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24 Important Battered Women Statistics

Domestic violence might affect everyone, but women are the primary target of violence from an intimate partner. Battered women suffer from physical assaults, sexual abuse, and psychological intimidation on a regular basis. It happens to women in every demographic, no matter what the economic, religious, or ethnic status of the household may be.

25% of women will experience some form of domestic violence during their life.

Battered Women

When women are battered, we all suffer as a society. Domestic violence puts other generations of women at risk because children who see women being battered believe that the practice is normal. Boys who witness domestic violence are 2x more likely to batter women when they become adults.

  • 85%. That’s the percentage of domestic violence victims that are women.
  • Most women are battered by someone that they know.
  • Women in the 20-24 age demographic are at the greatest risk of being battered and abused by their intimate partner.
  • 1 in 6 women have either experienced an attempted rape or have been raped, partially because it occurs in up to 45% of battering relationships.
  • The number of women who have been stalked at least once in their lifetime: 1 in 12.
  • 81% of the women who have been or are being stalked by an intimate partner were also physically assaulted by that person.
  • The cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion each year. 80% of that cost goes directly to the necessary medical care to treat battered women.
  • An estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year.
  • 8 million days of paid work are lost every year because of women being battered.

Although men also suffer from battering and domestic violence incidents, women are 6x more likely to have an attempted or completed rape and are 4x more likely to be stalked by a current or former intimate partner. The billions in monetary costs are incredible, but even worse is the cost that families pay now and in the future. Up to 60% of those who batter women will also feel that child abuse is considered “discipline.” Children who witness violence between their parents are exposed to the greatest risk factor of continuing the cycle of abuse. To stop abuse in the future, we must work to stop it from happening right now.

6 Facts You Need to Know

  • Women are most likely to be battered between the hours of 6 pm to 6 am.
  • More than 60% of domestic violence incidents happen at home.
  • 1 in 3 female homicide victims are murdered by their current or former partner every year.
  • More than 3 million children witness domestic violence in their homes every year.
  • In NYC’s family shelter, 33% of the families living there have become homeless due to the issue of domestic violence.
  • 4 million. That’s the number of women who will be battered this year.

Home is said to be where the heart is, so millions of women every year have their hearts broken willingly. This unfortunate fact also means that many women are willing to protect those that are battering them out of loyalty and love. This is why knowing these statistics is so important. It is not uncommon for a woman to attempt to hide her assaults or to down play them because of being ashamed of being in that situation. Sometimes it takes an outside person finding help and then taking the initiative to bring that help to a woman being battered for real safety to be achieved.

Women Of Any Age Are Frequently Battered

  • Of the 18.3% of women who have survived rape or attempted rape, 12.3% were younger than age 12 when they were first raped.
  • Almost half of all women who have survived a rape attempt in the US had the incident occur before their 18th birthday.
  • Girls in the 16-19 age demographic are 4x more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault.
  • In 2006, 78,000 children were sexually abused. 93% of juvenile sexual assault victims know their attacker
  • The FBI estimates that only 46% of rapes and sexual assaults are reported to the police and that less than half of all domestic violence incidents are reported to police.
  • Battered women are 4x more likely to contemplate suicide, but 26x more likely to abuse drugs.
  • Up to 43% of lesbian and bisexual women have experience partner violence, indicating that this issue isn’t just between husband/wife or male/female relationships.
  • Women who live below the poverty line in the US are 4x more likely to be battered.

Why are women battered so often? It tends to be a combination of control, narcissism, and being out of control. To some, battering a woman is simply a form of discipline. The woman needs to get “in line” with what their partner wants. Sometimes a woman is battered because the other person is out of control from drugs, alcohol, or even depression. Women, especially young women, are seen to be safe targets. They’re not going to fight back as often and if they do, they can’t cause as much damage to the perpetrator. There’s no excuse for this. Whether it’s a lack of coping skills, there are environmental factors in play, or a combination of both, people who think it’s fine to batter women need to be stopped. By providing women resources, educational materials, and encouragement to leave harmful relationships, maybe we can get these battered women statistics to decrease so that fewer women become another fact in this subject material.

Domestic Violence Trends and Facts

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