level of nonfatal intimate partner violence. Residents in suburban and rural areas were equally likely to experience such violence, about 20% less than those in urban areas. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Intimate Partner Violence in the U.S. 1993-2023, 2006.

Nearly 2.2 million people called a domestic violence crisis or hot line in 2004 to escape crisis situations, seek advice, or assist someone they thought might be victims. National Network to End Domestic Violence

Studies show that access to shelter services leads to a 60-70% reduction in incidence and severity of re-assault during the 3-12 months’ follow up period compared to women who did not access shelter. Shelter services led to greater reduction in severe re-assault than did seeking court or law enforcement protection, or moving to a new location. Campbell, JC, PhD, RN, FAAN. Anna D. Wolf, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Protective Action and Re-assault: Findings from the RAVE study.

Nearly three out of four (74%) of Americans personally know someone who is or has been a victim of domestic violence. 30% of Americans say they know a woman who has been physically abused by her husband or boyfriend in the past year. Allstate Foundation National Poll on Domestic Violence, 2006. Lieberman Research Inc., Tracking Survey conducted for The Advertising Council and the Family Violence Prevention Fund, July – October 1996

Domestic violence homicides

On average, more than three women and one man are murdered by their intimate partners in this country every day. In 2000, 1,247 women were killed by an intimate partner. The same year, 440 men were killed by an intimate partner. Intimate partner homicides accounted for 30% of the murders of women and 5% percent of the murders of men. 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. 1993-2023, 2006.

Most intimate partner homicides occur between spouses, though boyfriends/girlfriends have committed about the same number of homicides in recent years. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Intimate Partner Violence in the U.S. 1993-2023, 2006.

The health-related costs of intimate partner violence exceed $5.8 billion each year. Of that amount, nearly $4.1 billion are for direct medical and mental health care services, and nearly $1.8 billion are for the indirect costs of lost productivity or wages. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States, April 2003.

About half of all female victims of intimate violence report an injury of some type, and about 20 percent of them seek medical assistance. National Crime Victimization Survey, 1992-96; Study of Injured Victims of Violence, 1994

Thirty-seven percent of women who sought treatment in emergency rooms for violence-related injuries in 1994 were injured by a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend. U.S. Department of Justice, Violence Related Injuries Treated in Hospital Emergency Departments, 1997

Dating violence

Approximately one in five female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner. Jay G. Silverman, PhD; Anita Raj, PhD; Lorelei A. Mucci, MPH; and Jeanne E. Hathaway, MD, MPH, “Dating Violence Against Adolescent Girls and Associated Substance Use, Unhealthy Weight Control, Sexual Risk Behavior, Pregnancy, and Suicidality,” Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 286, No. 5, 2001

Forty percent of girls age 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend. Children Now/Kaiser Permanente poll, December 1995

One in five teens in a serious relationship reports having been hit, slapped, or pushed by a partner. 14% of teens report their boyfriend or girlfriend threatened to harm them or themselves to avoid a breakup. Many studies indicate that as a dating relationship becomes more serious, the potential for and nature of violent behavior also escalates. Oregon Law Center

Date rape accounts for almost 70% of sexual assaults reported by adolescent and college age women; 38% of those women are between 14 and 17 years old. Oregon Law Center.

Domestic violence and children

In a national survey of American families, 50% of the men who frequently assaulted their wives also frequently abused their children. Strauss, Murray A, Gelles, Richard J., and Smith, Christine. 1990. Physical Violence in American Families; Risk Factors and Adaptations to Violence in 8,145 Families. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers (Note: However, over one-third of all maltreatment of children are by women. http://bit.ly/strqCq)

On average between 1993 and 2004, children under age 12 were residents of households experiencing intimate partner violence in 43% of incidents involving female victims and 25% of incidents involving male victims. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Intimate Partner Violence in the U.S. 1993-2023, 2006.

Studies suggest that between 3.3 - 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence annually. Carlson, Bonnie E. (1984). Children’s observations of interpersonal violence. Pp. 147-167 in A.R. Roberts (Ed.) Battered women and their families (pp. 147-167). NY: Springer. Straus, M.A. (1992). Children as witnesses to marital violence: A risk factor for lifelong problems among a nationally representative sample of American men and women. Report of the Twenty-Third Ross Roundtable. Columbus, OH: Ross Laboratories.

