Abuse in America--Making the Case for Domestic Violence Awareness

If you wonder for even a moment why GFWC's International President Jacquelyn Pierce selected Domestic Violence Awareness as her President's Special Project, all you need to do is read the statistics on domestic abuse in America. Without a doubt, this is a devastating social problem that deserves the attention and passion of the more  than 100,000 clubwomen who work in their local communities to bring awareness and support about this issue.

» 4 million American women experience a serious assault by a partner during an average 12-month period. (1)

» On the average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends every day. (2)

» 1 out of 3 women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime. (3)

» 1 in 5 female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner. Abused girls are significantly more likely to get involved in other risky behaviors. They are 4 to 6 times more likely to get pregnant and 8 to 9 times more likely to have tried to commit suicide. (3)

» Some estimates say almost 1 million incidents of violence occur against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend per year. (4)

» As many as 324,000 women each year experience intimate partner violence during their pregnancy. (5)

» Seventy-four percent of all murder-suicides involved an intimate partner(spouse, common-law spouse, ex-spouse, or boyfriend/girlfriend). Of these, 96 percent were females killed by their intimate partners. (6)

1. Issues and Dilemmas in Family Violence: Report of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family . Washington, DC: American Psychological Association; 1996.

2. Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003.

3. Silverman, Jay G., Raj, Anita, and Clements, Karen. “Dating Violence Against Adolescent Girls and Associated Substance Use, Unhealthy Weight Control, Sexual Risk Behavior, Pregnancy, and Suicidality.” Pediatrics, August 2004.

4. The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman’s Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women’s Health, May 1999.

5. Gazmararian JA, Petersen R, Spitz AM, Goodwin MM, Saltzman LE, Marks JS. “Violence and reproductive health; current knowledge and future research directions.” Maternal and Child Health Journal 2000; 4(2):79-84.

6. Violence Policy Center (VPC), American Roulette: Murder-Suicide in the United States, April 2006.

Reprinted with permission from the National Domestic Violence Hotline.