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Intimate Partner Violence
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Intimate Partner Violence: Fact Sheet
 

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Occurrence

  • Approximately 1.5 million women and 834,700 men are raped and/or physically assaulted by an intimate partner each year (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000a).  
     
  • Nearly two-thirds of women who reported being raped, physically assaulted, or stalked since age 18 were victimized by a current or former husband, cohabiting partner, boyfriend, or date (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000a).
     
  • Among women who are physically assaulted or raped by an intimate partner, one in three is injured. Each year, more than 500,000 women injured as a result of IPV require medical treatment (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000a).  
     
  • As many as 324,000 women each year experience IPV during their pregnancy (Gazmararian, et al. 2000).
     
  • Firearms were the major weapon type used in intimate partner homicides from 1981 to 1998 (Paulozzi, et al. 2001).  

 
Consequences

  • Intimate partner violence is associated with both short- and long-term problems, including physical injury and illness, psychological symptoms, economic costs, and death (National Research Council 1996).
     
  • As a consequence of severe intimate partner violence, female victims are more likely than male victims to need medical attention and take time off from work; they also spend more days in bed and suffer more from stress and depression (National Research Council 1996).
     
  • Each year, thousands of American children witness IPV within their families. Witnessing violence is a risk factor for long-term physical and mental health problems, including alcohol and substance abuse, being a victim of abuse, and perpetrating IPV (Felitti, et al. 1998).  
     
  • The health care costs of intimate partner rape, physical assault, and stalking exceed $5.8 billion each year, nearly $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health care services (CDC 2003). 

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Groups at Risk

  • More women than men experience intimate partner violence. According to the National Violence Against Women Survey, 1 out of 4 U.S. women has been physically assaulted or raped by an intimate partner; 1 out of every 14 U.S. men reported such an experience (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000a).
     
  • Women are more likely than men to be murdered in the context of intimate partner violence. Women ages 20 to 29 years are at greatest risk of being killed by an intimate partner (Paulozzi, et al. 2001).  
     
  • Nearly one-third of African American women experience IPV in their lifetimes compared with one-fourth of white women (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000b).
     
  • According to the National Violence Against Women Survey, American Indian/Alaska Native women and men were most likely to report IPV, and Asian/Pacific Islander women and men were least likely to report IPV.  It is unclear whether this difference is due to variations in willingness to report information about violence or to variations in incidence of IPV (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000b).  

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Risk Factors

  • Alcohol use is frequently associated with violence between intimate partners.  It is estimated that in 45% of cases of IPV, men had been drinking, and in about 20% of cases, women had been drinking (Roizen 1993).
     
  • One study recently found that male partners’ unemployment and drug or alcohol use were associated with increased risk for physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse (Coker, et al. 2000).
     
  • Witnessing IPV as a child or adolescent, or experiencing violence from caregivers as a child, increases one’s risk of both perpetrating IPV and becoming a victim of IPV (Straus and Gelles 1990).
     
  • Men who are physically violent towards their partners are also likely to be sexually violent towards their partners and are likely to use violence towards children (Straus and Gelles 1990).
     
  • Perpetrators of IPV may lack some social skills, such as lack of communication skills, particularly in the context of problematic situations with their intimate partners (Holtzworth-Monroe, et al. 1997).
     
  • Research has determined that violent husbands report more anger and hostility toward women when compared with nonviolent husbands (Holtzworth-Monroe, et al. 1997).
     
  • A high proportion of IPV perpetrators report more depression, lower self-esteem, and more aggression than non-violent intimate partners.  Evidence indicates that violent intimate partners may be more likely to have personality disorders such as schizoidal/borderline personality, antisocial or narcissistic behaviors, and dependency and attachment problems (Holtzworth-Monroe, et al. 1997).

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References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States. Atlanta (GA): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2003. Available on-line at http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/ipv_cost/ipv.htm

Coker AL, Smith PH, McKeown RE, Melissa KJ. Frequency and correlates of intimate partner violence by type: physical, sexual, and psychological battering. American Journal of Public Health 2000;90(4):553–9.

Felitti V, Anda R, Nordenberg D, Williamson D, Spitz A, Edwards V, et al. Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 1998;14(4):245–58.

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.

Holtzworth-Monroe A, Bates L, Smutzler N, Sandin E. A brief review of the research on husband violence: part I: maritally violent versus nonviolent men. Aggression and Violent Behavior 1997;2(1):65–99.

National Research Council. Understanding Violence Against Women. Washington (DC): National Academy Press; 1996. p. 74–80.

Paulozzi LJ, Saltzman LA, Thompson MJ, Holmgreen P. Surveillance for homicide among intimate partners—United States, 1981–1998. CDC Surveillance Summaries 2001;50(SS-3):1–16.

Roizen J. Issues in the epidemiology of alcohol and violence. In: Martin SE, editor. Alcohol and Interpersonal Violence: Fostering multidisciplinary perspectives. Bethesda (MD): National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; 1993. p. 3–36. NIAAA Research Monograph No. 24.

Saltzman LE, Fanslow JL, McMahon PM, Shelley GA. Intimate Partner Violence Surveillance: Uniform definitions and recommended data elements. Atlanta: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control; 1999.

Straus MA, Gelles, RJ, editors. Physical Violence in American Families: Risk factors and adaptations to violence in 8,145 families. New Brunswick (NJ): Transaction Books; 1990.

Tjaden P, Thoennes N. Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey. Report for grant 93-IJ-CX-0012, funded by the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Washington (DC): NIJ; 2000.

Tjaden P, Thoennes N. Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey. Report for grant 93-IJ-CX-0012, funded by the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control. Washington (DC): NIJ; 2000.

Wisner CL, Gilmer TP, Saltzman LE, Zink TM. Intimate partner violence against women: do victims cost health plans more? Journal of Family Practice 1999;48(6):439–43.

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