Domestic violence and male victims*

Due to cultural norms that require men to present a strong façade and that minimize female-perpetrated abuse (Mooney, 2000; Straus et al, 1997; Sorenson & Taylor, 2005), men are less likely to verbalize fear of any kind. (Dutton & Nicholls, 2005; Hines et al, in press) Dutton, D., & Nicholls, T. (2005). A critical review of the gender paradigm in domestic violence research and theory: Part I – Theory and data. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 10, 680-714.

Hines, D., Brown, J., & Dunning, E. (in press) Characteristics of callers to the domestic abuse helpline for men. Journal of Family Violence.

Mooney, J. (2000). Gender, violence, and the social order. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Sorenson, S., & Taylor, C. (2005). Female aggression toward male intimate partners: An examination of social norms in a community-based sample. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 29, 78-96.

Straus, M., Kaufman-Kantor, G., & Moore, D. (1997). Change in cultural norms approving marital violence: From 1968 to 1994. In G. Kaufman-Kantor & J. Jasinski (Eds.), Out of the darkness: Contemporary perspectives on family violence. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Individuals who are controlling of their partners are much more likely to also be physically assaultive, and this holds equally for both male and female perpetrators. Felson, R., & Outlaw, M. (2007). The control motive and marital violence. Violence and Victims, 22 (4), 387-407.

Graham-Kevan, N. (2007). Men’s and women’s use of intimate partner violence: Implications for treatment programs. Presented July 9, 2007 at the International Family Violence and Child Victimization Research Conference, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Societal norms support female-perpetrated abuse in the home. (Straus et al., 1997; Straus, 1999) Straus, M. (1999). The controversy over domestic violence by women. In X. Arriaga & S. Oskamp (Eds.), Violence in intimate relationships (pp. 17-44).

Structural power does not necessarily translate to individual power. Felson, R. (2002). Violence & gender reexamined. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Surveys find that men and women assault one another and strike the first blow at approximately equal rates. Archer, J. (2000). Sex differences in aggression between heterosexual partners: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 126 (5), 651-680.

Dutton, D., Kwong, M., & Bartholomew, K. (1999). Gender differences in patterns of relationship violence in Alberta. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 31, 150-160

Morse, B. (1995). Beyond the Conflict Tactics Scale: Assessing gender differences in partner violence. Violence and Victims, 10 (4), 251-269.

Straus, M. (1993). Physical assaults by wives: A major social problem. In R. Gelles & D. Loseky (Eds.), Current controversies on family violence (pp. 67-87). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Men and women engage in overall comparable levels of abuse and control, such as diminishing the partner’s self-esteem, isolation and jealousy, using children and economic abuse; however, men engage in higher levels of sexual coercion and can more easily intimidate physically. Coker, A, Davis, K., Arias, I., Desai, S., Sanderson, M., Brandt, H., & Smith, P. (2002). Physical and mental health effects of intimate partner violence for men and women. American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 23 (4), 260-268.

Hammock, G., & O’Hearn, R. (2002). Psychological aggression in dating relationships: Predictive models for male and females. Violence and Victims, 17, 525-540.

Sexual assault

Three in four women (76%) who reported they had been raped and/or physically assaulted since age 18 said that an intimate partner (current or former husband, cohabiting partner, or date) committed the assault. U.S. Department of Justice, Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November 1998

One in five (21%) women reported she had been raped or physically or sexually assaulted in her lifetime. The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman’s Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women’s Health, 1999

Stalking

Annually in the United States, 503,485 women are stalked by an intimate partner. Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence, National Institute of Justice, 2000

One in 12 women and one in 45 men will be stalked in their lifetime, for an average duration of almost two years Tjaden and Thoennes, “Stalking in America,” Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, 1998

Seventy-eight percent of stalking victims are women. Women are significantly more likely than men (60 percent and 30 percent, respectively) to be stalked by intimate partners. Center for Policy Research, Stalking in America, July 1997

Eighty percent of women who are stalked by former husbands are physically assaulted by that partner and 30 percent are sexually assaulted by that partner. Center for Policy Research, Stalking in America, July 1997

Victims may experience psychological trauma, financial hardship, and even death. Mullen, Pathe, and Purcell, Stalkers and Their Victims, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000

Seventy-six percent of female homicide victims were stalked prior to their death. MacFarlane et al., “Stalking and Intimate Partner Femicide,” Homicide Studies 3, no. 4 (1998): 300-16

Victim assistance and law enforcement

On average, 21% of female victims and 10% of male victims of nonfatal partner violence contact an outside agency for assistance. Of those females and males contacting an outside agency, 45% contact a private agency. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Intimate Partner Violence in the U.S. 1993-2023, 2006.

