Domestic Violence, Though Often Unreported, is Pervasive

Domestic violence and emotional abuse are behaviors perpetrated by one person in a relationship to control the other. Partners may be married or not married; heterosexual, gay, or lesbian; living together, separated or dating. Domestic violence can also occur between siblings, parents and children, and grandparents and grandchildren. However, domestic violence most often occurs between married and dating couples who share a living space. Domestic violence leads to divorce in many cases. But, often times, the abused partner is too terrified to seek a divorce or a different living situation, for fear the abuse will only get worse.

The statistics surrounding domestic violence are quite startling:

· In a 1995-1996 study conducted in the 50 States and Washington D.C., nearly 25% of women and 7.6% of men were raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or dating partner/acquaintance at some time in their lifetime (based on survey of 16,000 participants, equally male and female).
· Approximately 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States.
· Intimate partner violence made up 20% of all nonfatal violent crime experienced by women in 2001.
· Intimate partners committed 3% of the nonfatal violence against men.
· In 2000, 1,247 women and 440 men were killed by an intimate partner. In recent years, an intimate partner killed approximately 33% of female murder victims and 4% of male murder victims.
· Of females killed with a firearm, almost two-thirds were killed by their intimate partners. The number of females shot and killed by their husband or intimate partner was more than three times higher than the total number murdered by male strangers using all weapons combined in single victim/single offender incidents in 2002.

According to the United States Department of Justice , between 1998 and 2002:

· Of the almost 3.5 million violent crimes committed against family members, 49% of these were crimes against spouses.
· 84% of spouse abuse victims were females, and 86% of victims of dating partner abuse at were female.
· Males were 83% of spouse murderers and 75% of dating partner murderers.
· 50% of offenders in state prison for spousal abuse had killed their victims.

Examples of abuse include:
· Name-calling or putdowns
· Keeping a partner from contacting their family or friends
· Withholding money
· Stopping a partner from getting or keeping a job
· Actual or threatened physical harm
· Sexual assault/rape
· Stalking
· Intimidation
Violence can be criminal and includes physical assault (hitting, pushing, shoving, etc.), sexual abuse (unwanted or forced sexual activity), and stalking. Although emotional, psychological and financial abuse are not criminal behaviors, they are forms of abuse and can lead to criminal violence.
Anyone can be a victim of domestic violence
Victims can be of any age, sex, race, culture, religion, education, employment or marital status. Although both men and women can be abused, most victims are women. Children in homes where there is domestic violence are more likely to be abused and/or neglected. Most children in these homes know about the violence, and even if a child is not physically harmed, he/she may have emotional and behavior problems.