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.