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| Did you know:
In 1992, the Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, stated that domestic violence perpetrated by males accounted for more adult female emergency room visits than traffic accidents, muggings, and rapes combined and is the single greatest cause of injury to American women. He declared it a national health crisis.1
And that is just abuse of women. What about children, teens, the elderly, men?
• 1 in 3 to 4 women will experience abuse (rape or physical assault) in their lifetime (27%)2
• 1 in 6 men will experience physical abuse in their lifetime (16%)2
• 28% of marriages contain physical violence, 50-56% contain abuse in some form. 3,4
• 1 in 3 teens and young adults (college students) will experience physical abuse in a dating relationship (32%). Other forms of abuse increase the number, and some studies say that it is as high as 70%.5
• 44% of women in domestic abuse relationships are raped by their abuser. Some studies estimate that rape occurs in as many as 70% of these relationships. 6,7
• It is estimated that 2.1 million older adults suffer physical, psychological, financial, or some form of abuse or neglect each year in the US and only 1 out of 14 is reported to the authorities.8
• 39.5% of women seeking abortions come out of or are in abusive relationships.9
• Divorce rate for non-abused women is 15%, the rate for abused is 75%.3
• It is estimated that over 3.3 million of American children witness intimate partner violence (IPV) within their families. Witnessing violence is a risk factor for long-term physical and mental health problems, including alcohol and substance abuse, being a victim of abuse, and perpetrating IPV. 10
• 1 million children suffered abuse and neglect in the US in 2006, according to the Child Welfare Information Gateway.
• 40-60% of children living in homes where adult abuse occurs also experience direct abuse themselves. All experience indirect abuse.13, 14
• 90% of women inmates report having experienced sexual, emotional or physical abuse before incarceration.13
• Young women in youth groups are less likely to report abuse, especially if they are dating someone in the youth group.3
• People with strong religious beliefs stay longer in abusive relationships because it gets mixed up with their faith beliefs.3
• Abusers are more likely to go for help when the pastor says go than if someone else says to go, even a court order.3
Sadly, religion is NOT a deterrent… there is just as much abuse (spousal, child and sexual abuse) in Christian homes as in non-Christian homes.3
In addition, Spiritual abuse is always a component of abusive behaviors in Christian homes and damages the abused person’s view of God.15
These statistics do not even include the other effects of suffering abuse, such as substance abuse, eating disorders, arrests, suicide attempts and many others.
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References:
1 “From the Surgeon General, U.S. Public Health Policy,” Journal of the American Medical Association 267 (1192): 3132
2 1998 Women's & Men's Health Survey, Harris & Associates)
3 Dr. Nancy Nason-Clark, 10/07/2006, When Terror Strikes the Christian Home; Keynote Address at The Awakening Conference, Ft. Lauderdale, FL;
4 Coker AL, Smith PH, McKeown RE, Melissa KJ. Frequency and correlates of intimate partner violence by type: physical, sexual, and psychological battering. American Journal of Public Health 2000;90(4):553-9.
5 White & Koss. Courtship violence: incident and prevalence in a national sample of higher education students; and Humphrey & White. Women's vulnerability to sexual assault from adolescence to young adulthood, Journal of Adolescent Health 2000; 27:419-424.
6 Irene Hanson Frieze, "Investigating causes and consequences of Marital Rape," Signs. Vol 8, no. 3, 1983, P. 532-555.
7 STAR accessed at http://www.star.ak.org/Library/files/maritalrape.htm )
8 Elder Abuse and Neglect: In Search of Solutions, Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2005; Pillemer & Finkelhor, 1998, The Prevalence of Elder Abuse: A Random Sample Survey, The Gerontologist, 28: 51-57
9 Glander, Moore, Michielutte, & Parsons The Prevalence of Domestic Violence Among Women Seeking Abortion. Obstetrics and Gynecology 1998; 91(6): 1002-6
10 Felitti V, Anda R, Nordenberg D, Williamson D, Spitz A, Edwards V, et al. Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 1998;14(4):245.58.
11 Wright R. J.; Wright R. O.; Isaac N. E.; 1997, Response to battered mothers in the pediatric emergency department : A call for an interdisciplinary approach to family violence, Pediatrics 1997, vol. 99, no2, pp. 186-192 (34 ref). American Academy of Pediatrics
12 Edelson, JL & Beeman, SK, 2000, “Responding to the Co-occurrence of Child Maltreatment and Adult Domestic Violence in Hennepin County.”
13 Bureau of Justice Statistics as reported in Women's Fund Newsletter July 2007
14 Bowker, Lee, “Religious Victims and Their Religious Leaders: Services Delivered to One Thousand Battered Women by the Clergy” in Abuse and Religion, 230-31.
15 Johnson, K. "When Faith is Used to Abuse" Windy Hill Institute, 2004
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