To understand why there are so many varying estimates of domestic violence, it is necessary to consider the surveys, studies, and reports themselves. The source and purpose of the research, the definition of abuse used, the population surveyed, and the survey setting, as well as the political agendas of the surveyors and researchers, may elicit different data and varying interpretations of these data (Richard J. Gelles, "Estimating the Incidence and Prevalence of Violence against Women," Violence against Women, vol. 6, July 2000).
According to the World Health Organization, in countries where large-scale studies are conducted, between 10% and 50% of women report they have suffered physical abuse at the hands of an intimate partner (intimates include spouses, former spouses, boyfriends, and girlfriends). Populationbased estimates suggest that from 12% to 25% of women experience attempted or completed forced sex with an intimate partner or former partner during their lives. The World Health Organization also observed that prostitution and trafficking for sex, activities strongly linked to violence against women and girls, appeared to be on the rise during the late 1990s and early twenty-first century.
The National Family Violence Surveys are among the most analyzed and cited data in the literature about intimate partner violence. The strength of these surveys lies in their ability to measure violent behavior that respondents might not classify as criminal. Using data from the 1975 and 1985 NFVS, Straus and Gelles estimated that about 1.6 million women were severely beaten by their partners in 1985, down from 2.1 million in 1975 ("Societal Change and Change in Family Violence from 1975 to 1985 As Revealed by Two National Surveys," Journal of Marriage and the Family, vol. 48, August 1986).
Other national data are derived from national sample surveys, such as the National Crime Victimization Surveys (NCVS), which measure violent assaults by intimate partners, including rape and sexual assault, and the Uniform Crime Reports, which supplement NCVS data with information about homicides. One advantage of these surveys is that they enable researchers to observe trends in interpersonal violence. For example, NCVS data reveal a decline in intimate partner violent victimizations during the 1990s (except for a slight increase from 1997 to 1998).
A joint effort of the U.S. Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Violence against Women Survey (NVAWS) collected data about intimate and non-intimate partner violence during the 1990s. The NVAWS and NCVS are considered the most reliable sources of data about intimate partner violence even though their differing approaches make data comparisons difficult. For example, the NCVS is a survey about crime, and since some victims do not consider instances of intimate partner violence crimes, they may be less likely to disclose them in the NCVS.
TABLE 2.2
| Persons victimized by an intimate partner in lifetime and in previous 12 months, by type of victimization and gender, 1996 | ||||
| aBased on estimates of women and men 18 years of age and older: Wetrogen, S.I., Projections of the Population of States by Age, Sex, and Race: 1988 to 2010 , Current Population Reports, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1988: 25–1017. | ||||
| bDifferences between women and men are statistically significant: X2, *p ≤ .0.5, **p ≤ .01, ***p ≤ .001. | ||||
| cEstimates not calculated on fewer than five victims. | ||||
| dBecause only three men reported being raped by an intimate partner in the previous 12 months, the percentage of men physically assaulted and physically assaulted and/or raped is the same. | ||||
| SOURCE: Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, "Exhibit 1. Persons Victimized by an Intimate Partner in Lifetime and in Previous 12 Months, by Type of Victimization and Gender", in Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence against Women Survey, National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July 2000, http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/nij/181867.pdf (accessed September 10, 2004) | ||||
| In lifetime | ||||
| Percent | Numbera | |||
| Type of victimization | Women (n=8,000) | Men (n=8,000) | Women (100,697,000) | Men (92,748,000) |
| Rapeb*** | 7.7 | 0.3 | 7,753,669 | 278,244 |
| Physical assaultb*** | 22.1 | 7.4 | 22,254,037 | 6,863,352 |
| Rape and/or physical assaultb*** | 24.8 | 7.6 | 24,972,856 | 7,048,848 |
| Stalkingb*** | 4.8 | 0.6 | 4,833,456 | 556,488 |
| Total victimizedb*** | 25.5 | 7.9 | 25,677,735 | 7,327,092 |
| In previous 12 months | ||||
| Percent | Number3 | |||
| Type of violence | Women (n = 8,000) | Men (n = 8,000) | Women (100,697,000) | Men (92,748,000) |
| Rape | 0.2 | —c | 201,394 | —c |
| Physical assaultb* | 1.3 | 0.9 | 1,309,061 | 834,732 |
| Rape and/or physical assaultb* | 1.5 | 0.9d | 1,510,455 | 834,732 |
| Stalkingb** | 0.5 | 0.2 | 503,485 | 185,496 |
| Total victimizedb*** | 1.8 | 1.1 | 1,812,546 | 1,020,228 |
The Bureau of Justice Statistics published results from the NCVS in Intimate Partner Violence, 1993–2001 (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, February 2003). Researchers found that although the number of intimate violence victims decreased between 1993 and 2001, women still experienced about 588,490 nonfatal violent incidents at the hands of intimates in 2001, down from 1.1 million in 1993. More than 1,200 women were killed by an intimate partner in 2000.
