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STATISTICS New National violence against women survey |
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NEWS FLASH Brought to you by the Family Violence Prevention Fund (fund@fvpf.org) November 19, 1998 NEW NATIONAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN SURVEY Violence against women in this country is primarily partner violence and primarily male violence, according to a major new report issued Tuesday by the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey" adds to a growing body of data that underscores what battered women's advocates have said for decades: that women are the vast majority of victims of domestic and intimate partner violence. The report concludes that women are more likely than men to be raped or physically assaulted by an intimate partner. Although the more severe physical assaults are much less common than pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping and hitting, women are seven to 14 times more likely than men to suffer severe physical assaults from an intimate partner. "Each number in this survey represents our daughters, our mothers and our neighbors," U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala said. "We must recognize violence against women as a significant social problem." The report's findings are based on the results of a national telephone survey conducted by the Center for Policy Research from November 1995 to May 1996. Eight thousand women and 8,000 men participated in the survey on violence against women and answered questions about their experiences with rape, physical assault, and stalking. The survey also inquired about the injuries sustained by rape and assault victims and victims' use of medical services. Domestic Violence and Rape by an Intimate Partner One in four female respondents (25 percent) and two in 25 male respondents (eight percent) reported being raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or date some time in their life. One-and-a-half percent of women and 0.9 percent of men said they were raped and/or physically assaulted by such a partner in the last year. According to the survey, this translates into 1.5 million women and 834,700 men who are raped and/or physically assaulted annually by an intimate partner. "Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women" concludes that three in four women (76 percent) who reported they had been raped and/or physically assaulted since age 18 said that a current or former husband, cohabiting partner, or date committed the assault. Just 18 percent of the male adult victims of rape and/or assault said they were attacked by an intimate partner. Men are predominantly the perpetrators in rape and assault incidents of victims 18 years old and older. Ninety-three percent of female adult victims and 86 percent of male adult victims were raped or assaulted by a man; 11 percent of women and 23 percent of men were assaulted by a woman. The report notes that the "finding that women are significantly more likely than men to be victimized by intimate partners contradicts findings from some previous national surveys that found men and women to be at nearly equal risk of physical assault by an intimate partner. The finding, however, supports data from the National Crime Victimization Survey, which have consistently shown women to be a greater risk of intimate partner violence." Rape Rape should be viewed as a crime committed primarily against youth, the study concludes. Nearly one-fifth of female respondents (18 percent) reported she experienced a completed or attempted rape at some time in her life; one in 33 male respondents (three percent) reported he experienced a completed or attempted rape at some time in his life. More than half (54 percent) of female rape victims were under age 18 when first raped; 22 percent were under the age of 12. Women tended to suffer more injuries than men. Approximately one-third of the women who were raped since age 18 (32 percent) and 16 percent of male rape victims reported an injury other than the rape itself. About 36 percent of women injured in rapes since age 18 received some type of medical treatment (ambulance/paramedic services, treatment in a hospital emergency department, physical therapy). The survey found that American Indian/Alaska Native women were significantly more likely to report rape and physical assault, and Asian/Pacific Islander women were much less likely to do so. Also authors caution about the small number of American Indian/Alaska Native and Asian/Pacific Islander women included in the survey sample; the report calls for additional studies to determine the reasons for the disparities. Physical Assault Men are more likely than women to report being victims of physical assault. Two-thirds of the men surveyed (66 percent) and more than half of the women (52 percent) said they were physically assaulted at some time in their lives, either as a child by an adult caretaker and/or as an adult by any type of perpetrator. More than three percent of men (3.4 percent) and 1.9 percent of women reported that they were physically assaulted in the previous 12 months. This translates to 3.2 million men and 1.9 million women physically assaulted in a year in the United States. Women reported more injuries than men. Two in five females assaulted since age 18 (39 percent) and one-quarter of men assaulted since age 18 (25 percent) suffered an injury. The most frequently reported physical assault was slapping and hitting, followed by pushing, grabbing, shoving, and hitting with an object. Approximately 30 percent of women injured during their most recent physical assaults since age 18 received some type of medical treatment. Stalking Eight percent of women and two percent of men surveyed said they were stalked at some time in their life. One percent of women and 0.4 percent of men said they were stalked in the previous 12 months. This translates to one million women and 371,000 men who are stalked annually in the United States. Differences From Other Surveys The authors of the report, Patricia Tjaden, Ph.D., and Nancy Thoennes, Ph.D., noted several features that set this survey apart from other victimization surveys. "Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women" examined not just the prevalence rates (the number of victims) of violence but also the incidence rates (the number of separate victimization incidents). Unlike many previous surveys, this survey asks specific, explicit questions about whether the respondent had been raped, physically assaulted, or stalked. The detailed nature of this survey allowed respondents to answer questions about their experiences without having to characterize them as a crime. Copies of "Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women" are available on the National Institute of Justice website (www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij) and through the National Criminal Justice Reference Service at: 800/851-3420 or on their website (www.ncjrs.org). Resources
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