No Sad Story Ministries

A generation ago, abuse victims were often terrified of coming forward, worried that they would appear weak or be blamed for their abuse. Thanks to the growth of the women’s movement and the victim’s rights movement, as well as the lobbying of millions of advocates across the globe, we now know how common domestic violence is.

Some sociologists argue that gender roles, a fixation on control, and a culture of aggression have ingrained domestic violence into the American way of life. Consider:

• On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. During one year, this equates to more than 10 million women and men.
• Intimate partner violence accounts for 15% of all violent crime.
• 19% of domestic violence involves a weapon.
• Only 34% of people who are injured by intimate partners receive medical care for their injuries.
• 1 in 7 women and 1 in 18 men have been stalked by an intimate partner during their lifetime to the point in which they felt very fearful or believed that they or someone close to them would be harmed or killed.

Rape & Sexual Assault

• 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men in the United States has been raped in their lifetime.
• Almost half of female (46.7%) and male (44.9%) victims of rape in the United States were raped by an acquaintance. Of these, 45.4% of female rape victims and 29% of male rape victims were raped by an intimate partner.
• An estimated 13% of women and 6% of men have experienced sexual coercion in their lifetime (i.e. unwanted sexual penetration after being pressured in a nonphysical way). 27.2% of women and 11.7% of men have experienced unwanted sexual contact (by any perpetrator).

Stalking

• 19.3 million women and 5.1 million men in the United States have been stalked in their lifetime.  
• 60.8% of female stalking victims and 43.5% men reported being stalked by a current or former intimate partner.

Homicide

• 72% of all murder-suicides involve an intimate partner; 94% of the victims of these murder suicides are female.
• A study of intimate partner homicides found that 20% of victims were not the intimate partners themselves, but family members, friends, neighbors, persons who intervened, law enforcement responders, or bystanders.

LGBTQ

• 43.8% of lesbian women and 61.1% of bisexual women have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime, as opposed to 35% of heterosexual women.
• 26% of gay men and 37.3% of bisexual men have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime, in comparison to 29% of heterosexual men.
• Transgender victims are more likely to experience intimate partner violence in public, compared to those who do not identify as transgender.
• Bisexual victims are more likely to experience sexual violence, compared to people who do not identify as bisexual.
• LGBTQ Black/African American victims are more likely to experience physical intimate partner violence, compared to those who do not identify as Black/African American.
• LGBTQ white victims are more likely to experience sexual violence, compared to those who do not identify as white.

Children

• 1 in 15 children are exposed to intimate partner violence each year, and 90% of these children are eyewitnesses to this violence.
• A child witnessed violence in 22% (nearly 1 in 4) of intimate partner violence cases filed in state courts.
• 30 to 60% of perpetrators of intimate partner violence also abuse children in the household.
• One study in North America found that children who were exposed to violence in the home were 15 times more likely to be physically and/or sexually assaulted than the national average.
• The U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect suggests that domestic violence may be the single major precursor to child abuse and neglect fatalities in this country.

Teens

• One in 10 high school students has experienced physical violence from a dating partner in the past year.
• About 1 in 5 women and nearly 1 in 7 men who ever experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner, first experienced some form of partner violence between 11 and 17 years of age.
• 1 in 4 dating teens is abused or harassed online or through texts by their partners.
• 43% of dating college women report experiencing violent and abusive dating behaviors including physical, sexual, tech, verbal or controlling abuse.

Physical & Mental Impact

• Women abused by their intimate partners are more vulnerable to contracting HIV or other STI’s due to forced intercourse or prolonged exposure to stress.
• Studies suggest that there is a relationship between intimate partner violence and depression and suicidal behavior.
• Physical, mental, and sexual and reproductive health effects have been linked with intimate partner violence including adolescent pregnancy, unintended pregnancy in general, miscarriage, stillbirth, intrauterine hemorrhage, nutritional deficiency, abdominal pain and other gastrointestinal problems, neurological disorders, chronic pain, disability, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as noncommunicable diseases such as hypertension, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Victims of domestic violence are also at higher risk for developing addictions to alcohol, tobacco, or drugs.

Economic Impact

• Victims of intimate partner violence lose a total of 8.0 million days of paid work each year.
• The cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $8.3 billion per year.
• Between 21-60% of victims of intimate partner violence lose their jobs due to reasons stemming from the abuse.
• Between 2003 and 2008, 142 women were murdered in their workplace by their abuser, 78% of women killed in the workplace during this time frame.