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Real Numbers on Domestic and Sexual Violence.
I've noticed that every time I write about domestic violence -- whether the topic is Rihanna or insurance companies classifying abuse as a pre-existing condition -- "men's rights" trolls come out of the woodwork to claim there is no proof women are more likely to be victimized by intimate partners than men. "Dana, why are you a sexist pig?" wrote one unhinged commenter. "You know that domestic violence [sic] anywhere from 30-60% male victims depending on the research."
This claim fails the sniff test and defies common sense. It's also factually untrue. Last week the Justice Department released its latest National Crimes Victimization Survey, which features a special section on female victims of violence. The survey included 76,000 households, and while domestic violence is infamously underreported, the report does sketch out the contours of the problem.
First, the good news: On the whole, domestic violence is down between 1993 and 2008. But unsurprisingly, women remain over five times more likely than men to be victims of both fatal and non-fatal domestic violence, including assault, rape, stalking, and homicide. One of the most interesting findings is that although fewer than 1 of every 1,000 American men has been the victim of domestic violence -- compared to 4.3 of every 1,000 American women -- male victims are more likely than female ones to go to the police: 72 percent of self-reported male victims filled out a police report, compared to 49 percent of female victims. This points to a number of problems familiar to advocates: that female domestic violence victims are especially wary of law enforcement, fearful of reprisal from their abusers, and must battle a cycle of shame and self-doubt before they seek help. About half never do.
A few more depressing statistics:
- Females are generally murdered by people they know. In 64% of female homicide cases in 2007, females were killed by a family member or intimate partner.
- Men were more likely than women to be killed by strangers. Among male homicide victims in 2007, 16% were murdered by a family member or intimate partner. ... 29% were killed by strangers.
- Females were at higher risk of stalking victimization than males. During the study period, females experienced 20 stalking victimizations per 1,000 females age 18 or older. The rate of stalking victimization for males was approximately 7 per 1,000 males age 18 or older.
- In 2008, 57% of the rape or sexual assaults against females were committed by an offender whom they knew. Strangers committed about one third (31%) of all rape/sexual assaults.
- One in five rape or sexual assaults against females (20%) was committed by an intimate partner.
- Black females historically have experienced intimate partner violence at rates higher than white and Hispanic females.
--Dana Goldstein
COMMENTS (14)
Thank you! Bookmarking this for the next time I have a run-in with that crowd.
Posted by: Laura Clawson | October 5, 2009 1:49 PM
No need, Laura, that crowd should be here any minute!
Posted by: ACLS | October 5, 2009 1:55 PM
Does the report break the figures down about women who are trans or are they included in the stats about female victims of DV?
Posted by: Postmodern Sexgeek | October 5, 2009 2:04 PM
I'm not "one of those people," but I might point out that men are murdered (and murder) at a much higher rate than women. The percentages here are significantly diluted by the much, much, much larger number of stranger murders amongst men.
You can find the statistics here.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/gender.htm
Posted by: ACS | October 5, 2009 2:05 PM
Postmodern Sexgeed -- I was interested in looking at the rates for trans and lesbian women, too -- the report doesn't include any research on that.
Posted by: Dana | October 5, 2009 2:30 PM
Perhaps you could lower your rhetoric level and ad hominem attacks just a tad. Visit my link to see why few people with the ability to reason will believe what ideologically predisposed feminists write. most of what you produce are cherry picked and misstated. The MSM is starting to catch on though so its only a matter of time until the broader fraud is discovered.
Posted by: Mike Murphy | October 5, 2009 2:55 PM
@ ACS: I wrote about something related yesterday so I have this ready to hand: In 1976, 1,304 men and 1,587 women were victims of intimate homicide. In 1986, 946 men and 1,581 women. In 1996, 476 men and 1,299 women. In 2005, 329 men and 1,181 women.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/10/4/789351/-The-Violence-Against-Women-Act-Turns-Fifteen
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs//homicide/tables/intimatestab.htm
Posted by: Laura Clawson | October 5, 2009 3:29 PM
I'm not sure how anyone can be shocked that men are mor likely to abuse women. Men posses greater concentrations of testosterone, and thus are more likely to act violently. Even disregarding that, the reality of human sexual dimorphism is likely to make some potentially abusive women think twice about actually attacking women. There's a reason why female abusive personality types are more prone to passive-aggressive behavior.
There are real complaints about domestic abuse laws, such as the nebulous "domestic abuse threat" charges that seem to cover everything from raising your voice to slaming a door, and it's not helpful when people deny reality or fight battles based more on their personal sensibilities than any actual sense of justice.
Posted by: Anonymous | October 5, 2009 3:38 PM
Laura, the reason for the huge drop in the victimization rates of males is the result of the language and questions in the survey being reformatted in the late 1980s. The alteration was done because certain political groups felt it was impossible for men or boys to be victims of violence (at equal rates or otherwise), and so they altered the language to exclude male victims, going so far as to ask a different set of highly-gendered, victim-oriented questions, which is the current state the NCVS is in now. It bears repeating that studies that do not have such gendered, victim-oriented language typically reveal comparable victimization rates between men and women.
Posted by: Toysoldier | October 5, 2009 9:47 PM
I'm perfectly willing to believe that the rate of female—against—male domestic violence is greatly under-reported and underestimated; what I am not willing to believe is that men are terrorized by women at a rate remotely comparable to the reverse.
Posted by: Keith M Ellis | October 6, 2009 1:53 PM
The data cited in this article is crime-based data, which is never reliable expecially for male victims because they haven't been taught to see their victimization as a crime to the extent women have. Numerous experts have pointed this out. Sociological (non crime-based) survey data by universities repeatedly shows women initiate DV at least as often as men do, as Professor Martin Fiebert shows in his online bibliography.
The Centers For Disease Control found men are *less* likely than women to go to police. And a comparison of crime data to sociological data confirms this.
See this study by the American Psychiatric Association.
http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/42/15/31-a
And yes women do engage in coercive control. A 32-nation study by the University of New Hampshire shows women are as violent and as controlling as men nationwide.
Posted by: Marc A. | October 7, 2009 1:56 AM
Virtually all randomized sociological data shows women initiate domestic violence at least as often as men and that men suffer one-third of physical injuries. www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm.
This Canadian government report also recognizes the above data.
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ncfv-cnivf/familyviolence/pdfs/Intimate_Partner.pdf
A recent study in the Journal of Family Violence found many male callers to a national hotline experienced high rates of severe forms of violence from very controlling female partners. http://www.springerlink.com/content/a7q0032j88817218/fulltext.pdf
Posted by: Marc A. | October 7, 2009 2:03 AM
I'm a male that is very concerned about domestic abuse in all forms: physical, emotional, spiritual, etc., with perpetrators and victims/survivors of all stripes.
I'm interested in ongoing conversations, based on facts, as best we can determine them, realizing there's bias inherent in all methodologies.
In reverting to name calling ('"men's rights" trolls'), the civility of the conversation is diminished, and the speaker/writer immediately loses at least some of my trust. When this happens, things start to sound like Fox "News."
Posted by: Anonymous | October 13, 2009 2:50 PM
Even by your own numbers men are 20% of the victims of both domestic violence and domestic murder. Why then are there almost no services in place for male victims? Why is the law titled "Violence Against **WOMEN**"? Men are people too and deserve the same care and concern as women but in this culture male victims get neither. Your arrogant denial of the claims of male activists simply furthers the problem and reinforces the misinformation that has masqueraded as the truth for thirty years.
Posted by: Anon | October 15, 2009 7:29 AM