Intimate partner violence and sexual assault threaten people in all walks of life. Violence claims the lives of many of the Nation s young persons and threatens the health and well-being of many persons of all ages in the United States. Each day 84 persons complete suicide and as many as 3,000 persons attempt suicide. See Focus Area 18. Mental Health and Mental Disorders.
Youth continue to be involved as both perpetrators and victims of violence.
The elderly, females, and children continue to be targets of both physical and sexual assaults, which are frequently perpetrated by individuals they know. Examples of general issues that impede the public health response to progress in this area include the lack of comparable data sources, lack of standardized definitions and definitional issues, lack of resources to adequately establish consistent tracking systems, and lack of resources to fund promising prevention programs. Because national data systems will not be available in the first half of the decade for tracking progress, one subject of interest, maltreatment of elders, is not addressed in this focus area's objectives. The maltreatment of persons aged 60 years and older is a topic for research and data collection for the coming decade. While every person is at risk for injury, certain types of injuries appear to affect some groups more frequently.