Violence and Its Impact on Womens Lives

Violence against women takes shape in a multitude of forms including but not limited to domestic violence, stalking, rape, sexual assault, the trafficking of women and children, date rape, verbal abuse and harassment, and hate crimes. The statistics contained in this fact sheet illustrate that violence does not discriminate. All women, regardless of class, ability, age, race, ethnicity, education, immigration status, sexual orientation, and religion can be affected by violence.

The YWCA USA advocates for policies that will prevent and help eliminate violence against women. Through its programs, the YWCA of the USA builds communities in which all people are ensured safety and equal protection under the law .

Domestic Violence
Domestic Violence is primarily a crime against women, although men and women alike are affected by it each year. According to estimates from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), of the 691,710 non-fatal attempts of violence committed by current or former spouses, boyfriends, or girlfriends of the victims during 2001, about 588,490 or 85% were perpetrated against women by their partners.

Black women between the ages of 20-24 experience domestic violence at a higher rate than their White counterparts. For this age group, there were 29 acts of domestic violence per 1,000 Black women and 20 per 1,000 White women. Both Black and White women experience domestic violence at similar rates for every other age group.

According to the National Violence Against Women Survey, Latinas * experience about the same level of physical assaults and stalking as White women. However, Latinas report rape at higher levels. Approximately 7.9% of Latinas will be raped, 21.2% will be physically assaulted, and 4.8% will be stalked by a spouse, boyfriend or ex-boyfriend during their lifetime. However, Latinas report rape 2.2% more often than their White counterparts.

Rape
A woman is raped every two minutes and an attempted rape is committed every three minutes. Women age 12 or older experienced an annual average of 131,950 completed rapes, 98,970 attempted rapes, and 135,550 sexual assaults.

Rape affects women of all races and ethnicities. In a lifetime, 17.7% of White women, 18.8% of Black women, 6.8% Asian-Pacific Islander women, 34.1% Native American and Alaskan Native women, and 24.4% of mixed race women reported that they had experienced a completed or attempted rape at some point.

Black women have higher rates of sexual assault per 1,000 persons. Approximately 40% of Black women report coercive contact of a sexual nature by age 18.

Hispanic and Native American women experience rape and sexual assault in alarming numbers each year. There were 8,320 rapes and 2,250 sexual assaults against Hispanic women reported to law enforcement in 1998. During 1992-1996, Native American women age 12 or older experienced an annual average of 8,400 rapes or sexual assaults.

Most rapes and sexual assaults against women are not reported to police. Only 36% of rapes, 34% of attempted rapes, and 26% of sexual assaults were reported to police between 1992-2000.

Stalking
Women from all backgrounds, regardless of race, ethnicity, class background, sexual orientation, marital status, and age are stalked each year in the United States .

• 1 out of every 12 women will be stalked during her lifetime.

• 1,006,970 women are stalked annually.

According the National Center for Victims of Crime, Native American and Alaskan Native women reported more stalking victimization than female victims of other racial or ethnic background. Seventeen percent of Native American and Alaskan Native women reported being stalked in their lifetime while 8.2% of White women, 6.5% of African American women, 4.5% of Asian-Pacific Islander women, 7.6% of Hispanic women, and 10.6% of women from mixed racial backgrounds reported being stalked.

Children
Young children are most at risk for being abused and neglected. In 2001, approximately 903,000 children were found to be victims of child maltreatment. More than half, 57% of child victims suffered neglect . Child abuse costs the United States approximately $94 billion dollars every year.

Thousands of children die each year as a result of neglect and abuse. In 2001, approximately 1,300 children died of abuse or neglect, a rate of 1.81 children per 100,000. However, younger children were the most vulnerable. Children younger than 1 year old accounted for 41% of child fatalities, and 85% of child fatalities were children younger than 6 years old.

Young Women
Increasingly, teenage girls find themselves involved in violent relationships. Between 12% and 35% of teenagers have experienced some form of violence-- from pushing and shoving, to hitting-- in a dating relationship.

Young women experience domestic violence at higher rates than women of all other ages. While the overall per capita rate of domestic violence was 5.8 acts of violence per 1,000 in 1999 for women in all age groups, it was 15.6 acts of violence per 1,000 among females age 16 to 24.

