Women:
- In the United States, a woman is physically assaulted every 15 seconds.
- Fifty percent of all women will be battered at some time in their lives.
- More than four million women are battered each year.
- More than 4,000 women a year are killed by a current or former boyfriend or husband.
Men:
- At some point in their lives, 60 percent of men will batter.
- Men from violent childhoods are three times more likely to hit their partners and 10 times more likely to emotionally abuse them as are men from non-violent childhoods.
- Approximately 98 percent of batterers are men.
Children:
- More than 80 percent of men who batter witnessed or experienced violence as children.
- In 70 percent of families where the woman is battered, children are battered as well.
- Criminal Justice System:
- The nation’s police forces spend one-third of their time responding to domestic violence calls.
- Prompt and consistent responses by the criminal justice system have been shown to reduce repeated abuse.
Mental Health:
- It is estimated that 95 percent of battered women who seek services from mental health professionals do not divulge that they are being battered.
- In over 60 percent of these cases, the mental health professionals fail to detect such battering.
Medical Health:
- Battering results in more physical injuries to women requiring medical treatment than muggings, auto accidents and rapes combined.
- One out of every five women treated for serious injuries in hospitals is battered, while only one out of every 25 is identified as such by emergency department staff.
* Statistics from the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women.
