Source: Arkansas Coalition Against Domestic Violence

• Total number of Arkansas Domestic Violence shelter capacity is 590 victims. During the year 2000 approximately 309 victims had to be referred elsewhere due to shelter’s being at their capacity.

Source: Administrative Office of the Courts

• From October of 1997 through September of 2000, there were 24,631 Orders of Protection filed with the Administrative Office of the Courts. There is also an upward trend with 8,001 reported during FY 97/98, 8,052 during FY 98/99 and 8,578 during FY 99/00.

*Perpetrators were husbands, common-law husbands, ex-husbands, boyfriends, or ex-boyfriends of victims.

Source: The Women’s Project, "Transformation", Spring 2000

• In 1999, there was a decrease in violent crime in Arkansas consistent with the decline in violent crimes across the nation. But as in previous years, women in Arkansas who died were most at risk from people they knew…The women most at-risk for domestic homicide were in the 30-39 year age range; the overall range was 18-72.

Source: National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and FBI Crime Statistics

• A woman is battered once every 15 seconds somewhere in America.
• Domestic violence cuts across all racial, religious, ethnic and socioeconomic groups.
• 85% of women in substance abuse programs are victims of domestic violence.
• 63% of all boys ages 11 to 20 that commit murder, kill the man who was abusing their mother.

Source: National Institute of Justice – National Violence Against Women Survey, November 2000

• Women experience more intimate partner violence than do men: 22.1 percent of surveyed women, compared with 7.4 percent of surveyed men, reported they were physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, boyfriend or girlfriend, or date in their lifetime.
• About one-third (30.6 percent) of women surveyed and nearly half (44.9 percent) of men surveyed said they had been physically assaulted since age 18.
• The most frequently reported types of physical assault by both women and men were pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping and hitting.
• Results from the survey indicate that 1 of 9 Americans – female and male alike – has been beaten since age 18. Results also indicate that 1 of 18 U.S. women and 1 of 8 U.S. men has been threatened with a gun since becoming an adult, while 1 of 43 U.S. women and 1 of 20 U.S. men has had a gun used on them.

Source: Ronet Bachman Ph.D., U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, "Violence Against Women: A National Crime Victimization Survey Report," January 1994

• Almost 6 times as many women victimized by intimates (18%) as those victimized by strangers (3%) did not report their violent victimization to police because they feared reprisal from the offender.

Source: Medical News, American Medical Association, January, 1992

• Family violence costs the nation from $5 to $10 billion annually in medical expenses, police and court costs, shelters and foster care, sick leave and absenteeism, and non-productivity.

Source: NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services, 1983 and 1991

• From 1983 to 1991, the number of domestic violence reports received increased by almost 117%.

Source: Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, U.S. Department of Justice, March 1998

• Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend per year to 4 million women who are physically abused by their husbands or live-in partners per year.
• While women are less likely than men to be victims of violent crimes overall, women are 5 to 8 times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate partner.
• Violence by an intimate accounts for about 21% of violent crime experienced by women and about 2% of the violence experienced by men.

All contents © 2002 Arkansas Commission on Child Abuse