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It is estimated that every 15 seconds a woman is battered. (Derived from Strauss, M.R. Gelles and S.K. Steinmetz, 1980, "Behind Closed Doors: Violence in the American Family," Garden City, NY: Anchor Press)

Twenty-two to 35 percent of women who visit emergency departments in the United States are there for symptoms related to on-going abuse. (Randall, T., 1992, "Domestic Violence Intervention Calls for More than Treating Injuries," Journal of the American Medical Association 264[8]: p. 939)

Every year, domestic violence results in almost 100,000 days of hospitalizations, almost 30,000 emergency department visits, and almost 40,000 visits to a

physician. (American Medical Association, 1991, "Five Issues in American Health," Chicago, IL).

In a prospective study of 691 White, Hispanic, and African-American pregnant women sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control, one in six reported physical abuse during their present pregnancy. One in four reported physical

abuse in the last calendar year. (McFarlane, Judith, et. al., 1991, "Assessing for Abuse During

Pregnancy: Severity and Frequency of Injuries and Associated Entry in to Prenatal Care," Journal of the American Medical Association 267[23]: pp. 3176-3178.)

In the United States, nine out of ten women murdered are killed by men, half at the hands of a male partner. ("Crime in the United States: Uniform Crime Reports 1986," 1987, Washington, D.C.: Federal Bureau of Investigation)

In 1991, 28 percent of all female murder victims were slain by their husbands or partners. (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1993, "Crime in the United States, 1991," Washington, D.C.)

Being abused or neglected as a child increases the likelihood of arrest as a juvenile by 53 percent, as an adult by 38 percent, and for violent crime by 38 percent. (Widom, C.S., 1992, "The Cycle of Violence," National Institute of Justice, Washington, D.C.)

Women are more likely to be victims of homicide when they are estranged from their husbands than when they live with their husbands. The risk of homicide is higher in the first two months after separation. (Wilson, M.., and Daly, M., 1993, Violence and Victims, "Spousal Homicide Risk and Estrangement," 8:3-16)

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the average prison sentence for men who killed their wives was 17.5 years; the average sentence for women convicted of killing their husbands was 6.2 years. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, November 1994, "Violence Between Intimates", USDOJ, Washington, D.C.)

Results from The National Women's Study indicate that 3.7 percent of women who have ever been married have suffered an aggravated assault at the hands of a husband or ex-husband. These results mean that over 3.5 million American women are survivors of wife battering. (Kilpatrick, D., e.t al., 1992, "The National Women's Study," National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, Charleston, SC)

Thirty-four percent of Americans say they have witnessed an incident of domestic violence, compared with only 19 percent who report witnessing a robbery or mugging. (Family Violence Prevention Fund and EDK Associates, 1993, "National Survey on Domestic Violence," San Francisco, CA)

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