Facts

Domestic violence is

the willful intimidation, assault, battery, sexual assault or other abusive behavior perpetrated by one family member, household member, or intimate partner against another. In Colorado, the relationship necessary for the enhancement of a charge to include domestic violence generally includes a spouse, former spouse, persons currently residing together or those that have within the previous year, or persons who share a common child. As of 1997, dating relationships were included in statutory definitions of domestic relationships.

Violence against women

Domestic violence against women is primarily intimate partner violence: 64.0 percent of the women who reported being raped, physically assaulted, and/or stalked since age 18 were victimized by a current or former husband, cohabiting partner, boyfriend, or date. In comparison, only 16.2 percent of the men who reported being raped and/or physically assaulted since age 18 were victimized by such a perpetrator.

22% of surveyed women reported physical violence by an intimate partner compared with 7.4% of surveyed men.

At least 85% of all domestic violence victims are female.

Nearly one-third of women in the U.S. report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives

Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44 – more than car accidents, muggings and rapes combined.

More pregnant women die from homicide than from any other cause, Morse than 300,000 women annually experience domestic violence during pregnancy. Pregnant teens are especially at risk.

The risk of severe assault or even homicide increases dramatically when victims leave the abusive situation.

In 1996, among all female murder victims in the U.S., 30% were slain by their husband or boyfriend.

Females accounted for 39% of the hospital emergency department visits for violence-related injuries in 2004, but 84% of these visits were treatment for injuries inflicted by the intimate partner.

Many American women are raped at an early age: Of the 17.6 percent of all women surveyed who said they had been the victim of a completed or attempted rape at some time in their life, 21.6 percent were younger than age 12 when they were first raped, and 32.4 percent were ages 12 to 17. Thus,
more than half (54 percent) of the female rape victims identified by the survey were younger than age 18 when they experienced their first attempted or completed rape. (National Violence Against Women Survey)