Statistics On Family Violence and Abuse

One group falsely stated, in the 1970's, that 10 percent of girls and 80 percent of boys under age 14 are sexually active. No one asked about who is molesting these children. Past and the most current data reflects that about 80 percent of girls and 70 percent of boys did not engage in sexual relations with another person by age 15. Forty percent more women are battered on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of the year. That lie circulated in January 1993. An article appeared in a local newspaper that linked heart rates and blood pressures to violent men. The following Logic table representation shows that no living person could pass that authors' test.

**Logic Table Representation**
	Low Heart Rate	Normal Heart Rate	High Heart Rate
Low Blood Pressure	Prone to Violence	Prone to Violence	Prone to Violence
Normal Blood Pressure	Prone to Violence	Prone to Violence	Prone to Violence
High Blood Pressure	Prone to Violence	Prone to Violence	Prone to Violence

In an article that appeared in the August 8, 1999-edition of the Vallejo Times Herald, Michael Bedke of the American Bar Association wrote "Conservatively, between one million and four million women are battered each year by their current or ex-partner." His statement is a factual prevarication. Other self-serving studies estimate that 95% of all victims of domestic violence are women and some state that six to eight million women are battered each year. Government, universities, professional associations, and radical feminist groups have used these false figures for years for the purpose of power and funding.

I do not trust police statistics because the standard for arrest is so high for females and so low for males that it skews the numbers, especially and I quote from published arrest guidelines "As in other types of criminal investigations, uncorroborated statements by a victim can constitute probable cause that the crime occurred." The arresting officer cannot be held liable in any civil action even though the arrest is unlawful.

In 1998, I estimated that around 850,000 women actually reported domestic violence and some of these reports could be false. The authors of Intimate Partner Violence said that 876,340 women were victims of intimate partner violence but they did not approach the subject of false reports.

The United States report Intimate Partner Violence, Bureau of Justice Statistics (May 2000) noted that females age 16 to 24 experienced the highest per capita rates of intimate violence. The British Home Office survey independently supported this observation.

These revised numbers include same gender (lesbian) relationships. Women batter women and women batter men. Female initiated family violence and abuse occur far more often than reported. In fact, some studies show that women and men initiate violence in nearly equal numbers while others show that women initiate family violence much more often than men.

The statistics on child maltreatment are based on actual case studies rather than self report surveys. The proposition I pose is, if mothers are more likely than fathers to abuse their children are wives more likely than husbands to abuse their spouse?

The National Institute of Justice and the Bureau of Justice Statistics published a report to Congress in July 1996. This report, Domestic and Sexual Violence Data Collection, remarked about the enormous problems in gathering data. The report stated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Incident-Based Reporting System "is not precisely tailored for measuring domestic violence as it now stands."

A later report, Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey (U. S. Department of Justice - 1998), estimated (Table 1) that women make up 59% and men 41% of persons physically assaulted by an intimate partner in the previous 12 months. The following tables are the numbers from the survey.

Table 1	Percent Women	Total Women	Percent Men	Total Men
Last 12 Months	1.3	1,309,061	0.9	834,732
In Lifetime	22.1	22,254,037	7.4	6,863,352

Table 2	Percent Women	Total Women	Percent Men	Total Men
Last 12 Months	1.5	1,510,455	0.9	834,732
In Lifetime	24.8	24,972,856	7.6	7,048,848

Findings From the National Violence Against Woman Survey dated July 2000 uses the same data and adds stalking as a form of violence. These are my objections:

1. The report (Table 2) states, "Based on U.S. Census estimates of the number of women and men in the country, these findings equate to approximately 1.5 million women and 834,700 men who are raped and/or physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States."

The survey defines intimate partner to include current, former, opposite-sex, and same-sex: spouses, cohabitants, dates, and lovers. This definition invites a broad interpretation of the numbers. For an example, opposite-sex data is combined with bi-sex and same-sex data skewing the results. The report tells us nothing about these relationships.

If the occurrences of these groups are the same for both men and women, then the relative ratios (1.3 to 0.9 and 1.5 to 0.9) remain valid.

2. Rape is physical battery. The survey completely ignored actual, and threats of, sexual battery on men by women. Groin attacks (battery) by women on men are common.

