In the
United States, a woman is more likely to be assaulted,
injured, raped, or killed by a male partner than by any
other type of assailant and domestic abuse is the
number-one cause of women’s injuries at home. This abuse
happens more often than car accidents, muggings, and
rapes combined.
Welcome
to the first installment of our 4-part series on
domestic abuse.
This little understood crime has become more
visual in recent years due to celebrities who are more
than willing to publicly air their domestic
problems.
We feel that it is our responsibility to help
educate the public about this little understood
phenomenon.
This month’s issue will include statistics about
domestic abuse and warning signs to help you recognize
an abused woman as well as an abusive man.
Consider
these disturbing facts about domestic abuse:
·
Approximately 95% of the
victims of domestic violenceare
women
·
Every 9 seconds in the
United States a woman is assaulted and
beaten.
·
4,000,000 women a year are
assaulted by their partners.
·
Every day, 4 women are
murdered by boyfriends or husbands.
·
Prison terms for wives
killing husbands are twice as long as for husbands
killing wives
·
93% of women who killed
their mates had been battered by them. 67% killed to
protect themselves and their children at the moment of
murder.
·
25% of all crime is
wife assault.
· 70% of
men who batter their partners either sexually or
physically abuse their children.
·
Domestic violence is the
number one cause of emergency room visits by
women.
· Up
to 37% of all women experience battering.
·
Battering often occurs
during pregnancy.
One study found that 37% of pregnant women,
across all class, race, and educational lines, were
physically abused during pregnancy.
·
60% of all battered women
are beaten while they are pregnant.
·
34% of female homicide
victims over the age of 15 are killed by their husbands,
ex-husbands, or boyfriends.
·
Two-thirds of all marriages
will experience domestic violence at least
once.
·
Weapons are used in 30% of
domestic violence incidents.
·
When only spouse abuse3 was
considered, divorced or separated men committed 79% of
the assaults and husbands committed 21%.
·
Physical violence in dating
relationships ranges from 20%-35%.
· It
is estimated that between 20%to 52% of high school and
college age dating couples have engaged in physical
abuse.
·
More than 50% of child
abductions result from domestic violence.
·
Injuries that battered women
receive are at least as serious as injuries suffered in
90% of violent felony crimes.
· In homes
where domestic violence occurs, children are abused at a
rate 1,500%
higher than the national average.
· 50% of
the homeless women and children in the U.S. are fleeing
abuse.
·
The amount spent to shelter
animals is three times the amount spent to provide
emergency shelter to women from domestic abuse
situations.
· Family
violence kills as many women every 5 years as the total
number of Americans who died in the Vietnam
War.
These are shocking statistics and it
is the intent of the Georgia Informer to address this
very important issue. We feel that by
bringing this subject to light for the general public,
we can, in some small way, help someone whose life has
been touched by this underreported crime.