The National Violence against Women Survey
The National Violence against Women Survey (NVAWS) collected information from interviews with eight thousand men and eight thousand women to assess their experiences as victims of various types of violence, including domestic violence. The NVAWS asked survey respondents about physical assaults and rape, but excluded other sexual assaults, murders, and robberies.
In Extent, Nature and Consequences of Intimate Violence: Findings from the National Violence against Women Survey (Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July 2000), researchers Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes found that intimate violence is pervasive in American society, with women suffering about three times as much of this violence as men. They estimated that 22.1% of women (twenty-two million) are physically assaulted by a loved one during the course of their lifetimes, while about 7.4% of men (seven million) were physically assaulted by intimates over their lifetimes (See Table 2.2.) Women were also more likely to become victims of rape, stalking, and physical assault by intimates than their male counterparts at some time during their lifetimes. Furthermore, women physically assaulted by their partners averaged nearly seven assaults by the same person, as opposed to men, who averaged 4.4 assaults.
During the twelve months that preceded the interview, women also reported higher rates of rape, stalking, and physical assault than did men. Tjaden and Thoennes estimated based on NVAWS data that about 1.5% of the surveyed women (more than 1.5 million) and 0.9% of the men (834,732) reported they had been raped and/or physically assaulted by a partner in the twelve months preceding the survey. In other words, approximately 4.8 million women and 2.9 million men are assaulted every year.
The rates of violence between intimate partners varied by race. Asian/Pacific Islanders reported lower rates of violence than men and women from other minority groups, and African-American and American Indian/Alaska Natives reported higher rates. (See Table 2.3.)
Tjaden and Thoennes concluded that the majority of partner abuse and violence is not reported to the police.
TABLE 2.3
| Persons victimized by an intimate partner in lifetime, by victim gender, type of victimization, and victim race, 1996 | |||||
| Persons victimized in lifetime (%) | |||||
| Victim gender/Type of victimization | White | African-American | Asian Pacific Islander | American Indian/Alaska Native | Mixed Race |
| 1Estimates for American Indian/Alaska Native women are significantly higher than those for white and African-American women: Tukey's B, p ≤ .05. | |||||
| 2Relative standard error exceeds 30 percent; estimates not included in statistical testing. | |||||
| 3Estimates for Asian/Pacific Islander women are significantly lower than those for African-American, American Indian/Alaska Native, and mixed-race women: Tukey's B, p ≤ .05. | |||||
| 4Estimates for African-American women are significantly higher than those for white women: Tukey's B, p ≤ .05. | |||||
| 5Estimates not calculated on fewer than five victims. | |||||
| SOURCE: Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, "Exhibit 6. Persons Victimized by an Intimate Partner in Lifetime, by Victim Gender, Type of Victimization, and Victim Race," in Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence against Women Survey, National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July 2000, http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/nij/181867.pdf (accessed September 10, 2004) | |||||
