Who Are the Victims of Domestic Violence?

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 30, 1996 – Based on a Bureau of Justice Statistics National Crime Victimization Survey, August 1995, following are facts about domestic violence:

- Women were attacked about six times more often by offenders with whom they had an intimate relationship than were male violence victims.
- The rate of intimate-offender attacks on women separated from their husbands was about three times higher than for divorced women and about 25 times higher than for married women.
- Women of all races were equally vulnerable to attacks by intimates.
- Female victims of violence were more likely to be injured when attacked by someone they knew than female victims of violence who were attacked by strangers.
- Just over 3 percent of male homicide victims were known to have been killed by their wives, former wives or girlfriends.
- Husbands, former husbands, boyfriends and ex-boyfriends committed more than 1 million violent acts against women.
- Family members or other people they know committed more than 2.7 million violent acts against women.
- Husbands, former husbands, boyfriends and ex-boyfriends committed 26 percent of rapes and sexual assaults.
- Forty-five percent of female victims age 12 and older who were violently attacked by multiple offenders knew the assailants.##