3. A revised report (July 2000) using the same data states "Because women raped by an intimate partner in the previous 12 months averaged 1.6 rapes, the incidence of intimate partner rape (number of separate victimizations) exceeded the prevalence of intimate partner rape (number of victims) Thus, there were an estimated 322,230 intimate partner rapes committed against U.S. women during the 12 months preceding the survey. (This national estimate is based on only 16 women who reported being raped by an intimate partner in the previous 12 months and should be viewed with caution.)" The bold emphasis is mine.

4. The report said that only females interviewed women (18 years or older) and approximately equal numbers of females and males interviewed men (18 years or older). The fact that women did about 75 percent of the interviews could have skewed the results.

5. The report said that the survey was conducted by telephoning residences. How can one have candid conversation with an abused man when the abuser monitors the conversation?

6. The survey ignored areas such as deprivation and destruction of property. It ignored the physical effects of emotional, social, and financial abuse.

7. I am concerned about the repetitive effects that daytime television might have upon women. Constant exposure to some of the seedy programs that appear on daytime television could lead some viewers to believe that they have been abused.

10. The report is a crime based survey rather than one that measures the dynamics of intimate interpersonal relationships and its effects on the physical and psychological well-being of the targeted individual.

11. Blind telephone surveys are not confirmable surveys. There is no way to determine that the person at the other end of the line is telling the truth.

The report conveys the fact that women account for at least 37 to 40% of the intimate violence. Due to the bias against men, women can get away with lying and violence. I know this from personal experience. I lost my home, my property, and my work due to a biased and corrupt judicial system. Though my experience and observations indicate that women account for more than 40% of intimate violence and abuse, at least Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey is a start.

On September 20, 2001, I learned of the existence Domestic Violence: Findings from a new British Crime Survey self-completion questionnaire published in 1999. It estimates that women and men are equally likely to have been assaulted by an intimate partner in the past 12 months. Those findings are displayed in Table 3.

The report indicated that women were twice as likely to sustain injury from domestic battery. The percentages for women and men were 2.2% and 1.1% respectively for the previous 12 month period.

However, the report used different sample sizes, criteria, and methods to arrive at a result. The report acknowledges that these factors can affect the results of a survey.

1. The British report defined 16 years as the minimum age of the sample population. The U.S. report used 18 years as the minimum age. It appears that the minimum age of consent for marriage is 16 for both genders in Great Britain. The minimum age of consent for marriage varies throughout the United States. The report notes that domestic violence is more prevalent among younger couples.

Note: The legal age to: consent to sexual intercourse, to marry with parental or court permission, to marry without parental or court permission, to vote, to enlist or serve in the armed services, and to purchase or own certain items varies (sometimes by gender) among jurisdictions.

2. The British report used smaller sample sizes than the U.S. report. This may due to the different population sizes (58,610,000 U.K. and 267,368,000 U.S.).

3. I will have to spend more time with the British report to understand its findings and implications more clearly.

I found the British report very readable and recommend it to anyone who is interested in the problem of gathering accurate statistics about domestic violence.

The Lifetime Percentages in the USA and British reports support my assertion, and expressed by others, that those who stay in an abusive relationship remain in danger. That is why I support termination and reject appeasement. I wrote in my 1976 report, that women are two to three times more likely, than men, to choose a person of the likeness and temperament as their former abusive partner. Since women remain in abusive relationships longer than men, they are at greater risk to develop a psychological dependency to an abusive personality.

Child Maltreatment 1999 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - The Administration on Children, Youth, and Families) is a result of data collected from each State's Child Protective Services (CPS) systems. The report notes that definitions vary from State to State. For an example, a State may or may not count abuse by a babysitter or daycare worker as abuse or count the abuser as the perpetrator.

This is why the sample size only included 554,047 perpetrators from 21 states and the report said that 61.8 percent of the perpetrators were female and 38.2 percent were male. This implied that females were 1.62 times as likely as males to maltreat children. The problem with their numbers was that the reports divided the perpetrators into nine categories and four categories did not identify a parent as a perpetrator.

I wanted to express child maltreatment in terms that involved at least one parent. So I selected the following five categories: female parent only, both parents, male parent only, female parent and another, and male parent and another. This is why I excluded the remaining four categories that included: other, family relative, unknown, and substitute care worker from the non-fatal child maltreatment figures.

