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Domestic
violence is defined as the actual or threatened physical, sexual,
psychological or economic abuse of an individual by someone with whom they
have or had an intimate relationship.
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In 1992, 7 percent of American women (3.9 million) who were married or living with someone as a couple were physically abused; 37 percent (20.7 million) were verbally or emotionally abused by their partner or spouse.
One in three Americans have witnessed an incident of domestic violence.
Each year women
experience over 572,000 violent victimizations committed by an intimate.
Approximately 49,000 such incidents are committed against men.
Nearly 60
percent of victims suffered injuries at the hands of violent spouses,
ex-spouses, and boyfriends.
In contrast, victims of attacks by strangers were injured in just under 25
percent of cases.
Thirty percent of American women report that they have been physically abused by their husband or boyfriend at one time or another.
According to a survey of 118
battered women, 69.5 percent were employed at the time of the abuse.
Of that number, 96 percent stated they experienced problems at work due to their
abusive situations.
One in six pregnant women
reported physical or sexual abuse during pregnancy.
Sixty percent of these women said the abuse was recurrent.
Forty-two percent of murdered
women are killed by their intimate male partners.
(FBI, 1988-91 Uniform Crime Reports)
In 1992, an estimated 1,432
females were killed by intimate partners.
Female victims represented 70 percent of the intimate murder victims.
(Bureau of Justice Statistics, Violence Between Intimates: Domestic Violence,
November 1994)
In a study of three large
homicide samples in Chicago, New South Wales
(Australia), and Canada, researchers found that wives are much more likely to be
slain by their husbands when separated from them than when co-residing.
Wives are particularly at risk in the first two months after leaving.
The New South Wales data available for slain wives found that 47 percent were
killed within two months and 91 percent within a year of separating.
Spousal rape is often more violent and repetitive than other rape and it is less commonly reported.
Domestic Violence does happen in Same Sex Relationships
A study
following the arrest records of two groups (1,575 total cases)
from childhood through young adulthood found being abused or neglected as a
child increased the likelihood of arrest as a juvenile by 53 percent and
as an adult by 38 percent and for a violent crime by 38 percent.
One-third of
women who are physically abused by a husband or boyfriend
grew up in a household where this happened to their mother.
About one in five were abused themselves as a child or teenager.
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Renew Crisis Hotline Offers services
for survivors of Rape and Domestic Abuse
Free Services— Safety Planning— Counseling—Court Support— —Referrals— Restraining Order Assistance— Peer Support —Serving Dolores and Montezuma County— |
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