From: andre cramblit <andrekar@...>
Subject: Sad Statistics (abuse)



Domestic violence incidents plummet
Rate drop reflects overall national decline since '90s
- Faye Fiore, Los Angeles Times
Friday, December 29, 2006

(12-29) 04:00 PST Washington -- In a sweeping study of crime in U.S.
households, the Justice Department reported Thursday that domestic
violence, one of the most common offenses against women, has fallen by
more than half since 1993.

Assaults, rapes, homicides and robberies against a current or former
partner dropped from about 10 per 1,000 women in 1993 to 4 per 1,000 in
2004, researchers found.

"It's a substantial decline in the amount of violence between intimates,
that's the good news," said Michael Rand, chief of victimization
statistics at the Bureau of Justice Statistics in Washington.

The downward trend in violence by "intimate partners" -- a former
spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend or same-sex partner -- mirrors an overall
decrease in violent crime nationally since the early 1990s, justice
officials said. While the study did not attempt to explain the decline
in domestic violence, some experts have credited more vigorous law
enforcement, increased education and an expanded network of services for
battered partners, said Shannan Catalano, a bureau statistician and the
report's author.

But she and others emphasized the report may not reflect the actual
level of violence taking place behind closed doors. Indeed, the apparent
decline could mean that women are choosing to suffer in silence rather
than seek help.

If the rate of domestic violence has fallen, many experts in the field
are not seeing it, said Gail Wyatt, professor of psychiatry and
biobehavioral sciences at the UCLA Semel Institute. She said shelters
are still filled, and hot lines still buzz with pleas for help.

"Are we really seeing a decrease? Or are we seeing that people are more
reluctant to reveal these incidents because of the consequences?" said
Wyatt. "Many of these intimate partners are still in relationships --
they have mortgages, children, a life -- and they don't see that
incarceration will necessarily resolve the problem. Who's going to pay
the bills?"

The two-year study was based on reported and nonreported instances
against men and women. Researchers contacted a representative sample of
U.S. households identified through census data. Respondents were asked
whether they had been the victim of a crime at the hands of a current or
former partner, and if they told the police or anyone else.

The results showed what society has long known: that women are far more
likely than men to be battered or assaulted. While crimes at the hands
of an intimate partner represented nearly 25 percent of violent assaults
against women in the period of the study, they accounted for 3 percent
of such incidents against men.

Domestic crimes against men fell too, although less dramatically, from
1.6 per thousand to 1.3 per thousand.

Women who were separated or divorced reported the highest rates of
violence, while married women reported the lowest. American Indian and
Native Alaskan women were victimized most often by a husband or
boyfriend, with 18 assaults per 1,000. Asian males, the elderly, and
white males reported the lowest rates of partner violence.

Poor women and those between the ages of 20 and 24 were most vulnerable
to violence by a partner or former partner.




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