husband or boyfriend.
(National Resource Center on Domestic Violence)
Battery is the single major cause of injury to
women-more than rape, muggings or accidents
combined. Two thousand to four thousand women
are beaten to death annually.
(US Surgeon General)
More than 75% of abused women surveyed reported
their children had been physically and/or sexually
abused by their batterers.
(National Clearing House for the Defense of
Battered Women)
Every hour 12 women are raped. That is almost 300
each day/10,000 each year, that are reported.
(U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary)
28% of students will be involved in a violent dating
relationship in their high school years.
(Sugarman and Hotaling)
Despite its prevalence, domestic violence remains
a gravely uncovered story. When it is covered, it is
often treated as a bizarre spectacle rather than an
all-to-commen social crisis.
Experts now estimate that as many as 4 million women
experience severe or life-threatening assaults from a
male partner in an average 12 month period in the
United States and that one in every three women will
experience at least one physical assault by an
intimate partner during adulthood.
In 1992, the U.S. surgeon general ranked abuse by
husbands and partners as the leading cause of injury
to women aged 15 to 44.
Although many maintain that less educated,
unemployed, poor young women are more likely than
others to be in abusive relationships, intelligent
people let this happen too.
In the Justice Department's survey of 1973-1992, women
are about three times as likely as men to be victims
of domestic violence.
According to the survey, a women is abused every 15
seconds and four women are killed each day by their
intimate male partners.
Domestic violence has a long history. Social systems
dating back for centuries have condoned and even
encouraged men's violence toward their mates. Modern
societies are no exception. Men continue to abuse
the women with whom they are intimate in epidemic
proportions. Sometimes the abuse is psychological,
sometimes it is physical, but it is always devastating
to the battered woman.
new, nationwide, 24-hour toll-free domestic
violence hotline.
The voice number is: 1-800-799-SAFE and the
TDD number for the hearing imparied is 1-800-787-3224.
For shelters in Indiana call 1-800-332-7385,
they will also refer you to a shelter nearest
to you in your state.