| Women | (n = 6,452) | (n = 780) | (n = 133) | (n = 88) | (n = 397) |
| Rape1 | 7.7 | 7.4 | 3.82 | 15.9 | 8.1 |
| Physical assault3,4 | 21.3 | 26.3 | 12.8 | 30.7 | 27.0 |
| Stalking | 4.7 | 4.2 | —5 | 10.22 | 6.3 |
| Total victimized3 | 24.8 | 29.1 | 15.0 | 37.5 | 30.2 |
| Men | (n = 6,424) | (n = 659) | (n = 165) | (n = 105) | (n = 406) |
| Rape | 0.2 | 0.92 | —5 | —5 | —5 |
| Physical assault | 7.2 | 10.8 | —5 | 11.4 | 8.6 |
| Stalking | 0.6 | 1.12 | —5 | —5 | 1.22 |
| Total victimized | 7.5 | 12.0 | 3.02 | 12.4 | 9.1 |
Women reported about one-fifth of rapes, one-quarter of physical assaults, and one-half of stalking incidents to police, while men who had been victimized reported abuse to police even less frequently. Table 2.4 shows the reasons victims did not report their abuse to the police. Many victims said they felt the police would not or could not do anything on their behalf. These expressions of helplessness and hopelessness—feeling that others in a position to assist would be unwilling or unable to do so—is a common characteristic shared by many victims of intimate partner violence.
STATISTICS FOR VIOLENCE IN SAME-SEX COUPLES ARE PROBLEMATIC. The NVAWS also found that same-sex couples who lived together reported experiencing far more intimate violence in their lifetimes than heterosexual cohabitants. Among women, 39.2% of the same-sex cohabitants and 21.7% of the opposite-sex cohabitants reported being raped, physically assaulted, or stalked by a partner during their lifetimes. Among men, the comparative figures were 23.1% and 7.4%, respectively.
Although survey findings indicated that members of same-sex couples experience more intimate partner violence than do heterosexual couples, the reported violence does not necessarily occur within the same-sex relationship. When comparing intimate partner victimization rates among same-sex and opposite-sex cohabitants by the gender of the perpetrator, Tjaden and Thoennes found that 30.4% of the same-sex women cohabitants reported being victimized by a male partner sometime in their lifetimes, whereas 11.4% reported being victimized by a female partner. The researchers concluded that same-sex cohabiting women were three times more likely to report being victimized by a male partner than by a female partner. In comparison, women who lived with men were nearly twice as likely to report being victimized by a male than same-sex cohabiting women were to report being victimized by a female partner. (See Figure 2.1.)
Male same-sex partners reported more partner violence than men who lived with women. About 23% of men who lived with men said they had been raped, sexually assaulted, or stalked by a male cohabitant, as opposed to just 7.4% of men who reported comparable experiences with female cohabitants. This finding confirms the widely held observation that violence and abuse in intimate partner relationships is primarily inflicted by men, whether a partner is male or female.
In comparison with the research on intimate partner violence between men and women, the literature about same-sex violence is very sparse, in part because many respondents may consider disclosing same-sex relationships risky and revealing partner violence even more sensitive. Furthermore, not all persons who engage in same-sex relationships identify themselves as homosexual, leading to more questions about the quality of data gathered. The research that examines same-sex partner violence reveals that it is quite similar to heterosexual partner violence—abuse arises in the attempts of one partner to exert control over the other and it escalates throughout the course of the relationship.
