Both domestic violence and sexual assault have a long history as acceptable behavior toward women. Both are violent crimes and women share with the victims of other types of violent crimes the feelings of helplessness and loss of control which are typical responses. Women may be assaulted or abused, not as individual persons, but for what they represent. Violence toward women is most appropriately viewed as the historical and current expression of male dominance. Both of these crimes against women may be seen as a show of masculinity motivated by power and anger with the purpose of controlling or dominating the victim.
Researchers estimate that one and a half to three million women are beaten each year.
This means that domestic violence occurs in one out of every four homes. And forty percent of all the women who are murdered annually are killed by their husbands or boyfriends. Physical abuse is happening all the time to all kinds of women. It cuts across economic, social and ethnic lines. And the man who beats his partner could be any man.