Each year in the United States, college women are at risk of various forms of violence including rape, sexual assault, harassment, and stalking. A National Institute of Justice (NIJ) survey of women attending colleges and universities revealed that 2.9% had experienced a completed or an attempted rape in the first 7 months of the 1996-1997 school year or 27.7 rapes per 1,000 female students. Twenty-two percent of the victims reporting had been victimized more than once which raised the incidence rate to 35.3 rapes per 1000 female students. When this victimization rate is calculated for a twelve-month period, it suggests that 4.9% of college women experience a completed or an attempted rape in the calendar year.

Elderly Women
Acts of violence against the nation's elderly go unrecognized every year and lead to gross underreporting. According to the National Elder Abuse Incidence Study, more than 500,000 Americans ages 60 and over were victims of domestic abuse in 1996. Experts estimate that only 1 out of 14 domestic elder abuse incidents comes to the attention of authorities.

The majority of elder abuse cases are women. In 1996, 67.3% of all reports of abuse involved elderly women.

Immigrant Women
Immigrant women are at higher risk of being victims of domestic violence due to their sex, race, and immigration status. Immigrant women face unique barriers in accessing social services and leaving their partners, these include:

• language barriers

• threats of deportation and separation from her children

• withdrawal of her petition to complete her legalization status

• intimidation by destroying important documents such as an identification card or passport

• threats to report her immigration status to her employer

Increasing evidence indicates that there are large numbers of immigrant women who are trapped and isolated in violent relationships, and are afraid to turn to anyone for help. A survey conducted by the Immigrant Women's Task Force of the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant Rights revealed that 34% of Latinas and 25% of Filipinas surveyed had experienced domestic violence either in their country of origin, in the U.S. , or both.

Many immigrant women flee to the United States to escape domestic violence and the courts are stepping in. A recent decision by a federal appeals Court in San Francisco suspended the deportation of a Mexican woman citing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) which allows undocumented immigrants who have been battered by a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident, and who meet certain other criteria, to stay in the U.S. by adjusting their immigration status. Since March of 1996, the INS has received more than 11,000 VAWA self-petitions, and has approved over 6,500.

Welfare Recipients and Low-income Women

Low-income women are at higher risk of being physically assaulted by an intimate partner than other women with higher socio-economic statuses. As many as 60% of women receiving welfare have been subjected to domestic violence as adults as compared with 22% of women in the general population.

Women with lower annual household incomes experience domestic violence at significantly higher rates than women with higher annual household incomes. Females ages 16 to 19 with a household income of $7,500 or less, were twice as likely to experience domestic violence than those females in the same age category with higher household incomes.

Homeless Families
A significant number of women and their children who leave abusive situations become homeless. In a survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, 56% of cities surveyed cited domestic violence as a primary cause of homelessness.

Lesbian and Gay Couples
Domestic violence is not absent in same-sex relationships. According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) survey, the prevalence of domestic violence in LGBT ¨ relationships was similar to that in heterosexual couples, between 25% and 33%.

Hate Crimes
Hate crimes † are carried out against individuals because of their real or perceived identity. During 2001, of the 9,721 single-bias incidents, 44.9% were motivated by racial prejudice, 21.6% were driven by a bias toward an ethnicity/national origin, 18.8% motivated by religious intolerance, 14.3% by sexual-orientation bias, and 0.4% by disability bias in 2001.

Students are also hate crimes targets. Twelve percent of students between the ages of 12 and 18 reported that they had been the subjects of hate-related insults at school during the 6 months prior to a 2001 survey. Insults included comments about their race, religion, ethnicity, disability, gender and/or sexual orientation.

Trafficking
The trafficking of women and children is yet another form of violence that affect women and children. Each year, an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 women and children are bought, sold or forced across the world's borders. Recent figures project that between 18,000 and 20,000 of those women and children are trafficked into the United States annually for sexual exploitation or forced labor. Others estimate that the actual number of women and children trafficked into the United States is closer 50,000.

This fact sheet was prepared by Desiree Hoffman-Hizi, Advocacy Associate for the YWCA USA . Angela Arboleda, Advocacy Director, reviewed the brief and provided substantive comments. Elizabeth Graettinger, and Shelly Schnupp, Co-Chairs of the Advocacy Committee, Kay Phil lips, Co-Chair of the Communications Committee, and Joan Durant of the National Coordinating Board provided technical assistance.

* The term “ Latina ” and “Hispanic” are used interchangeably in this fact sheet, and refer collectively to people of Latin American descent.

¨ The term “LGBT” is the acronym that collectively describes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people .

† A hate crime is an act of violence, intolerance or bigotry, intended to hurt or intimidate someone because of her or his real or perceived race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or disability.

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