The National Crime Victimization Surveys
The NCVS are ongoing federal surveys that interview eighty thousand persons from a representative sample of
TABLE 2.4
| Distribution of rape, physical assault, and stalking victims who did not report their victimization to the police, by reasons for not | |||||
| Rape Victims (%) | Physical assault victims (%) | Stalking victims (%) | |||
| Reason for not reporting2 | Women (n = 311) | Women (n = 2,062) | Men (n = 468) | Women (n = 165) | Men (n = 30) |
| 1Estimates are based on the most recent intimate partner victimization since age 18. Estimates not calculated for male rape victims because there were fewer than five victims when stratified by variables. | |||||
| 2Estimates exceed 100 percent because some victims gave multiple responses. | |||||
| 3Differences between women and men are statistically significant: x2, ***p ≤ .001, **p ≤ .05. | |||||
| 4Relative standard error exceeds 30 percent; statistical tests not performed. | |||||
| 5Estimates not calculated for fewer than five victims. | |||||
| SOURCE: Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, "Exhibit 17. Distribution of Rape, Physical Assault, and Stalking Victims Who Did Not Report Their Victimization to the Police, by Reasons for Not Reporting and Gender," in Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence against Women Survey, National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July 2000, http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/nij/181867.pdf (accessed September 10, 2004) | |||||
| Police couldn't do anything | 13.2 | 99.7 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
| Police wouldn't believe me | 7.1 | 61.33*** | 45.1 | 98.2 | 93.3 |
| Fear of perpetrator | 21.2 | 11.73 | 1.94 | 38.23*** | 16.74 |
| Minor, one-time incident | 20.3 | 37.93*** | 58.5 | 33.9 | 36.74 |
| Ashamed, wanted to keep incident private | 16.1 | 10.43*** | 7.1 | 61.8 | 76.7 |
| Wanted to handle it myself | 7.7 | 7.3 | 5.8 | 7.9 | —5 |
| Victim or attacker moved away | —5 | 2.4 | —5 | 12.1 | —5 |
| Attacker was a police officer | —5 | 4.7 | 3.8 | 7.9 | —5 |
| Too young, a child | 3.5 | 2.2 | 1.54 | —5 | —5 |
| Reported to the military or someone else | —5 | 0.84 | —5 | —5 | —5 |
| Didn't want police, court involvement | 5.8 | 32.03*** | 24.6 | 35.2 | 40.0 |
| Wanted to protect attacker, relationship, or children | 8.7 | 34.83*** | 29.5 | 45.5 | 43.3 |
households biannually to estimate the amount of crime committed against persons over age twelve in the United States. While the surveys cover all types of crime, they were extensively redesigned in 1992 to produce more accurate reports of rape, sexual assault, and other violent crimes committed by intimates or family members.
The 2003 report of NCVS trends found that the rate of violent crime fell by 54.7% from 1993 to 2003, although crime rates seem to have stabilized since 2001. Although the 2003 NCVS's criminal victimization estimates are among the lowest since the NCVS began in 1973, the numbers are still staggering: 5.4 million violent crimes were committed in 2003 (rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault). (See Figure 2.2.)
More than one in ten people (10.6%) who were victims of violent crimes in 2000 were victimized by intimate partners. Women were victimized by intimate partners at a greater rate than were men—19.9% of female victims named an intimate partner as the offender, compared with fewer than 2.5% of men. In sexual assault cases, 10.1% of women reported that the rapist was an intimate partner, 1.8% of female rape victims reported another relative was the perpetrator, and 57.3% reported a friend or acquaintance was the perpetrator. Among men, 52.2% of sexual assault/rape victims had been assaulted by a friend or acquaintance; no men reported having been assaulted or raped by an intimate or other family member. (See Table 2.5.)
In 2003, women continued to identify offenders as an intimate, friend, other relative, or acquaintance in about two-thirds of violent crimes (67%), while more than half of male victims identified the offender as a stranger (54%). This difference is largely accounted for by the fact that only 3% of male victims of violent crime identified their offender as an intimate, compared with 19% of female victims. Women were also considerably more likely to report that their offender was another relative (10%) than men were (5%). (See Table 2.6.)
Although men continued to experience higher rates of violent victimizations than women, the rates for both genders declined from 1993 to 2003. (See Figure 2.3.) Rates among persons from most racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups also declined from 1993 to 2001. The most significant annual declines in violent crime rates were observed among males and African-Americans. (See Table 2.7.)
According to the NCVS, almost half of all violent victimizations were reported to the police in 2003 (47.5%)—38.5% of rape and sexual assaults, 59.4% of aggravated assaults, and 42.1% of simple assaults. Women reported violent offenses more often than men did (49.4% and 45.7%, respectively).
