60
assault issues.
Research also shows that men and women disagree about the frequency
and degree of their violent acts. However, men and women beat each other
about the same amount but the injury rates are much higher for women. One
early study found that 4% of husbands and 5% of wives (over 2 million) are
severely beaten each year by their spouses. Another study said that 16% of
all American couples were violent sometime during the last year. It is
noteworthy that 45% of battered women are abused for the first time while
pregnant. The FBI reported that battering precedes 30% of all women's trips
to emergency rooms, 25% of all suicide attempts by women, and 25% of all
murders of American women.
every hour every day to give help in English and Spanish and in other
languages when it is needed. They will listen to your situation and advise you
about safety planning and crisis intervention. Often they can refer you to
shelters and helpful agencies. Call 1-800-799-7233 or 1-800-799-SAFE or TTY
1-800-787-3224.
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World-wide the abuse of women is even worse (French, 1992). Amnesty
International (http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/index.do) reported in
2004 the extent of violence against women in terms of a global village of
1000 people: women would total 510 but 10 girls were never born due to
“gender-selective” abortion and neglect of female infants. Of these 500
females, 167 will be abused and another 100 raped. Female infants are
known to be killed by their parents in India and other countries. Over 135
million girls in parts of the world are forced into genital mutilation. Over 50%
of HIV/AIDS victims are females; about 80% of war refugees are women or
children. When raped in the US or Britain only about 15% report the crime.
Even today, 79 countries do not have laws against domestic violence and only
51 countries consider marital rape a crime. Several countries excuse violence
against women if it is supposedly done to defend the “family honor.”
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The World Health Organization released in November, 2005, a world-wide
survey of 24,000 women in 10 countries. The amount of physical and sexual
abuse by their partners within the last year varies widely, from 4% of women
in Japan and Serbia to 30% to 54% in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Peru and
Tanzania. Studies had already been done in the US, Sweden, Canada, and
Britain where about 20% to 23% of women have been abused. There are two
more important findings:
