DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AS A PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE
Description of the Public Health Issue
There is an epidemic of family violence in the United States (Arbetter, 1995). Victims include women, children, and the elderly. Approximately two million women are assaulted annually, and husbands or partners kill one-third of the female murder victims every year.
The American Medical Association reported that one in three women will be assaulted by a domestic partner in her lifetimeùfour million in any given year (Flitcraft, 1992). Of the 5,745 women murdered in 1991, as an example, 60 percent were killed by someone they knew, and one-half were murdered by a spouse or someone with whom they had been intimate. The growth in the incidence of domestic violence may be appreciated by comparing the 2,875 women killed by their domestic partners in 1991 with the 1,350 women who were killed under similar circumstances in 1985.
While only a tiny percentage of all assaults on women result in death, the violence often involves severe physical or psychological damage (Constantino & Bricker, 1997). Domestic violence is the leading cause of injuries to women in the 15-to-44 age group. One-half of all rapes of women over 30 are part of the battering syndrome. Between one-quarter and one-half of women presenting complaints in hospital emergency rooms are suffering from injuries or symptoms caused by ongoing domestic abuse (Flitcraft, 1992).
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) found that only about half the women who suffered domestic abuse between 1987 and 1991 reported the incidents to the police (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1994). The NCVS found a differences of less than a 10 percent in the rate of family violence between those with household incomes of less than $10,000 and those earning more than $50,000. There are no indications that the incidence of domestic violence in the United States varies to a significa...