The 1985 National Family Violence Survey
The National Family Violence Survey, considered by many to be the source of the most important research on
FIGURE 2.1
family violence, was originally conducted in 1975 for the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire, Durham. Ten years later, in a follow-up to the landmark study, Straus and Gelles found that the rate of assaults by husbands on wives had dropped slightly during the decade, from 121 instances per one thousand couples in 1975 to 113 instances per one thousand couples in 1985. The rate of severe violence, such as hitting, kicking, or using a weapon, however, had declined sharply, from thirty-eight to thirty per one thousand couples—a 21% drop.
The study's most controversial finding indicated that women were initiating domestic violence at a rate equal to men. The 1985 study reported that in half of the cases, the abuse was mutual. After reassessing their data in 1990 and again in 1993, Straus and Gelles concluded that although there were similar levels of abuse between men and women, men were six times more likely to inflict serious injury.
In a paper presented in 1994 to the World Congress of Sociology titled Changes in Spouse Assault Rates from 1975 to 1992: A Comparison of Three National Surveys in the United States, Murray Straus and Glenda Kaufman Kantor compared the rates of abuse from the 1975 and 1985 NFVS and a 1992 survey conducted by Kantor. When the researchers reclassified "minor assault" to include pushing, grabbing, shoving, and slapping, and "severe assault" to include behavior likely to cause serious injury, such as kicking, punching, beating, and threatening with a weapon, they found some startling results.
The rates of reclassified minor assaults, which were considered less likely to cause injuries requiring medical treatment, decreased for husbands between the 1975 and 1985 surveys, yet remained constant for wives. The researchers found the same trend held true for severe assaults by husbands versus those by wives. While the
FIGURE 2.2
rate of severe assaults by men against their wives declined 50% in the 17 years from 1975 to 1992, severe assaults by women remained fairly steady.
Straus and Kantor concluded that the reason for the decline in severe assaults by husbands was that over time men became increasingly aware that battering was a crime and grew reluctant to admit the abuse. At the same time, women had been encouraged not to tolerate abuse and to report it, accounting for an increase in the reporting of even minor instances of abuse.
When abuse was measured based on separate reports by men and women, Straus and Kantor found that minor assaults by husbands decreased from 1975 to 1985. Based on the husbands' reports, these rates continued to decline from 1985 to 1992, but wives reported an increase over the same period. Men also reported a decrease in the rate of severe abuse between 1975 and 1985, while women reported no change. In contrast, between 1985 and 1992 men reported a slight increase in the rate of severe abuse while women reported a sharp drop of 43%. These findings appeared to contradict Straus and Kantor's hypothesis that the rate change was a result of men's reluctance to report abuse and women's greater freedom to report it.
According to women, minor abuse perpetrated by wives against their husbands declined from 1975 to 1985, but increased substantially from 1985 to 1992. Men, however, said the rate of minor abuse by their wives increased over both periods. Women also reported that the rate of severe assaults against their husbands remained steady
FIGURE 2.3
during the first decade but increased between 1985 and 1992. Husbands reported a steady decrease in severe assaults by their wives during both periods.
DRAWING CONCLUSIONS FROM THE DATA. Straus and Kantor observed that the large decrease in severe assaults by husbands was supported by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) statistics showing an 18% drop in the number of women killed by their husbands during that period. Straus and Kantor speculated that strides made over several years, such as justice system interventions to punish abusive husbands, along with the greater availability of shelters and restraining orders, played a role in the decline of severe abuse. The lack of change in minor assaults by husbands may reflect the emphasis that has been placed on severe assaults, which could allow men to mistakenly assume that an occasional slap or shove did not constitute abusive behavior.
To explain the increase in minor assaults by women, Straus and Kantor suggested that there had been no effort to condemn assaults by wives, and with increasing gender equality, women might feel entitled to hit as often as their male partners. The decrease in severe abuse by wives as reported by their husbands, which is inconsistent with the wives' responses, might have reflected men's reluctance to admit they have been victims of abuse.
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