Domestic Violence

Domestic violence, or battering, is a pattern of abusive behaviors that some individuals use to control their intimate partners. Battering can include physical, sexual and emotional abuse, and other controlling behaviors.

Domestic Violence is abuse committed against one person by a spouse, co-habitant or someone with whom there has been an intimate or dating relationship. It can be either physical or mental abuse and, in most cases, it is both. The abuse often begins with verbal threats and turns into battering, rape and even murder.

Domestic Violence Statistics and Information

• 42% of murdered women are killed by their intimate male partners
• A women is physically abuse every nine seconds in this country
• Two-thirds of attacks on women are committed by someone the victim knows, often a husband or boyfriend.

Services for victims of domestic violence

Rape is an act of hatred, aggression and anger in which the rapist's main motives are to control and humiliate. Every survivor will have a set of physical and emotional reactions.

Spousal Rape
Spousal rape occurs more frequently than reported. Victims are forced to have sex or forced into sexual acts that make them feel uncomfortable.

Sexual Assault Statistics and Information

• Spousal rape occurs more frequently than reported
• Rape remains the most underreported violent crime in the United States
• 77% of rapes are committed by someone who is known to the victim
• 1 out of 4 girls will be sexually assaulted prior to the age of 25.
• 1 out of 8 boys will be sexually assaulted before the age of 18.
• In California there were 9,882 forcible rapes reported to law enforcement in 2001.
• There is one forcible rape every 54 minutes in the state of California and one forcible rape every 6 minutes nationwide
  

Services for rape survivors