National Domestic Violence Hotline, 1-800-799-SAFE

Resource Center

Breaking the DV Cycle

DV Facts and Stats

The DV Cycle of Violence

Recognizing the Signs of DV

National Coalition Against DV

The Scourge that is the growing and perpetuating cycle of domestic violence

Globally

  • Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime
  • Women of all races are about equally vulnerable to violence by an intimate.

Domestically

  • Every year in the U.S. there are over 3 million incidents of domestic violence. That means that every 9 seconds someone is being beaten by their domestic partner!
  • A 2005 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that domestic violence affects the lives of 32 million people each year across the country
  • On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day.
  • Domestic violence causes more injuries to women in the U.S. between the ages of 15 and 44 than car accidents, muggings and rapes combined.
  • Nearly a third of the women who seek care from hospital emergency are there for injuries resulting from domestic violence.
  • Forty percent of girls age 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend.
  • In a national survey of more than 6,000 American families, 50 percent of the men who frequently assaulted their wives also frequently abused their children.
  • Slightly more than half of female victims of intimate violence live in households with children under age 12.
  • Studies suggest that between 3.3 - 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence annually.
  • Each year about 324,000 pregnant women in the U.S. are battered by the men in their lives.
  • Men who as children were exposed to their parents' domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own wives than sons of nonviolent parents.
  • One recent study of 2,245 children and teenagers found that recent exposure to violence in the home was the most significant factor in predicting a child’s violent behavior.
  • Children who are exposed to domestic violence are more likely to exhibit behavioral and physical health problems including depression, anxiety, and violence towards peers. They are also more likely to attempt suicide, abuse drugs and alcohol, run away from home, engage in teenage prostitution, and commit sexual assault crimes.
  • Abused children are arrested by the police four times more often than nonabused children
  • Recent studies bt the Center for Disease Control estimates that the health-related costs of rape, physical assault, stalking and homicide committed by intimate partners exceed $5.8 billion each year. Of that amount, nearly $4.1 billion are for direct medical and mental health care services, and nearly $1.8 billion are for the indirect costs of lost productivity or wages.

Locally

  • In Massachusetts alone more than 55 women were killed in 2007 as a result of domestic violence
  • More than 11,000 restraining orders were issued in Massachusetts in 2007