Statistics
RAPE
- According to a report in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 28 % of US female veterans reported sexual assault during their careers, with consistent rates found across eras (Women's eNews, 3/30/03).
- In the US Central Command region, which includes Iraq and Afghanistan, the number of US servicewomen's reported sexual assaults rose from 24 in 2002 and 94 in 2003 to 123 in 2004. In the US military overall, the number of assaults reported by US servicewomen in 2004 increased to 1,275--25% higher than 2003's total, and 41% more than in 2002. (reported in the Washington Post, May 7, 2005)
- Nearly 20% of women in New Hampshire say they have been raped. (NH Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, University of New Hampshire, and state authorities, 2007)
- In a survey in South Africa, 25% of the young men admitted to having had sex with a woman without her consent, before he was 18 years of age (Human Rights Watch).
- In the late nineties in South Africa, 40% of reported rapes and attempted rapes targeted girls younger than 17 years of age. (Human Rights Watch)
- In a survey of women in Seattle's Puget Sound area, 11 percent said they had been raped by their partners. (Group Health Center for Health Studies, Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center and the University of Washington. Reported in Seattle Times, May 16, 2006)
- In Seoul, Korea, 22% of adult women said they had been the victims of rape and attempted rape (UNIFEM, www.stopvaw.org).
- In Colorado, 24% (1 in 4) of women and 6% (1 in 17) of men have experienced a completed or attempted sexual assault. This equates to over 11,000 women and men each year experiencing a sexual assault in Colorado. In 1997, there were 1,794 rapes reported to Colorado law enforcement. If compared to the 1998 Statewide Survey, these reports constitute only 16% of sexual assaults. (Sexual Assault in Colorado: Results of a 1998 Statewide Survey. 1998. Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault)
- One in six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape, and 10% of sexual assault victims are men. (2004 National Crime Victimization Survey)
- In a 1995 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease control of 5,000 students at over 100 colleges, 20% of female college students or one in five answered “yes” to the question “In your lifetime have you been forced to submit to sexual intercourse against your will?” (Douglas, K. A. et al. (1997). Results from the 1995 national college health risk behavior survey. Journal of American College Health, 46, 55-66.)
- A 1993 study in Alexandria, Egypt, found that 47% of female homicides were ‘honor' killings of the victim after she had been raped. (El Youssef New Presses, Cairo)
INCEST
- In India, a government survey of 12,500 children and parents in 13 of 29 states found that over 53% of children between the ages of 5 and 18 have been sexually abused. Most surveyed said they knew the abuser. (Ministry of Women and Child Welfare, United Press International, April 2007)
- In Barbados, a national survey of women and men aged 20 to 45 found that 33 per cent of women and 2 per cent of men reported having been sexually abused during childhood. (UNFPA, http://www.unfpa.org/intercenter/role4men/eliminat.htm )
- A review of victim reports in 3 states in the US in 1992 revealed that 46% of rape victims under age 12 had a family relationship with the perpetrator, and 20% were raped by their fathers. (Bureau of Justice Statistics)
- One of every seven victims of sexual assault reported to law enforcement agencies were under age 6. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Incident-Based Reporting System, based on reports from law enforcement agencies of 12 States from 1991 through 1996)
- In a 1992 report from Canada, 17% of girls under the age of 16 had experienced incest. (http://www.metrac.org/new/stat_sex.htm, J. Holmes and E. Silverman, 1992, We're Here, Listen to Us: A Survey of Young Women in Canada)
- A random survey of 2,627 women and men conducted by the Los Angeles Times found that 27% of the women and 16% of the men had been incestuously abused as children (By Silence Betrayed, John Crewsdon, Little Brown, 1988).
- In Australia, based on a range of behaviours where children are used for someone's sexual gratification, the prevalence rate is 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men. (http://www.rwh.org.au/casa/info.cfm?doc_id=4004, Fergussen and Mullen, 1999)
- According to a 1989 study, one out of every eight women in New Zealand has had an experience of incest (Otago W omen‘s Health Study,1989)
- According to New Zealand's Rape Crisis Auckland 2003 statistics, 43% of cases of childhood sexual abuse were perpetrated by a family member. www.rapecrisis.org.nz
- In Malaysia, there are approximately 300 cases of incest reported each year. (Women's Center for Change Panang).
- In Serbia's Belgrade Incest Trauma Center statistics for 2005, the average duration of incest and sexual abuse of a minor was 5 years, 8 months. In 28% of the cases, the minor was abused by two or more offenders. http://www.incesttraumacentar.org.yu/Statistics.htm
BATTERY/ABUSE
- Nearly three in four family violence victims are female – 73%. (US Bureau of Justice, June 2005)
- US Bureau of Justice found that family violence accounted for 11 to 33 percent of all violent crime from 1998 to 2002, depending on whether the source was victimization surveys or police data.
- US Bureau of Justice also found that family violence remains under-reported. About two in five incidents were not reported to police from 1998 to 2002.
- More than 50% of women in New Hampshire state they have experienced abuse. (NH Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, University of New Hampshire, and state authorities, 2007)
- The Attorney General Iowahas noted an increase to 20 murders from domestic abuse in 2006, up from 15 in 2005 (KWWL Iowa, April 2007).