On average, only 70% of nonfatal partner violence is reported to law enforcement. Of those not reporting, 41% of male and 27% of female victims (34% average) stated victimization being a private/personal matter as reason for not reporting, 15% of women feared reprisal, 12% of all victims wished to protect the offender, and 6% of all victims believed police would do nothing. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Intimate Partner Violence in the U.S. 1993-2023, 2006.

Oregon

Demographics (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 estimate)

  • Population: 3,700,758
  • Population growth: 8.2%
  • Area: 95,996.79 square miles
  • Population density (persons per square mile): 35.6

Domestic violence

Annually, 18 people die in Oregon as a result of domestic violence. These victims include men, women, and children. Drach, L. (2004) Intimate partner homicide in Oregon, 1997-2023. Portland, OR: Oregon Department of Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Epidemiology

At least 1 in 10 Oregon women between the ages of 20-55 (more than 85,000 women) have been physically or sexually assaulted by a current or former intimate partner in the preceding five years. Children witnessed 33% of those assaults. Oregon Women’s Health and Safety Survey, 2004 Oregon Department of Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Epidemiology Injury Prevention and Epidemiology Section Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Data Collection Project

1 in 6 Oregon women has been the victim of rape. More than 50% of rape victims are under 17 years old. Kilpatrick, DG & Ruggiero, KJ. (2003). Rape in Oregon: A Report to the State. National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center, Medical University of South Carolina)

Domestic violence and sexual assault crimes make up 1/3 or more of all violent crime statewide. LEDS Report, 2004)

The costs of domestic and sexual violence injuries in Oregon exceed $50 million dollars a year. Nearly $35 million of these costs are for direct medical and mental health care services. Approximately $9.3 million of these costs are from victims’ lost productivity from paid work, and $10.7 million of these costs are lifetime earnings lost by victims who are killed. Drach, L. (2005) Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Oregon Women. Portland, OR: Oregon Department of Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Epidemiology.

Requests for shelter that Oregon programs were unable to meet rose from 14,739 in 2007 to 19,996 in 2008. This is a 36% increase. These figures may include duplication if survivors called more than one shelter. However, the increase in calls for help that cannot be met due to lack of resources remains significant. Striving to Meet the Need: Summary of Services provided by Domestic and Sexual Violence Programs in Oregon, DHS Children, Adults and Families Division, April 2008.

One in five teens in a serious relationship reports having been hit, slapped, or pushed by a partner. 14% of teens report their boyfriend or girlfriend threatened to harm them or themselves to avoid a breakup. Many studies indicate that as a dating relationship becomes more serious, the potential for and nature of violent behavior also escalates. Oregon Law Center.

Date rape accounts for almost 70% of sexual assaults reported by adolescent and college age women; 38% of those women are between 14 and 17 years old. Oregon Law Center

Washington County

Demographics (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 estimate)

  • Population: 514,269
  • Population change since 2000 census: 15.5% (Oregon: 8.2%)
  • Area: 723.75 square miles
  • Population density (persons per sq mi): 615.1

Domestic violence

In 2005, Washington County District Attorney’s Office filed 656 domestic violence related felony and misdemeanor cases, a 16% increase over 2004. Of these cases, 41% were for assault, 21% for harassment, 14% for interference with making a report, strangulation, or menacing, and 24% for a variety of crimes, including non-physical.

Domestic Violence Resource Center P.O. Box 494 Hillsboro, OR 97123 p 503.640.5352 f 503.648.6905

24-Hour Crisis Line 503.469.8620 | Toll Free 1.866.469.8600
Source: www.dvrc-or.org/domestic/violence/resources/C61/#mal

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