FACTS AND STATISTICS
Myth- Domestic violence is rare.
Fact- 1 in 4 women will be abused at some point in their life.
Myth- Domestic violence is not serious.
Fact- 30% of all women murdered are done so by a partner or ex-partner.
Myth- Domestic violence occurs mostly in poor, uneducated, minority families.
Fact- Domestic violence is an issue in all social, economic, racial, and religious groups.
Myth- Victims who stay in abusive relationships must want to be there or they would leave.
Fact- Victims are in love, afraid, feel disempowered, and sometimes have resigned themselves to the abuse.
Myth- Domestic violence is usually a one-time event, and isolated incident.
Fact- Domestic violence is a pattern that develops in a relationship and escalates over time.
Myth- Abusers are crazy. Victims are crazy.
Fact- People living with domestic violence often feel that they are losing their minds, but that is used as a control issue over the victim.
Myth- Pregnant women are not battered.
Fact- 25% of all initial beatings are done after telling their partner they are pregnant.
Myth- Children who live in violent households can be hidden from the effects.
Fact- 70% of all children who grow up in a home where there is violence, will become either a victim or perpetrator as an adult.
Myth- Love can make someone change.
Fact- You cannot love someone enough to stop their abusing. You have to love yourself enough to know you do not deserve it.
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Abuse is the most common source of injury to women—it is more common than auto accidents, muggings and rapes by strangers combined.
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In the United States, a man beats a woman every 12 seconds. That is 7,200 outbursts of violence a day, 50,400 every week, and roughly 2.6 million every year.
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Children who live or grow up in a home where abuse occurs, are 70% more likely to repeat the cycle and either become abusers as adults or become a victim of domestic violence as an adult.
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Women ages 20-24 are at the greatest risk of nonfatal intimate partner violence.
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30% of Americans state that they know a woman who has been physically abused by her husband or boyfriend in the past year.
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14% of teens report a boyfriend or girlfriend threatened to harm them or themselves to avoid a breakup.
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Date rape accounts for almost 70% of sexual assaults reported by adolescent and college age women; 38% of those women are between 14 and 17 years old.
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Annually in the United States, 503,485 women are stalked by an intimate partner. 76% of female homicide victims were stalked prior to their death.
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On a typical day, there are more than 20,000 phone calls placed to domestic violence hotlines nationwide. If you or someone you know are in need of services please call our 24 hour hotline at (618)235-0892.
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In domestic violence homicides, women are six times more likely to be killed when there is a gun in the house.
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1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetime. Intimate partner violence accounts for 15% of all violent crime.