Know the Facts on Domestic Violence

Fact Sheet

85% of batter's as children watched domestic violence occur in their own homes and/or experienced physical/sexual abuse themselves.

50% of all willful homicides of females are committed by a past or present intimate partner

63% of all boys, ages 11-20 who are arrested for murder, have killed the man who was assaulting their mother

50% of the time there is both child abuse and domestic violence in the same home.

Battered women are 2 times more likely to commit suicide

Juvenile delinquents are 4 times more likely to "come from" abusive homes.

Violent perpetrators, in general, were raised in violent homes violence in the bedroom(home) is the root cause of violence in the street

(American Psychological Association, 1984)

In 1973, the Police Foundation in Washington D.C conducted a study of family violence in Kansas City, MO. They found that: In 90% of the family homicides, the police had been to the home at least once prior to the homicide. In 50% of the family homicides, the police had been to the home five or more times prior to the homicide.

In 1989, the San Diego Police Department analyzed the sixty family violence homicides that had taken place from 1985 through 1988. They found that the average number of police calls to the home where the homicide was committed was 8

Every 15 seconds, an act of domestic violence occurs in the United States

20% of all murders (4,000+ each year) in the United States are Domestic Violence related.

20% of all murders (4,000+ each year) in the United States are Domestic Violence related. 95% of all domestic Violence assaults are committed by men.

21% to 35% of all women who use the emergency room services at hospitals have been battered.

25% to 30% of all females who are battered are pregnant. The March of Dimes reports that more babies are now born with birth defects as a result of a mother being battered during pregnancy than from the combination of all the diseases and illnesses for which we immunize pregnant women.

Battering is the single major cause o injury to women. More frequent than auto accidents, muggings and rape combined.

Women in the United States are in nine times more danger in their own homes than they are in the street

Children who have witnessed abuse or who have been abused themselves are 1000 times more likely to abuse a spouse/partner or a child when they become adults than are children raised in a non-abusive home (Strauss)

In a three year study of 146 children between the ages of 11 and 17, 62% of the boys over 14 years of age were injured when they attempted to protect their mothers from attack.

80% of runaway children are from violent families

Children need only to witness their mother's abuse to take on delinquent and violent behavior. In 1985 a study by the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services found that children growing up in violent homes had a six times greater likelihood of attempting suicide, 74% greater chance of committing crime against a person and were 24 times as likely to have committed rape.

In Oregon, fully 68% of the delinquent youths in treatment programs had witnessed their mother's abuse/or been abused themselves

There are over 3800 animal shelters in the United States, but only 1200 shelters for battered women and children.