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What is happening today?

·       More than 1 of every 8 Oregon women 18 to 64 years of age are estimated to have been victims of physical abuse (physical assault, sexual coercion, or injury) by an intimate partner during 1998.  3 of 4 female victims experienced multiple acts of physical abuse.  The 1998 Oregon Domestic Violence Needs Assessment shows that 98,000 women were victims of physical abuse, 74,900 victims of sexual coercion, and 49,000 victims of injury.

  ·       Annually, females experience over 10 times as many incidents of violence by an intimate as compared to males.  On average each year, women experienced 572,032 violent victimizations at the hands of an intimate, compared to 48,983 incidents committed against men (Ronet Bachman, Ph.D., U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, "Violence Against Women: A National Crime Victimization Survey Report," January 1994, p. 6).

  ·       Violence is the reason stated for divorce in 22% of middle-class marriages (EAP Digest November/December 1991).

  ·       Up to 50% of all homeless women and children in the U.S. are fleeing domestic violence.  Yet there are nearly 3 times as many animal shelters in the U.S. as there are shelters for battered women and children: 3,800 for animals, 1,500 for battered women (Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings, 1990; Schneider, 1990).

  ·       Almost 6 times as many women victimized by intimated as those victimized by strangers did not report their violence victimization to police because they feared retribution from the offender (Ronet Bachman, Ph.D., U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, "Violence Against Women: A National Crime Victimization Survey Report," January 1994, p. 1).

  ·       Based on this study, 60% of Oregon children under the age of 18 who live in abusive households have seen or heard the abuse of their mothers or caregivers during 1998. That means 81,400 children witness domestic violence at least once a month (Oregon Domestic Violence Needs Assessment, 1998).

  ·       An estimated 10 million of the 64.2 million children under 18 years of age in the United States were exposed to domestic violence in 1990.

  ·       Children in homes where domestic violence occurs are physically abused or seriously neglected at a rate 1500% higher than the national average of the general population (National Woman Abuse Prevention Project).

  ·       97% of the partners of abused women in Oregon are male.  Abusive partners represent all social and economic groups.  Abusive partners are 2.7 times more likely to have histories of alcohol use problems than non-abusive partners, and 7 times more likely to have histories of drug use problems.

  ·       22% of women physically abused during the past 10 years in Oregon obtained restraining orders against their partners.  However, restraining orders were violated for 62% of these women.  Three-fourths of those women reporting restraining order violations reported multiple violations.  

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