The study classifies maltreatment as neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse. The percentages for each classification of maltreatment appears in the tables below. The percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding.

Notes on These Tables

Female parent only means that the male parent was not involved in the abuse.
Male parent only means that the female parent was not involved in the abuse.
Female parent and another means that the female parent and another person were involved in the abuse.
Male parent and another means that the male parent and another person were involved in the abuse.
Some Child Protective Services workers regard a male parent bathing his young children (those who cannot bathe themselves or require supervision for their own safety) as sexual abuse. That standard is not applied to female parents. Furthermore, the father or father-figure is presumed to be the offender in Child Sexual Abuse: Intervention and Treatment Issues -1993, a publication sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The statistic includes cases where fathers and father-figures were falsely accused of child molestation and sexual abuse. False accusations in this category are estimated in the range of 80% to 90%. Therefore, the 20.8% statistic is suspect.

Neglect - Both parents account for 18.5% of neglect cases. I divided this number by 2 and rounded the result up to the nearest tenth (9.3). Mothers account for 69.2% (51.7 + 9.3 + 8.2), fathers parents account for 22.7% (12.4 + 9.3 + 1.0), and non-parents account for 9.3% (2.7 + 2.5 + 2.8 + 1.3) of reported neglect.

Physical Abuse - Both parents account for 14.2% of physical abuse cases. I divided this number by 2 giving 7.1. Mothers account for 50.0% (35.6 + 7.1 + 7.3), fathers account for account for 35.0% (26.6 + 7.1 + 1.3), and non-parents account for 15.1% (5.8 + 3.9 + 3.6 + 1.8) of the reported physical abuse.

Sexual Abuse - Both parents account for 12.3% of sexual abuse cases. I divided this number by 2 and rounded the result up to the nearest tenth (6.2). Mothers account for 21.1% (6.2 + 3.9 + 11.0), fathers account for 29.0% (6.2 +20.8 + 2.0), and non-parents account for 50.0 % (18.2 + 17.7 + 11.3 + 2.8) of the reported sexual abuse. This data is disputable.

**Combined Averaged Child Mistreatment**
Relationship to the child	Pct (1)	Pct (2)
Female parent only	43.7	30.4
Male parent only	19.5	19.9
Both parents	16.4	15.0
Female parent and another	7.8	8.8
Other	4.3	8.7
Family relative	3.2	8.2
Unknown	3.2	5.9
Substitute Care Provider	1.6	2.0
Male parent and another	1.2	1.4

Notes

(1) This column excludes sexual abuse.
(2) This column includes sexual abuse.
(3) The report notes that "Percentages are based on a duplicated count of 324,486 victims. Duplication exists because some perpetrators victimized more than one child, and each relationship is counted."

Mothers account for 59.7% (43.7 + 8.2 + 7.8), fathers account for 28.9% (19.5 + 8.2 + 1.2), and non-parents account for 12.3% (4.3 + 3.2.+ 3.2 + 1.6) of the total combined mistreatment of children (not including sexual assault).

Mothers account for 46.7% (30.4 + 7.5 + 8.8), fathers account for 28.8% (19.9 + 7.5 + 1.4), and non-parents account for 24.8% (8.7 + 8.2.+ 5.9 + 2.0) of the total combined mistreatment of children (including sexual assault).

Missing Data - None of the statistics identify emotional and psychological abuses such as:

Summary - The reports states "Data on perpetrators from 21 States indicate that, 554,047 perpetrators identified, 61.8 percent were female and 38.2 percent were male." The following list shows the various measures of mistreatment. The ratio is female to male and ratio is mother to father for parental mistreatment, neglect, or abuse of children

Report	Female	Male	Ratio
Total Mistreatment	61.8%	38.2%	1.62
Combined Parental Mistreatment	59.7%	28.9%	2.07
Parental Neglect	69.2%	22.7%	3.05
Parental Physical Abuse	50.0%	35.0%	1.43
Parental Sexual Abuse (see below)	21.1%	29.0%	0.73

The San Diego County Grand Jury reported, "There is no dispute within the Juvenile Dependency System that false allegations of sexual molest during custody disputes occur and that the system fails to deal with them properly. There is, however, considerable dispute about how to handle these cases. The Jury has found that a parent making a false allegation of abuse or molest during a custody dispute is very likely to achieve the desired result. These accusations are made primarily to avoid visitation and joint custody provisions and the accuser frequently succeeds."

