According to some estimates, domestic violence in America occurs at least every nine seconds! Protect your rights, protect your life, protect your children. Don't let domestic violence in your home continue unreported.

The FBI reports that, among all female murder victims in 1994, 28 percent were killed by their husbands or boyfriends . Only 3 percent of the male victims during this period were killed by their wives or girlfriends. Source: FBI report, "Crime in the United States: 1994", published in 1994, page 17.

According to a U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics' Special Report entitled "Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey" (NCJ-154348), August 1995, page 1, in 1992 and 1993, female victims of violence by an intimate were more often injured by the violence than females victimized by strangers.

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence's Domestic Violence Fact Sheet tells us:

• One in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.
• An estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year.
• 85% of domestic violence victims are women.
• Historically, females have been most often victimized by someone they knew.
• Females who are 20-24 years of age are at the greatest risk of non-fatal intimate partner violence.
• Most cases of domestic violence are never reported to the police.

We also know that:

• Domestic violence occurs at least once in two-thirds of all marriages.
• Ninety-five percent of the victims of domestic violence are women.
• Twenty-two to 35 percent of the women who visit emergency departments in U.S. hospitals are there for symptoms related to ongoing domestic abuse.
• As many as 1/4 to 2/3 of battered women report abuse during pregnancy.
• Each year more than one million women seek medical assistance for injuries resulting from battering and domestic violence.
• There are nearly three times as many animal shelters in the U.S. than there are battered women's shelters.

If you are the victim of domestic violence, call the Police. Then contact one of the many agencies here in the metropolitan Louisville area focused on protecting the victims of domestic violence.

Return to our main Domestic Violence page to learn more about protecting yourself and the ones you love from physical, emotional and sexual abuse from an intimate partner