Facts About Domestic Violence
Prepared by Christopher Masi, MD
August 21, 2000

Domestic violence is a pattern of assaultive and coercive behaviors, including physical, sexual, and psychological attacks as well as economic coercion, that adults or adolescents use against their intimate partners. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 95% of reported assaults on spouses or ex-spouses are committed by men against women. However, there are certainly cases where the victim is male or the perpetrator is female.

It is important to understand that domestic violence doesn’t stop or go away; it increases with frequency and severity over time.

Fortunately, victims of domestic violence can get help. Below is a list of resources in the Chicago area. Please call one of these resources if you have questions or would like to speak with someone about domestic violence.

How Common is Domestic Violence?

Domestic violence is very common. In this country, it is estimated that between 2 and 4 million women are physically abused each year. One out of every four American women report they have been physically abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives. Thirty percent of Americans say they know a woman who has been physically abused by her husband or boyfriend in the past year.

Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women.

In 1997, UNICEF released The Progress of Nations which found that between 25% and 50% of women around the world have suffered violence from an intimate partner.

One study revealed that 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.

Domestic violence is repetitive in nature: about 1 in 5 women victimized by their spouse or ex-spouse reported that they had been a victim of a series of at least 3 assaults in the last 6 months.

The level of injury resulting from domestic violence can be severe: of 218 women presenting to a metropolitan emergency room with injuries due to domestic violence, 28% required hospital admission, and 13% required major medical treatment. 40% had previously required medical care for abuse.

Each year, at least 6% of all pregnant women, about 240,000 pregnant women, in this country are battered by the men in their lives.

Complications of pregnancy, including low weight gain, anemia, infections, and first and second trimester bleeding are significantly higher for abused women as are maternal rates of depression, suicide attempts, tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use.

It is estimated that between 3 and 10 million children in the U.S. are at risk of witnessing a women being abused each year. Even if the children are not physically harmed, witnessing domestic violence can have profound effects on them. Studies have demonstrated significant physical, emotional, behavioral and cognitive effects which vary depending on the child’s age at exposure and the duration of the violence.

Children, like the victim, appear in the health care system with a variety of physical injuries, illnesses or medical conditions directly related to the perpetrator’s abuse. Understanding the domestic violence etiology of those conditions is important in treating the current condition and in preventing future problems.

Children who witness violence at home feel there is nowhere safe in the world. They begin to see the world as dangerous and unpredictable and their own place in it as tenuous. As bystanders, they feel helpless and incompetent.

Children from violent homes may have difficulty sleeping; they may have eating disorders, be depressed and needy, or aggressive and full of rage. They may seek care for a variety of somatic complaints, finger biting, stuttering, or learning difficulties. They may become suicidal. Young children often incorrectly see themselves as the cause of the perpetrator’s violence against the victim.

Health care providers in general are not very good at asking about domestic violence. As a result, they are not good at identifying and helping victims of domestic violence. This is unfortunate because when a doctor ignores or minimizes a woman’s injury and does not get involved, the message sent is that there is nothing terribly wrong with being hit and that the victim doesn’t deserve better. When a doctor asks a woman about her bruises in a safe environment, and in a compassionate, non-judgmental way, she may talk about the violence in her life - or she may not. But at least the groundwork has been laid so that she might talk at another time or to another person.

In one study, 92% of women who were physically abused by their partners did not discuss these incidents with their physicians, 57% did not discuss the incidents with anyone.

In a major metropolitan emergency department that had a protocol for domestic violence, the emergency department physician failed to obtain a psychosocial history, ask about abuse or address the woman’s safety in 92% of the domestic violence cases.

The bottom line is health care providers need to be more informed about domestic violence and need to ask their patients regularly about this important topic.

There are many reasons why women don’t leave. The primary reasons given by victims of domestic violence for staying or returning is fear of violence and the lack of real options for safety for themselves and their children.

Another reason for staying is that cultural or religious values encourage the preservation of the family at all costs. In one survey of clergy, 21% believed no amount of abuse would justify a wife leaving her husband ever.

Some women can’t leave because they are financially dependent on their partners. Depriving the victim of any financial independence is a part of the pattern of an abuser’s controlling behavior. The woman may have no place to go because she has been isolated from family and friends. She may have children or other individuals dependent on her. She may be dependent on her partner for health care or because she has a serious illness.

Just as we know that people are often not able to quit smoking successfully the first time they try, it takes an average of seven attempts at leaving before a woman is able to leave successfully. On average, it takes three years from the time a woman first speaks to a professional about the abuse until the time when she is able to leave.

Despite all the obstacles, the fact is that most women do leave the relationship. Studies have shown that between 43% and 70% of battered women eventually end their relationship with violent partners. They are able to do so with the support of family, friends, and sometimes the criminal justice system. We will never know the number of divorced women who choose not to identify abuse as the reason they ended their marriage.

As you can tell, domestic violence is very common. Fortunately, victims of domestic violence can get help. This help can be simply talking to someone about a violent situation or it can be in the form of housing for victims and their children. Please call one of the numbers listed above if you have any questions about domestic violence or if you need help.

References:

RADAR - A domestic violence intervention for health care providers. The Philadelphia Family Violence Working Group.

Domestic Violence Victimization: A Primary Health Issue. Trainer’s Manual: Improving health care response to domestic violence victims, 1998, Family Violence Prevention Fund.