For all those who think USA is a good place to live!

* Beatings by husbands and boy friends are the leading cause of injuries to the U.S. women. (surgeon general's report.)

* According to the FBI, a battering incident occurs every 18 seconds in the U.S., and 30% of female homicide victims are killed by their husbands or boyfriends. In October 1992, the Senate Judiciary Committee found that at least 1.1 million assaults against women in the home were reported in 1991. By some estimates 3 million more such crimes go unreported each year.

* Rule of Thumb: Under English Common Law a husband was allowed to beat his wife if he used moderation, as in a stick no thicker than a thumb.

* 42% of women in the U.S. military are sexually assaulted.

* Three out of four women will be victims of violent crimes. And one out of five will be raped in their life time.

* A woman is raped every six minutes.

* Every other U.S. woman has been approached by at least one person who tried to rape her.

* "Thirteen year old rapists are no uncommon,neither are 8 year old victims."

(N. Y. Times 13 June 89).

* "More than a third of women slain in this country die at the hands of husbands or boyfriends,and domestic violence is the single largest cause of injuries to women in the United States. The home is actually a more dangerous place for American women than city streets." [ U.S. Surgeon Geberal Dr. Anotnia C. Novello, 20 Oct 91]

* "During 1985-1990 more than half of all births to 18- and 19- year old women in the U.S. were out of wedlock." [Census Bureau Report, N.Y. time s4 Dec 91]

Domestic Abuse in America

• 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

• 92% of women say that reducing domestic violence and sexual assault should be at the top of any formal efforts taken on behalf of women today.³

• 1 out of 3 women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime.⁴

• 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. ⁵

• 1 in 3 teens reports knowing a friend or peer who has been hit, punched, slapped, choked or physically hurt by his / her partner.⁶

• Women of all races are equally vulnerable to violence by an intimate partner.⁷

• 37% of all women who sought care in hospital emergency rooms for violence–related injuries were injured by a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend.⁸

• Some estimates say almost 1 million incidents of violence occur against a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend per year. ⁹

• For 30% of women who experience abuse, the first incident occurs during pregnancy.¹⁰

• As many as 324,000 women each year experience intimate partner violence during their pregnancy. ¹¹

• Violence against women costs companies $72.8 million annually due to lost productivity.¹²

• 74% of employed battered women were harassed by their partner while they were at work.¹³

• Ninety-four percent of the offenders in murder-suicides were male.¹⁴

• 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. ¹⁴

• Most murder-suicides with three or more victims involved a "family annihilator" -- a subcategory of intimate partner murder-suicide. Family annihilators are murderers who kill not only their wives/girlfriends and children, but often other family members as well, before killing themselves. ¹⁴

• Seventy-five percent of murder-suicides occurred in the home.¹⁴

1. Henise, L., Ellsberg, M. and Geottemoeller, M. Ending Violence Against Women, Population Reports, Series L, No. 11., December 1999.

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

3. Liz Claiborne Inc., study on Teen dating abuse conducted by Teenage Research Unlimited, February 2005.

4. Jay G. Silverman, PhD; Anita Raj, PhD; Lorelei A. Mucci, MPH; and Jeannie E. Hathaway, MD, MPH, "Dating Violence Against Adolescent Girls and Associated Substance Use, Unhealthy Weight Control, Sexual Risk Behavior, Pregnancy , and Suicidality," Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 286, No. 5, 2001.

5. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey, August 1995.

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

7. US. Department of Justice, Violence? Related Injuries Treated in Hospital Emergency Departments, August 1997.

8. US Department of Justice

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

10. Helton et al 1987.

11. 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

12. Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States . 2003. Center for disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Atlanta , GA /

13. Family Violence Prevention Fund. 1998. The Workplace Guide for Employer, Unions, and Advocates, San Francisco , CA .

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

From:

Mohammad Usman