- Nearly half of the women surveyed in the Puget Sound area of Seattle reported that they had been physically, sexually or psychologically abused by their partners at some point in their adult lives. Thirty per cent said they had been hit. (Group Health Center for Health Studies, Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center and the University of Washington. Reported in Seattle Times, May 16, 2006)
- In Texas, over 185,000 incidents of domestic violence occurred during 2003. (Texas governor's office, http://www.governor.state.tx.us/divisions/women/work/violence)
- Non-fatal intimate partner victimization for females was about four victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 and older in 2004, down from about 10 in 1993. The average annual rate of non-fatal intimate partner violence from 1993 to 2004 was highest for American Indian and Alaskan Native females at 18.2 victimizations per 1,000 females aged 12 and older. Overall, only 21 percent of female victims and 10 percent of male victims contacted an outside agency for assistance. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, http://ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs//pub/press/ipvpr.htm)
- Domestic violence is the major cause of death and disability for European women aged 16 to 44 and accounts for more death and ill-health than cancer or traffic accidents. (reported by Amnesty International) http://web.amnesty.org/actforwomen/domestic-index-eng
- In Russia in 1999 and again in 2002, authorities estimate more than 14,000 women were murdered at the hands of a spouse or family member. In 2001, 65,000 women sought help from crisis centers in Russia. Yet, the law still does not recognize domestic violence as a specific crime in Russia, despite 50 attempts to pass such laws in parliament. (Amnesty International) http://www.amnesty.org/russia/womens_day.html
- A survey by the General Union of Women and UNIFEM found that one in four married women in Syria are abused, in 70% of the cases by her husband or father. Syrian women hold 12% of elected office, the second highest proportion in the Middle East after Tunisia (Reuters, April 2006).
- A senior official announced a 20% increase in recorded incidents of domestic violence in Jordan in 2005 over the previous year—1,800 cases in 2005. (IRIN News, July 2006)
- In Algeria, 7,400 women filed domestic violence complaints in 2005, up 1,555 from the total in 2004. Algeria has more than 30 safehouses throughout the capital. (AFP, December 2006)
- In a 1999-2000 survey by the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, a total of 62.5% of women reported having experienced some form of domestic abuse. The highest rate was among divorced women (100%) and in cities, while the rate lowered in refugee camps and villages. (IDRC, Canada)
- Studies in the US, Israel, Canada, Australia, and South Africa found that 40-70% of female murder victims were killed by husbands or boyfriends. (World Health Organization)
- In the 2004 International Violence Against Women Survey, 57% of Australian women reported having experienced violence in their lifetime, 10% in the prior 12 months. http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/rpp/56/06_ch2.html
- In Australia, 42% of women who experienced violence by a partner were pregnant at the time of the violence and 20% experienced violence for the first time during pregnancy (ABS Women's Safety Survey, 1996)
- In the Kissi District of Kenya, 42 per cent of women report having been "beaten regularly" by their husbands. (UNFPA, http://www.unfpa.org/intercenter/role4men/eliminat.htm )
- In the 2005 World Health Organization Multi-Country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence, the local rates in ten countries of ever-partnered women who had experienced violence from an intimate partner was:
- 69 % Peru (province), 51% Peru (city)
- 71% Ethiopia (province)
- 62% Bangladesh (province), 53% Bangladesh (city)
- 56% Tanzania (province), 41% Tanzania (city)
- 47% Thailand (province), 41% Thailand (city)
- 46% Samoa
- 37% Brazil (province), 29% Brazil (city)
- 36% Namibia (city)
- 24% Serbia and Montenegro (city)
- 15% Japan (city)
FGM
- In Ghana, one in 7 (15%) females had been circumcised (Coker-Appiah & Cusack, 1999; Ghana National Study on Violence 1998,survey of 2,069 women and girls supplemented by a five-year review of official records).
- The following are recorded in Female Genital Cutting in the Demographic and Health Surveys: A Critical and Comparative Analysis, 2004 (http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/CR7/CR7.pdf):
Demographic and Health Surveys found the following prevalence of FGM--
(Country, Year of Survey, % Occurrence, Sample Size)
- Northeastern Africa
Egypt 2000 97 15,573 Eritrea 1995 95 5,054 Eritrea 2001-02 89 8,754 Sudan (northern) 1989-90 89 5,860 Ethiopia 2000 80 15,367 - Northern West Africa
Guinea 1999 99 6,753 Mali 1995-96 94 9,704 Mali 2001 92 12,849 Burkina Fas 1998-99 72 6,445 Mauritania 2000-01 71 7,728 Niger 1998 5 7,577 - Southern West Africa/ Middle Africa
Côte d'Ivoire 1994 43 8,099 Côte d'Ivoire 1998-99 45 3,040 Central African Rep. 1994-95 43 5,884 Nigeria 1999 25 8,206 Benin 2001 17 6,219 - Eastern Africa
Kenya 1998 38 7,881 Tanzania 1996 18 8,120 - Western Asia
Yemen 1997 23 10,414
- Northeastern Africa