24-hour Hotline: (800) 895-8476
Amazon Smile

Statistics

General

  • On average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States — more than 12 million women and men over the course of a year1
  • Nearly 3 in 10 women (29%) and 1 in 10 men (10%) in the US have experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by a partner and report a related impact on their functioning2
  • Women ages 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 generally experienced the highest rates of intimate partner violence in their relationships3
  • Intimate partner violence made up 20% of all non-fatal violent crime experienced by women in 20014

Homicide

  • Women are far more likely than men to be murdered by an intimate partner. Of those murdered by their intimate partner, 74% are women and 26% are men5
  • The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation increases the risk of homicide by 500%6
  • 72% of all murder-suicides involve an intimate partner; 94% of the victims of these murder suicides are female7
  • The odds of becoming an attempted homicide victim increased 7-fold and the odds of becoming a homicide victim increased 8-fold for women who had been strangled by their partner8

Teen Dating Violence

  • Nearly 1.5 million high school students nationwide experience physical abuse from a dating partner in a single year9
  • One in three girls in the US is a victim of physical, emotional or verbal abuse from a dating partner, a figure that far exceeds rates of other types of youth violence10
  • One in ten high school students has been purposefully hit, slapped or physically hurt by a boyfriend or girlfriend11
  • The severity of intimate partner violence is often greater in cases where the pattern of abuse was established in adolescence12
  • Only 33% of teens who were in an abusive relationship ever told anyone about the abuse13
  • Eighty-one percent of parents believe teen dating violence is not an issue or admit they don’t know if it’s an issue14
  • Though 82% of parents feel confident that they could recognize the signs if their child was experiencing dating abuse, a majority of parents (58%) could not correctly identify all the warning signs of abuse15

Intimate Partner Violence and Children

  • A child witnessed violence in 22% (nearly 1 in 4) of intimate partner violence cases filed in state courts16
  • 30 to 60% of perpetrators of intimate partner violence also abuse children in the household17
  • One study in North America found that children who were exposed to violence in the home were 15 times more likely to be physically and/or sexually assaulted than the national average18
  • The U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect suggests that domestic violence may be the single major precursor to child abuse and neglect fatalities in this country19

Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence

  • Victims of intimate partner violence lose a total of 8.0 million days of paid work each year20
  • The cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $8.3 billion per year21
  • Between 21-60% of victims of intimate partner violence lose their jobs due to reasons stemming from the abuse22
  • Women abused by their intimate partners are more vulnerable to contracting HIV or other STI’s due to forced intercourse or prolonged exposure to stress23
  • Studies suggest that there is a relationship between intimate partner violence and depression and suicidal behavior24
  • Physical, mental, and sexual and reproductive health effects have been linked with intimate partner violence including adolescent pregnancy, unintended pregnancy in general, miscarriage, stillbirth, intrauterine hemorrhage, nutritional deficiency, abdominal pain and other gastrointestinal problems, neurological disorders, chronic pain, disability, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Victims of domestic violence are also at higher risk for developing addictions to alcohol, tobacco, or drugs24

Intimate Partner Violence in LGBTQ+ Relationships

  • Bisexual women have a higher lifetime prevalence of rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner when compared to both lesbian and heterosexual women25
  • Lesbian women and gay men report levels of intimate partner violence and sexual violence equal to or higher than those of heterosexuals26
  • Most bisexual and heterosexual women (89.5% and 98.7%, respectively) reported having only male perpetrators of intimate partner violence. Two-thirds of lesbian women (67.4%) reported having only female perpetrators of intimate partner violence27
  • The majority of bisexual men (78.5%) and most heterosexual men (99.5%) reported having only female perpetrators of intimate partner violence. Most gay men (90.7%) reported having only male perpetrators of intimate partner violence29

Stalking

  • 19.3 million women and 5.1 million men in the United States have been stalked in their lifetime. 60.8% of female stalking victims and 43.5% men reported being stalked by a current or former intimate partner30
  • 81% of women stalked by a current or former intimate partner are also physically assaulted by that partner31
  • 31% of women stalked by a current or former intimate partner are also sexually assaulted by that partner32
  • The average duration of stalking is 1.8 years. If stalking involves intimate partners, the average duration of stalking increases to 2.2 years33
  • 61% of stalkers made unwanted phone calls; 33% sent or left unwanted letters or items; 29% vandalized property; and 9% killed or threatened to kill a family pet34

Sexual Violence

  • Women are more likely to be victims of sexual violence than men: 78% of the victims of rape and sexual assault are women and 22% are men35
  • Most perpetrators of sexual violence are men. Among acts of sexual violence committed against women since the age of 18, 100% of rapes, 92% of physical assaults, and 97% of stalking acts were perpetrated by men. Sexual violence against men is also mainly male violence: 70% of rapes, 86% of physical assaults, and 65% of stalking acts were perpetrated by men36
  • In 8 out of 10 rape cases, the victim knows the perpetrator. Of people who report sexual violence, 64% of women and 16% of men were raped, physically assaulted, or stalked by an intimate partner. This includes a current or former spouse, cohabitating partner, boyfriend/girlfriend, or date37
  • A national survey found that 34% of women were victims of sexual coercion by a husband or intimate partner in their lifetime38
  • Nearly 1 in 10 women in the United States (9.4%) has been raped by an intimate partner in her lifetime39
Quick Escape