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Intimate partner violence
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This webpage focuses on nonfatal intimate partner violence (IPV), fatal IPV, rape and sexual assault. It includes estimates of the extent of crimes against females and males and the characteristics of crimes and victims. Crime trends are also presented, along with comparative estimates of crimes against males. Data are from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), 1993 to 2008, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting Program's (UCR) Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR), 1993 to 2007 (the most recent data available).

Summary findings

Nonfatal intimate partner violence

Intimate partner violence includes victimization committed by spouses or exspouses, boyfriends or girlfriends, and ex-boyfriends or ex-girlfriends.

  • In 2008 females age 12 or older experienced about 552,000 nonfatal violent victimizations (rape/sexual assault, robbery, or aggravated or simple assault) by an intimate partner (a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend). 
  • In the same year, men experienced 101,000 nonfatal violent victimizations by an intimate partner.
  • The rate of intimate partner victimizations for females was 4.3 victimizations per 1,000 females age 12 or older. The equivalent rate of intimate partner violence against males was 0.8 victimizations per 1,000 males age 12 or older.
  • The rate of intimate partner violence against females declined 53% between 1993 and 2008, from 9.4 victimizations per 1,000 females age 12 or older to 4.3 per 1,000. Against males, the rate declined 54%, from 1.8 victimizations per 1,000 males age 12 or older to 0.8 per 1,000.

Fatal intimate partner violence

Fatal intimate partner violence includes homicide or murder and non-negligent manslaughter, defined as the willful killing of one human being by another.

  • In 2007 intimate partners committed 14% of all homicides in the U.S. The total estimated number of intimate partner homicide victims in 2007 was 2,340, including 1,640 females and 700 males.
  • Females made up 70% of victims killed by an intimate partner in 2007, a proportion that has changed very little since 1993.
  • Females were killed by intimate partners at twice the rate of males. In 2007 the rate of intimate partner homicide for females was 1.07 per 100,000 female residents compared to 0.47 per 100,000 male residents.
  • Between 1993 and 2007 the total number of homicide victims in the U.S. fell 31%, with a somewhat greater decline for females (-34%) than males (-30%). Homicide victims killed by intimate partners fell 29%, with a greater decline for males (-36%) than females (-26%).
  • Homicide victims killed by an intimate partner declined from an estimated 3,300 in 1993 to an estimated 2,340 in 2007. 
  • Between 1993 and 2007, female victims killed by an intimate partner declined from 2,200 to 1,640 victims, and male intimate partner homicide victims declined from 1,100 to 700 victims.

Children exposed to intimate partner violence -

The NCVS was not designed to capture information on the number of children who witness intimate partner violence; however, the survey is able to examine the characteristics of households with a victim of IPV, including whether children under age 12 were living in the home.

  • Using NCVS data from 2001 to 2005, among households with a female IPV victim, 38% had children under age 12 living in the home. Of the households with a male IPV victim, 21% had children under age 12 living in the home.
  • Court statistics can identify whether a child witnessed a violent incident between intimate partners. Of 3,750 intimate partner violence  cases filed in state courts in 16 large urban counties in 2002, children were present during the violent incident in 36% of the cases. Of those children who were present, 60% directly witnessed the violence.

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Terms & Definitions

Nonstranger A classification of a crime victim's relationship to the offender. An offender who is either related to, well known to, or casually acquainted with the victim is a nonstranger. For crimes with more than one offender, if any of the offenders are nonstrangers, then the group of offenders as a whole is classified as nonstranger. This category only applies to crimes which involve contact between the victim and the offender; the distinction is not made for crimes of theft since victims of this offense rarely see the offenders.
 
Stranger A classification of the victim's relationship to the offender for crimes involving direct contact between the two. Incidents are classified as involving strangers if the victim identifies the offender as a stranger, did not see or recognize the offender, or knew the offender only by sight. Crimes involving multiple offenders are classified as involving nonstrangers if any of the offenders was a nonstranger. Since victims of theft without contact rarely see the offender, no distinction is made between strangers and nonstrangers for the crime.
 
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