D. V. Facts
Domestic Violence Facts
Approximately 1.5 million women are physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States. Since many women experience multiple victimizations every year, an estimated 5.9 million physical assaults are perpetrated against U.S. women annually.
National Institue of Justice & Centers For Disease Control, National Violence Against Women Survey, 1998
A woman is battered every 8 to 10 seconds in the United States (3-4 million times per year)
A man is battered every 16 minutes in the United States (143,000 times per year)
More women are injured from battering than mugging, auto accidents and rape combined.
Each day, more than three women in the United States are murdered by a male intimate partner
U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Violence by Intimates, 2000.
Women are more likely to be victims of homicide when they seperate from their husbands. 65% of intimate homicide victims had physically seperated from the perpetrator prior to their death.
Florida Governor's Task Force on Domestic and Sexual Violence, Floriday Mortality Review Project, p.47, 1997
One-third of all police time is spent responding to domestic violence disturbance calls.
National Center on Women & Family Law, Battered Women: The Facts, 1996
Twenty-five percent of all women seeking care in an emergency room for any reason is a victim of domestic violence.
Thirty-seven percent of female patients treated in an emergency room for violent injury have been injured by their partners.
As many as 17% of adult pregnant women are battered. The number of teenagers that battered during pregnancy may be as high as 21%.
On average, Us medical schools require only two hours of training in adult domestic violence and less than half of family practice residencies require education about Intimate Partner Abuse.
Thirty-one percent of female physicians and 14% of male physicians have personally experienced domestic violence. Thirty-one percent of nurses report that they or someone in their immediate families have experienced domestic violence.
Rhode Island Domestic Violence Deaths
From 1990 to 1999, at least fifty-nine Rhode Islanders died as the result of domestic violence. Nine victims of domestic violence were killed in 1999 alone.
Rhode Island Coalition Against Domest Violence, 2000
Of these nine fatal domestic violence-incidents, one was perpetrated by a current partner and the others by ex-partners
The forty three perpetrators consisted of forty-one men and two women. Male perpetrators were responsible for fifty-six of the fifty-nine deaths over the past decade: 11 suicides and 45 murders.
During Calendar year 1999, the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence's six member agencies provided community services for 8,299 unduplicated victims of domestic violence.
Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2000
In 1999, Rhode Island's domestice violence crisis hotlines received 19,719 calls for crisis intervention, support and referrals.
Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2000
In 1999, 693 women and children sought relief from abuse at one of Rhode Island's six domestic violence emergency shelters. These women and children remained sheltered for a cumulative total of 21,876 nights, an increase of 26 percent over the past year.
Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2000
Police Departments responded to 6,932 domestic violence calls in 1999.
Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2000
In 1999, 3,658 victism of abuse obtained Temporary Restraining Orders.
Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestice Violence, 1998
On any given day in Rhode Island, 52 people call a domestic violence hotline, 44 women and children spend the night in a domestic violence shelter, and 34 people seek community based domestice violence services.
Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 1998
In 1998, police noted children were present during 39% of reported causes of domestic violence in Rhode Island. Children saw their parent being abused in 1,711 incidents and in 2,067 incidents heard their parent being abused.
2000 Rhode Island Kids Count Factbook, 2000
Children and Domestic Violence
Research shows that between 3.3 million and 10 million children in the United States are exposed to domestic violence each year.
The David and Lucille Packard Foundation, The Future of Children, 1999.
Between 45% to 70% of children exposed to domesic violence are also victims of physical abuse.
P.K. Trickett & C.J. Shellenbach, American Psychological Association, pp. 57-101, 1998.
Children ages five and under are more likely than older children to be exposed to multiple incidents of domestic violence.
Fantuzzo, Boruch & Saltzman, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36:116-22, 1997.
Children who witness domestic violence were found to show more anxiety, depression, traumatic symptoms and tempermental problems than other children.
J.L. Edelson, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, $14, 1999.
Studies have show that adolescent males exposed to domestic violence as children believe that aggression enhances self-image and reputation and influences their use of violence.
Schechter & Edelson, Domestic Violence & Children, Open Society Institue, Center of Crime, Communities & Culture, 2000.
Over 80% of abusive partners had themselves either been victims of child abuse or had witnessed their mothers being abused.
National Center on Women & Family Law, Battered Women: The Facts, 1996.
In Rhode Island, when the court makes decisions about custody and visitation of a child, it is required to consider evidence of past or present domestic violence.
Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence & Rhode Island Legal Services, Safe Visitation: A guide to helping you in Family Court, 2000.
In 1999, 13% of the 8,299 clients served by the Rhode Island Coalitions member agencies were children.
Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2000
Animal Abuse and Domestic Violence
Of women seeking shelter for domestic violence, 71% reported that their partner had threatened to harm, or actually harmed or killed at least one of their pets.
Ascione, F.(1998). Battered women's reports of their partners' and their childrens' cruelty to animals. Journal of Emotional Abuse. 1(1), 119,125.
Women were more likely to be permanently injured, scarred, or even killed by their husbands in societies in which animals are treated cruelly.
Levinson, D. (1989). Family Violence in cross-cultural perspective. Newburry Park, CA:.Sage Publications, 45.
Eighteen Percent of women reported that concern for their animals' welfare had prevented them from coming to a domestic violence shelter sooner.
Ascione, F.(1998). Battered women's reports of their partners' and their childrens' cruelty to animals. Journal of Emotional Abuse. 1(1), 119,125.
Reported animal cruelty by abusive partners includes slapping, shaking, throwing, or shooting dogs or cats, drowning a cat in a bathtub, and pouring lighter fluid on a kitten and igniting it.
Ascione, F.(1998). Battered women's reports of their partners' and their childrens' cruelty to animals. Journal of Emotional Abuse. 1(1), 119,125.
Reported threats of animal abuse by violent partners include putting a kitten in a blender, burying a cat up to its head and mowing it, starving a dog, and shooting and killing a cat.
Ascione, F.(1998). Battered women's reports of their partners' and their childrens' cruelty to animals. Journal of Emotional Abuse. 1(1), 119,125.
One study shows that 82% of families investigated for animal abuse or neglect were also known to loal social service agencies as having "children at risk."
Hutton, J.S. (1981). Animal Abuse as a diagnostic approach in social work: A pilot study. Paper presented at the international Conference on the Human/Companion Animal Bond, Philadelphia, PA.
In homes where women were victimized by their partner, 88% of animal abuse is witnessed by women and 78% is witnessed by children.
Quinslisk, A.. (1995). 1994/1995 survey results. La Crosse, WI:Domestic Violence Intervention Project.