STATISTICS
Domestic Violence crosses ethnic, racial, age, national origin, sexual orientation, religious and socioeconomic lines.
By the most conservative estimate, each year I million women suffer nonfatal violence by an intimate
Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey (NCJ-154348), August 1995, p.3.
Race is not indicative of who is at risk of domestic violence
Domestic Violence is statistically consistent across racial and ethnic boundaries.
Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey (NCJ-154348). August 1995. p.3.
Battering tends to be a pattern of violence rather than a one-time occurrence.
During the six months following an episode of domestic violence, 32% of battered women were victimized again.
Bureau of Justice Statistics: Preventing Violence Against Women. 1986.
Six months after obtaining a protection order: 8% of victims reported post-order physical abuse: 26% reported respondent came to or called home or workplace: 65% reported no further problems.
CPOs: The Benefits and Limitations for Victims of Domestic Violence, National Center for State Courts Research Report, 1997).
Domestic violence occurs within same-sex relationships with the same statistical frequency as in heterosexual relationships
The prevalence of domestic violence among Gay or Lesbian couples is approximately 25 - 33%.
Barnes, 'It's Just a Quarrel', American Bar Association Journal, February 1998, p. 25.
Seven states define domestic violence in a way that excludes same-sex victims: 21 states have sodomy taws that may require a same-sex victim to confess to a crime to prove that they are in a domestic relationship.
Barnes, 'It's Just a Quarrel', American Bar Association Journal, February 1998, p. 24.
Battered immigrant women face unique legal, social and economic problems.
Domestic violence is thought to be more prevalent among immigrant women than among U.S. citizens.
Anderson, A Licensee to Abuse: The Impact of Conditional Status on Female Immigrants, 102 Yale L.J. 1404 (April 1993).
A battered woman who is not a legal resident, or whose immigration status depends on her partner, is isolated by cultural dynamics which may prevent her from leaving her husband or seeking assistance from the legal system. These factors contribute to the higher incidence of abuse among immigrant women.
Orloff et al With No Place To Turn: Improving Advocacy for Battered Immigrant Women, Family Law Quarterly, vol. 29, no.2,313 (summer 1995).
Some obstacles faced by battered immigrant women include: a distrust of the legal system arising from their experiences with the system in their native countries; cultural and language barriers: and fear of deportation.
Orloff et al.. With No Place To Turn: Improving Advocacy for Battered Immigrant Women, Family Law Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 2, 313 (summer 1995).
