Domestic & Dating Violence

Definition of Domestic Violence

• Behaviors used by one person in a relationship to control the other. The relationship may involve those who are dating, living together, married, separated, heterosexual, gay, cisgneder or trans*. The abuse can include physical, emotional/psychological, verbal, sexual, financial/economic, identity, and religious abuse.
• Physical Abuse: use of physical force against another that injures another person or puts that person at risk of being injured.  Physical abuse ranges from pushing, throwing things, tripping, slapping, hitting, kicking, punching, grabbing, choking, shaking and more.
• Emotional/Psychological and Verbal Abuse: use of words, tone, actions, to control hurt, or humiliate a person. May include ridicule, intimidation, lying, screaming, gaslighting, and more.
• Sexual Abuse: the us of force or coercion to perform a sexual act in order to obtain power and control over the partner. Includes forced sexual contact, acts that degrade or humiliate, or cause feelings of shame or helplessness in regards to ones body, sexual performance or sexuality.
• Financial/Economic Abuse: use or misuse of financial or monetary resources of the partner or partnership without shared decision making.  May include preventing the partner from working, jeopardizing their employment, making them ask for money, controlling an allowance, or financial choices that put them at risk for or exascerbate poverty.
• Identity Abuse: using personal characteristics to humiliate, manipulate, and control their partner.
• Spiritual Abuse: using the victim’s religious or spiritual beliefs to manipulate them. Include preventing the victim from practicing their beliefs or ridiculing their beliefs.

Domestic Violence Statistics

• Domestic violence is likely to occur between the hours of 6:00p.m. – 6:00a.m.
• Most domestic violence incidents are never reported.
• Both women and men experience the same psychological reaction to violence:
  • Guilt, shame, and humiliation
  • Anger and anxiety
  • Depression
  • Withdrawal from relationships
• Cost of domestic violence exceeds $5.8 billion a year; with $4.1 billion towards medical and mental health services.
• Victims lose around 8 million days of work pay per year.
• Domestic violence is 3^rd leading cause of homelessness for families.
• About 20% of 1.5 million survivors obtain a civil protection order.
• Nearly 1/5 of protection orders have been violated.
• Every 9 seconds a women is beaten or assaulted in the US.
• Approximately 85% of domestic violence victims are women.
• About 25% of women who are victims of domestic violence are beaten while they are pregnant.
• 1 out of 4 women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.
• About 1.3 million women are victims of physical abuse by an intimate partner each year.
• More than 4 million women are physically assaulted and raped by their partners.
• Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury compared to car accidents, mugging, and rape combined.
• Approximately 40% of victims of severe, physical domestic violence are men.
• 1 out of 14 men are physically assaulted by current/former partner, or date.
• Nearly 3 million men are physically assaulted.
• About 835,000 men are assaulted by their partner annually.
• Men are most likely to be victims of both physical and psychological abuse.
• Around 63% of males surivors had a deadly weapon used against them from an intimate partner.
• About 40% of gay and bisexual men will experience abuse from their partner.