FAMILY VIOLENCE STATISTICS

This information should not be used as an indication of the total level of family violence in the United States. It is an estimate of the amount of family violence that people consider to be criminal and that victims choose to and are able to relate to interviewers. Despite its limitations, the information is useful in describing statistically the general characteristics of family violence.

• Approximately 1.5 million women are raped and/or physically assaulted by an intimate partner each year in the'United States.--National Institute of Justice, July 2000
• It is estimated that 503,485 women are stalked by an intimate partner each year in the United States.--National Institute of Justice, July 2000
• Studies show that child abuse occurs in 30-60% of family violence cases that involve families with children.--"The Overlap Between Child Maltreatment and Woman Battering," J.L. Edieson, Violence Against Women, February 1999
• Violence by an intimate accounts for about 21% of violent crime - experienced by women and about 2% of the violence experienced by men.--Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, U.S. Department of Justice, March 1998
• In 1996, among all female murder victims in the U.S., 30^ were slain by their husbands or boyfriends.--Uniform Crime Reports of the U.S. 1996, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1996
• A child's exposure to the father abusing the mother is the strongest risk factor for transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next.--Report of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on 'Violence and the Family, APA, 1996
• Forty percent of teenage girls age 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyrfriend.--Children Now/Kaiser Permanente poll, December 1995
• Family violence costs the nation from $5 to $10 billion annually in medical expenses, police and court costs, shelters and foster care, sick leave, absenteeism, and non-productivity.--Medical News, American Medical Association, January 1992
• Husbands and boyfriends commit 13,000 acts of violence against women in the workplace every year.--Violence and Theft in the Workplace, U.S. Department of Justice, July 1994

EFFECTS OF FAMILY VIOLENCE

It has been suggested in several studies that there is a greater chance that a child who is a victim of violent acts will tend to approve of or engage in violent acts as an adult. The victim will learn the roles of both victim and abuser simultaneously and may enact either at a later date depending upon situational factors.

• death (of either perpetrator or victim) by homicide
• death by suicide
• disabling injuries
• depression: (a) victim may become immobilized due to constant fear; (b) aggressor may lose sense of self worth and/or experience guilt over violent acts; (c) either may experience a range of psychiatric symptoms which add to their dysfunction and may require hospitalization
• difficulty in obtaining, maintaining, and adjusting to employment
• emotional abuse and deprivation
• breakup of family unit
• court fights regarding separation, divorce, and custody of children
• perpetuation of social isolation for fear of violence being disclosed
• continuing violence which will escalate if alternative behaviors are not learned
• recurrence of violent behavior with new partner
• expansion of violence into the community.

• death by homicide
• death by suicide
• emotional injuries, such as low self esteem
• depression
• aggressive behavior toward others/delinquency
• poor school adjustment (educational and peer adjustment)
• modeling behavior; learned victim/aggressor roles
• runaway episodes
• alcohol/drug experimentation
• early marriage
• continuation of violent behavior in their adult relationships
• expansion of violence into the community.

Thus the home becomes a "training ground" for violent interaction patterns. Research has shown that both victims and witnesses of violent acts against family members may identify with the aggressor. They observe that aggressors in a "love" relationship achieve their goals by using violence which may result in the observers' modeling the aggressive behavior themselves.

These patterns are then passed from generation to generation. Thus, spousal assaults represent serious long range problems for the community and the family, problems which extend far beyond the cessation of the immediate violence.

Identification of the victim with the aggressor is more powerful when the aggressor is a role model, as in the case of parents or siblings. Parental aggressive behavior and violence are confusing to the child who receives nurturance, food and warmth from the same person. Children also learn other patterns of poor coping, insecurity, and ineffectual methods of interpersonal interactions.

In summary, most parents use the same child rearing strategies with their own children that their parents used with them. It follows that violent behavior tends to be passed on from generation to generation simply because people behave in the ways they learn in their families. There are few opportunities in our society to learn alternative child rearing skills or techniques for conflict resolution. It becomes apparent in adulthood that alternatives to physical violence have not been learned and, as punishment and other violent acts seem to be effective means of dealing with other people, alternative behaviors are not sought.

D. Owens and M.A. Straus. "The social structure of violence in childhood and approval of violence as an adult. " Aggressive Behavior, V.I, pp. 193-211, 1975.