Statistics

• In figures reflective of the general population,1 in 4 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) people are battered by a partner.
• Nearly 1 in 3 adult women experience at least one physical assault by a partner during adulthood. (American Psychological Association, 1996).
• Nearly one-third of all women murdered in the US in 1998 were killed by a current or former intimate partner; guns were used in almost two-thirds of the homicides (Homicide Trends in the US, 2001).
• One-third of American women (31%) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives (The Commonwealth Fund, 1999).
• While women are less likely than men to be victims of violent crimes overall, women are 5 to 8 times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate partner (Violence by Intimates, 1998).
• Every day, at least three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country (Rennison and Welchans, 2000).
• Approximately 1.5 million women and 835,000 men are raped and/or physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States (Tjaden and Thoennes, 2000).
• Thirty-seven percent of all women who sought emergency room treatment for violence-related injuries were injured by a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend (US Department of Justice, 1998).
• Each year, an estimated 3.3 million children witness their mothers or female caretakers being abused (American Psychological Association, 1996).
• When data on African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native, and mixed-race respondents are combined, nonwhite women and men report significantly more intimate partner violence than do their white counterparts (Tjaden and Thoennes, 2000).
• Approximately 80% of stalking cases involve women stalked by former male partners (Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, 1996).
• Husbands and boyfriends commit an estimated 13,000 acts of violence against women in the workplace each year (US Department of Justice, 1994).
• Physical violence in intimate relationships almost always is accompanied by psychological abuse, and in one-third to over half of cases by sexual abuse (Population Reports, 2000).
• Between 12% and 35% of teenagers have experienced some form of violence- from pushing and shoving to hitting- in a dating relationship (Simon and Golden, 1997).