General Domestic Violence Statistics

• 50% of women in America will be battered in their lifetime; one out of three are battered repeatedly every year. (NCADV,�91) 
• 95% of all domestic violence victims are female. (FBI �83) 
• Less than 2 per cent of domestic violence victims reported in South Dakota during 1996 were male. (SD Dept. of Health & Human Services) 
• 42% of murdered women are murdered by their intimate partner. (FBI , 88-91) 
• In the United States, 1.3 women are raped every minute. That results in 78 rapes each hour, 1,872 rapes each day, 56,160 rapes each month and 683,280 rapes each year. 
• The FBI estimates that only 10% of domestic violence is reported to police (NVC) 
• Among victims of violence committed by an intimate, the victimization rate of women separated from their husbands was about 3 times higher than that of divorced women and about 25 times higher than married women. (DOJ�97) 
• In the US 9 out of 10 women who are murdered are murdered by a man, half at the hands of a male partner. It is more likely for a female to be murdered by a spouse than it is for a police officer to be killed in the line of duty. (NVC) 
• Between 22 and 35% of women visiting emergency rooms are there due to domestic violence. NVC) 
• Up to 26% of pregnant women have been battered. (NVC) 
• Sixty percent of women reported on going psychological abuse (threats and intimidation) after legal intervention and counseling. (Shephard 1987) 
• In the US , there are three times as many shelters for animals as there are for women. (National Victim Center) 
• In 1989, the San Diego Police Dept. analyzed the 60 family violence homicides between 1985-88; the average number of police calls before the murder was eight. 
• 63% of all boys, ages 11-20, arrested for murder, killed the man assaulting their mother.