Who Is Affected
Don’t wait until it happens to your daughter, your friend, or to you.Domestic violence is all around us. It affects our families, our friends, our coworkers, our neighbors, and our society. Most of the time, we are not aware it’s happening. Yet DV affects individuals in every country, regardless of age, economic status, sexual orientation, gender, race, religion, or nationality.
The victims of domestic violence are just that: victims. They don’t want to be in abusive situations. They just are. Not only does the victim suffer — all of us do. Read the stats. Do something now. Don’t wait until it happens to your daughter, your friend, or to you.
MYTH
Domestic Violence is a problem to be handled within the family.
FACT
Domestic Violence is a crime and a serious public health problem. The costs on all levels — financial, physical, emotional, mental — are growing exponentially.
In 2013, Forbes Magazine* reported, “Domestic violence costs $8.3 billion in expenses annually: a combination of higher medical costs ($5.8 billion) and lost productivity ($2.5 billion).”
The National Center on Family Homelessness also reported in 2013: “Approximately 50% of all women who are homeless report that domestic violence was the immediate cause of their homelessness.” They left an abusive situation yet had nowhere to go.
MYTH
Children will forget what they saw.
FACT
71% of male abusers witnessed or experienced domestic violence as a child.
Children from violent homes have higher risks of alcohol/drug abuse, post traumatic stress disorder, and juvenile delinquency; adolescent girls may mistakenly believe that threats and violence are the norm in relationships.
DID YOU KNOW?
(Statistics from NCADV.org 2016)
- IPV alone affects more than 12 million people each year.
- Nationally, 1 out of 5 murder victims are killed by an intimate partner.
- On average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States
- Nearly 3 in 10 women (29%) and 1 in 10 men (10%) in the US have experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by a partner and report a related impact on their functioning.
- Females ages 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 generally experienced the highest rates of intimate partner violence.
- From 1994 to 2010, about 4 in 5 victims of intimate partner violence were female.
- Most female victims of intimate partner violence were previously victimized by the same offender, including 77% of females ages 18 to 24, 76% of females ages 25 to 34, and 81% of females ages 35 to 49.
In Connecticut, 1/3 of all criminal court cases involve domestic violence.
