Domestic Violence Information: Statistics


  • One in four women will be physically abused by a partner in her lifetime (A)
  • More than one in three Americans have witnessed an incident of domestic violence. (B)
  • Domestic violence is the leading cause of serious injury to American women, more common than muggings and car crashes combined. (C)
  • A woman is battered every 15 seconds in the United States (D)
  • It is estimated that between 2.3 and 10 million children are exposed to intimate partner violence. (F)
  • Each year in the United States 42% of murdered women are killed by their male partners. (G)
  • Only approximately one-quarter of all physical assaults, one-fifth of all rapes, and one-half of all stalkings perpetuated against females by intimate partners are reported to the police. (H)
  • One in five high school girls reports being physically or sexually assaulted by a date. (J)
  • One of every three women in the world has experienced abuse at the hands of a partner. (K)
  • 90-95% of victims of domestic violence are women (D)
  • A woman is MORE likely to be seriously injured or killed AFTER she leaves the relationship. (L)

A. Tjaden, Patricia & Thoennes, Nancy. National Institute of Justice and the Centers of Disease Control and

A - Prevention, "Extent, Nature and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence

      Against Women Survey," 2000

B - Family Violence Prevention Fund, "Men Beating Women: Ending Domestic Violence, A Qualitative & Quantitative

      Study of Public Attitudes on Violence against Women," New York:1993

C - Stark and Flitcraft, 1985

D - FBI, NIJ:2000

E - UN Study On The Status of Women, Year 2000

F - Carlson, B. E. (1984). Children's observations of interparental violence. In A. R. Roberts (Ed.) Battered women

      and their families (pp. 147-167).

G - FBI's 88-91 Uniform Crime Reports

H - National Institute of Justice and the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, "Extent, Nature and

      Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey," 2000.

J -  Davis, T.C, Peck G. Q., Storment, J. M. (1993). Journal of Adolescent Health, 14, 220-224.

K - UN Commission on the Status of Women, 2/28/00

L -  CWLC's Murder at Home Project, 1998-2002