December 25, 2008 by Arkady Bukh

Allstate Foundation National Poll on Domestic Violence 2004

• 3 out of 4 (74%) respondents personally know someone who is or has been a victim of domestic violence.
• 83% percent of respondents strongly agreed that domestic violence affects people in all racial, ethnic, religious, educational, social and economic backgrounds.
• 2 out of 3 (66%) strongly agreed that domestic violence is a serious, widespread social problem in America.
• While 4 out of 10 (43%) ranked fear that the abuser will find the victim as the number one reason a victim would not leave his/her abuser, over a quarter (28%) thought that finding access to money/income to support the victim and/or children was the most important problem.

The Harris Poll 2006

• Approximately 8 in 10 (79%) respondents recall “seeing or hearing something” about domestic violence in the past year. Furthermore, 53 percent say that they have heard of the National Domestic Violence Hotline. This percentage increases substantially among those people who admit that they have been victims of domestic violence (71%).
• A large majority (85%) agrees that “when a person forces his/her partner to have sex, it is an act of domestic violence.”
• An 85% majority also agrees that “a man or woman who abuses his/her partner is more likely to also abuse children.”
• Approximately 33 million¹ or 15% of all U.S. adults, admit that they were a victim of domestic violence. Furthermore, 6 in 10 adults claim that they know someone personally who has experienced domestic violence.
• Among all adults, 39% say that they have experienced at least one of the following, with 54% saying that they haven’t experienced any:
  • Called bad names (31%)
  • Pushing, slapping, choking or hitting (21%)

  • Public humiliation (19%)

  • Keeping away from friends or family (13%)
  • Threatening your family (10%)
  • Forcing you to have sexual intercourse without consent (9%)

1. Based on July 2005 U.S. Census estimate released January 2006 (223,000,000 total U.S. adults aged 18 or over).

Liz Claiborne Inc. Teen Relationship Abuse Survey 2006

• 1 in 4 teens (24%) reported feeling pressure to date; 14% said they would do almost anything to keep a boyfriend or girlfriend.
• Fully one-third of 16-18s (33%)—and 31% of teens who have been in a serious relationship—reported that sex is expected.
• Almost half of teens who have been in a relationship (47%)—and 55% of those who describe theirs as serious—have done something that compromised their own values in order to please their partner.
• 3 out of 5 (61%) said that they’ve had a boyfriend or girlfriend who made them feel bad or embarrassed about themselves.
• 30% reported worrying about their personal physical safety in a relationship.
• 20% of those who have been in a serious relationship have been hit, slapped, or pushed by a boyfriend or girlfriend.

The Office on Violence Against Women poll and focus groups 2006

• Nearly 3 out of 4 of the women surveyed said that name calling or put-downs on a regular basis constituted domestic violence and 44% suggested that even occasional harsh words counted as domestic violence.
• 1 in 3 insisted on something akin to a strict liability standard for the perpetrator, saying that put-downs and criticisms that did not hurt the other person’s feelings nonetheless should be considered domestic violence, a sentiment echoed by many women in the focus groups. To these women, verbal battery is a gateway to physical harm and should not be dismissed.
• 3 out of 4 women surveyed agreed that repeated threats to bring harm fit the definition of domestic violence.

CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey 2005

• 1 IN 4 WOMEN, 1 IN 9 MEN IN UNITED STATES ARE VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AT SOME POINT IN THEIR LIVES
• In households with incomes under $15,000 per year, 35.5% of women and 20.7% of men suffered violence from an intimate partner.
• 43% of women and 26% of men in multiracial non-Hispanic households suffered partner violence.
• 39% of women and 18.6% of men in American Indian/Alaska Native households suffered partner violence.
• 26.8% of women and 15.5% of men in white non-Hispanic households suffered partner violence.
• 29.2% of women and 23.3% of men in black non-Hispanic households suffered partner violence.
• 20.5% of women and 15.5% of men in Hispanic households suffered partner violence.

CDC Adverse Health Conditions and Health Risk Behaviors Associated with Intimate Partner Violence – United States 2005

• Each year, intimate partner violence (IPV) results in an estimated 1,200 deaths and 2 million injuries among women and nearly 600,000 injuries among men.
• 23.6% of women and 11.5% of men aged 18 years or more have a lifetime history of intimate partner violence victimization.
  • Highest percentage for women is adults aged 45-54 (31.2%)
  • Highest percentage for men is adults aged 25-34 (21.4%)

General Statistics

• On the average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends every day.¹
• 92% of women say that reducing domestic violence and sexual assault should be at the top of any formal efforts taken on behalf of women today.²
• 1 out of 3 women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime.³
• 1 in 5 female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner. Abused girls are significantly more likely to get involved in other risky behaviors. They are 4 to 6 times more likely to get pregnant and 8 to 9 times more likely to have tried to commit suicide.³
• 1 in 3 teens report knowing a friend or peer who has been hit, punched, slapped, choked or physically hurt by his/her partner.⁴
• As many as 324,000 women each year experience intimate partner violence during their pregnancy. ⁵
• Violence against women costs companies $72.8 million annually due to lost productivity.⁶
• Ninety-four percent of the offenders in murder-suicides were male.⁷
• Seventy-four percent of all murder-suicides involved an intimate partner (spouse, common-law spouse, ex-spouse, or boyfriend/girlfriend). Of these, 96 percent were females killed by their intimate partners.⁷
• Most murder-suicides with three or more victims involved a “family annihilator” — a subcategory of intimate partner murder-suicide.Family annihilators are murderers who kill not only their wives/girlfriends and children, but often other family members as well,before killing themselves.⁷
• Seventy-five percent of murder-suicides occurred in the home.⁷

1. Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003.

2. Progress & Perils: New Agenda for Women, Center for the Advancement of Women. June 2003.

3. Silverman, Jay G., Raj, Anita, and Clements, Karen. “Dating Violence Against Adolescent Girls and Associated Substance Use, Unhealthy Weight Control, Sexual Risk Behavior, Pregnancy, and Suicidality.” Pediatrics, August 2004.

4. Teenage Research Unlimited. Findings from study commissioned by Liz Claiborne Inc. to investigate the level of and attitudes towards dating abuse among American teenagers aged 13 to 18 [online] 2005 Feb [cited 2006 Mar 20]. Available from: URL: www.loveisnotabuse.com/statistics_abuseandteens.htm5. Gazmararian JA, Petersen R, Spitz AM, Goodwin MM, Saltzman LE, Marks JS. “Violence and reproductive health; current knowledge and future research directions.” Maternal and Child Health Journal 2000; 4(2):79-84.

6. Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States. 2003. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Atlanta, GA/

7. Violence Policy Center (VPC), American Roulette: Murder-Suicide in the United States, April 2006.

Originally posted on NDVH