I wanted to express fatal child maltreatment in terms that involved at least one parent. So I selected the following five relationships: female parent only, both parents, male parent only, female parent and another, and male parent and another. This is why I excluded the remaining four relationships that include: other, family relative, unknown, and substitute care worker from the fatal child maltreatment figures.

Most child fatalities are a result of neglect (38.2%), physical abuse (26.1%), or both (22.7%). This says that 87 percent of fatal child maltreatment are a result of neglect, physical abuse, or both. The percentages for each relationship leading to fatal child maltreatment appear in the table below. The percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding.

**Fatal Maltreatment**
Perpetrator	Percent
Female parent only	31.5
Both parents	21.3
Female parent and another	16.3
Male parent only	10.7
Substitute Care Provider	6.1
Other	5.7
Family relative	4.5
Unknown	2.7
Male parent and another	1.1

The following adjustments are the same that I used in Child Maltreatment. When both parents commit the crime, I assign half of the percentage (rounded up) to each parent. When one parent and another commit the crime, I assign the full percentage to the parent.

**Fatal Maltreatment Table (Mother)**
Perpetrator	Percent
Female parent only	31.5
Both parents (21.3 / 2)	10.7
Female parent and another	16.3
Total	58.5

**Fatal Maltreatment Table (Father)**
Perpetrator	Percent
Male parent only	10.7
Both parents (21.3 / 2)	10.7
Male parent and another	1.1
Total	22.5

Mothers are responsible for 58.5 percent of child deaths, fathers are responsible for 22.5 percent, and 19 percent are attributed to non parents. Mothers are 2.6 times more likely than fathers to fatally neglect or physically abuse their children.

Children less than one are at the greatest risk and constitute 42.6 percent of the total maltreatment fatalities. Children in the one to five year age group constitute 43.5 percent of the fatalities. So, children less than six years of age constitute 86.1 percent of the total child maltreatment fatalities. After the age two, the victims of fatal maltreatment are more often boys than girls.

The relationship data shows that children who live with their father and another stable person are by far safer than remaining with their mothers.

Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey estimates that women make up 59% and men 41% of persons physically assaulted (excluding rape) by an intimate partner in the previous 12 months. The report confirms that women are more likely than men to remain in an abusive relationship or choose another abusive intimate companion. The British report, Domestic Violence: Findings from a new British Crime Survey self-completion questionnaire, confirms this observation.

The two surveys used different methods to estimate the nature and extent of family abuse and the surveyors had different objectives. This may explain the differences between the 59 to 41 percent finding in the national survey and the nearly equal percentages of victimization in the British survey.

Both surveys failed to differentiate between those who were abused by only one partner and those who were abused by more than one partner. What number of victims leave an abusive relationship only to enter into an abusive relationship with another person?

Neither survey adequately addressed the problem of false reports and matter of verification. So I looked to surveys about child abuse.

Child Maltreatment 1999 examined data from each State's Child Protective Services (CPS) system. The sample size included 554,047 perpetrators from 21 states. The report said that 61.8 percent of the perpetrators were female and 38.2 percent were male. This meant that females were 1.62 times as likely to maltreat children as males. The family relationship data shows that children are far safer living with their fathers.

Divorce data, to be published, showed that women were 6 to 9 times more likely to make false accusations of child abuse and child molestation than men. False accusations of this type is family abuse.

The numbers indicate that women have a higher propensity for family abuse and violence than men and this predisposition is rising among younger women. Children are more likely to be exposed to abuse and violence from their mothers rather than their fathers. This behavior is not learned, it is adopted by choice.

The numbers show that the safest place for children is with their father, especially a father who has established a relationship with another stable person. These statistics contradict the national estimates and the data strongly suggests that family abuse and violence is primarily instigated by women. None of the studies treat false accusations as abuse or as a crime.

Personality Disorders - This paper contains links to official sites that describe and provisionally define personality disorders.

Table 3	Percent Women	Percent Men
Last 12 Months	4.2	4.2
In Lifetime	22.7	14.9