Violence Against Women

Violence Against Women

Violence against women is a serious problem in our nation. NICP provides conferences and information on the prevention of violence against women, educating police officers on how to deal with violence.

For information on our upcoming Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault conferences, please click here.

Battering is a pattern of behavior that leads the abuser to think they have power and control over another person through fear and intimidation. Abuse and battering are one in the same. They can take many forms including one or more of the following: emotional abuse, economic abuse, sexual abuse, using children, threats, using male privilege, intimidation, isolation, and a variety of other behaviors used to maintain fear and power. In all cultures the perpetrators are most commonly the men of the family. Violence against women is not uncommon and it is no longer just the victim's problem.

In many societies the problem was kept quiet and no one got involved but today people are getting involved and are trying to stop all violence against women.

Some statistics:

Women are usually victimized by offenders they know.
Women were attacked about six times more often by offenders with whom they had an intimate relationship than were male violence victims during 1992 and 1993.
During each year, women were the victims of more than 4.5 million violent crimes, including approximately 500,000 rapes or other sexual assaults.
In 29 percent of the violent crimes against women by lone offenders the perpetrators are intimates--husbands, former husbands, boyfriends or former boyfriends.
The victims' friends or acquaintances committed more than half of the rapes and sexual assaults.
Intimates commit 26 percent of rapes and sexual assaults
Strangers are responsible for about 1 in 5 sexual assaults.
Forty-five percent of all violent attacks against female victims 12 years old and older by multiple offenders also involve offenders they know.
During 1992 approximately 28 percent of female homicide victims (1,414 women) were known to have been killed by their husbands, former husbands or boyfriends. In contrast, just over 3 percent of male homicide victims (637) were known to have been killed by their wives, former wives or girlfriends.
Men are more likely than women to experience violent crimes committed by both acquaintances and strangers. In fact, men are about twice as likely as women to experience acts of violence by strangers.
About a fifth of the lone-offender attacks against women involve a weapon.
Strangers use weapons 30 percent of the time, compared to 18 percent for intimates.
Women from 19 to 29 years old are more likely than women of other ages to be victimized by an intimate.
The rate of intimate-offender attacks on women separated from their husbands is about three times higher than that of divorced women and about 25 times higher than that of married women.
Women of all races are about equally vulnerable to attacks by intimates.
Women in families with incomes below $10,000 per year are more likely than other women to be violently attacked by an intimate.

The National Institute of Crime Prevention is taking steps to help people be more informed about family abuse, violence against women and the steps you can take to put an end to all types of violence.

National Institute of Crime Prevention
PO Box 271767, Tampa, FL 33688
Tel: 813.294.9757
E-mail: info@nicp.net