Facts to Know

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1. Help is available by calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or TDD 1-800-787-3224. You can reach the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. And the Stalking Hotline number is 1-800-FYI-CALL (394-2255).

2. Women living with female intimate partners experience less intimate-partner violence than women living with male intimate partners. However, men living with male intimate partners experience more intimate-partner violence than do men who live with female intimate partners.

3. Unmarried couples are at greater risk of intimate partner violence than married couples.

4. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, women who experience intimate partner violence are more likely to have been unemployed in the past and are more likely to be receiving public assistance. Ironically, however, women with an education level higher than their partners' are also more likely to become victims of intimate partner violence.

5. Women are primarily raped and/or physically assaulted by intimate partners and are more likely than men to be injured during an assault. Approximately 1,300 women are murdered every year by an intimate partner, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

6. The CDC reports that people with disabilities are four to 10 times more likely to become victims of abuse than people without disabilities, and that women with disabilities report a greater number of perpetrators of physical violence, emotional abuse or sexual abuse—and for longer periods of abuse—than women without disabilities.

7. A batterer may be pleasant and charming between periods of violence, and is often seen as a "nice person" to outsiders. Some behavioral warning signs of a potential batterer include extreme jealousy, possessiveness, a bad temper, unpredictability, cruelty to animals and verbal abusiveness.

8. Women and men who were physically assaulted as children by adult caretakers are significantly more likely to report being victimized by their current partner. One-third of women who are physically abused by a husband or boyfriend grew up in a household where their mothers were similarly abused. About one in five were abused themselves as children or teenagers. Children who witness violence at home or who are abused themselves are more likely to abuse their own children when they become parents

9. Information from the U.S. Department of Justice shows that violence perpetrated against women by intimate partners is rarely prosecuted.

10. It is important to realize that a woman who begins to talk about her situation is reaching out for help and making an effort to involve someone in her situation. Family and friends should be supportive of her attempts to escape her abuser, since there are often financial and psychological barriers standing in her way.