A growing number of women and girls are being forced into prostitution. As fear of AIDS intensifies, ccustomers are demanding ever-younger prostitutes, and the age at which girls are being forced into prostitution is lowering. According to one source from 1973 to 1992 about 2000 women per year died in the U.S. as a result of domestic violence. A few studies have attempted to assign a dollar value to domestic violence. In the U.S. women who had been raped or beaten had medical costs two and a half times higher during the year of the incident.
Violence can also prevent women from participating in public life.
Until today human rights concerns have traditionally confined themselves to the public sphere.