Prevalence of Family Violence
Domestic violence is one of the most underreported crimes, with only 50 percent reporting to law enforcement (Truman & Morgan, 2014). As discussed in earlier modules, when someone knows the perpetrator, they are less likely to report. In addition, males are even less likely to report, and their abuse is likely to be overlooked because of social stigma. Despite underreporting, IPV is pervasive, with one in three women and one in four men experiencing victimization in their lifetime, and one in four women and one in seven men experience severe physical violence (The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2011). IPV represents 15 percent of all violent crimes in the U.S. (Truman & Morgan, 2014).
Rape is a common occurrence of domestic violence—45.4 percent of women and 29 percent of men report being raped by their intimate partner (Breiding, 2014). In addition to rape, 72 percent of all the murder-suicides in the United States were intimate partner situations, and 94 percent of those murder victims were women (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, n.d.).
Women are also more likely than men to be killed by their partner: 34 percent of all female murder victims were killed by an intimate partner, whereas only 2.5 percent of male murder victims were killed by an intimate partner (Gerney & Parsons, 2014).