Nearly one in every three adult women experiences at least one physical assault by a partner during adulthood. According to a study conducted by the National Institute of Justice and the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 4.8 million intimate partner rapes and physical assaults are perpetrated against U.S. women annually. Women who were physically assaulted by an intimate partner averaged 6.9 physical assaults by the same partner. Majority of the victims who did not report their victimization to the police thought the police would not or could not do anything on their behalf.
Women are at an increased risk of harm after separation from an abusive partner.
Separated women are 3 times more likely than divorced women and 25 times more likely than married women to be victims of violence at the hands of an intimate partner. During the same period, the same surveys found that men were victims of about 150,000 violent crimes by current or former spouse or intimate partner. Other surveys have found a much higher rate of domestic violence against women. Of the estimated more than 1,000,000 persons age 65 and over who are victims of abuse each year, at least two-thirds are women. In almost 9 out of 10 incidents of domestic elder abuse and neglect the perpetrator is a family member and adult children of the victims are the largest category of perpetrators and spouses are the second largest category of perpetrators.