Violence Against Women: Facts and Background

"Violence against women continues to persist as one of the most heinous, systematic and prevalent human rights abuses in the world. It is a threat to all women, and an obstacle to all our efforts for development, peace, and gender equality in all societies." Ban Ki moon, United Nations Secretary General, 2007.

Some statistics

UK

• 45% of women have experienced some form of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.¹
• Around 21% of girls, experience some form of child sexual abuse²
• At least 80,000 women suffer rape every year.³
• In a survey for Amnesty International, over 1 in 4 respondents  thought a women was partially or totally responsible for being raped if she was wearing sexy or revealing clothing, and more than 1 in 5 held the same view if a woman had had many sexual partners.⁴
• On average, two women a week in England and Wales are killed by a violent partner or ex-partner. This constitutes nearly 40% of all female homicide victims.⁵
• 70% of incidents of domestic violence result in injury, (compared with 50% of incidents of acquaintance violence, 48% of stranger violence and 29% of mugging).⁶
• Around 85% of forced marriage victims are women⁷
• Domestic violence is estimated to cost victims, services and the state a total of around £23 billion a year.⁸

Globally

• At least one in three women is beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused by an intimate partner in the course of her lifetime.⁹
• Women aged 15-44 are more at risk from rape and domestic violence than from cancer, motor accidents, war and malaria, according to World Bank data.¹⁰
• Approximately 80,000 women suffer rape and attempted rape every year ¹¹
• More than 60 million women are "missing" from the world today as a result of sex-selective abortions and female infanticide (Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate)
• Several global surveys suggest that half of all women who die from homicide are killed by their current or former husbands or partners.

Violence in LGBT Communities

1          Walby, S. & Allen, J. (2004) Domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking: Findings from the British Crime Survey. Home Office. London.

2          HM Government (2007) Cross-government Action Plan on Sexual Violence and Abuse. Home Office. London.

3          Walby, S. & Allen, J. (2004) Domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking: Findings from the British Crime Survey. Home Office. London.

4          Amnesty UK (2005) Sexual Assault Research. Amnesty. London.

5          Povey, D. (2005) Crime in England and Wales 2003/2004: Supplementary Volume 1: Homicide and Gun Crime. Home Office Statistical Bulletin No. 02/05. Home Office. London; Department of Health (2005) Responding to Domestic Abuse. DH. London. (from ‘Statistics on Domestic Violence’: www.womensaid.org.uk)

6          Dodd, T. et al (2004) Crime in England and Wales 2003-2004. Home Office. London (from ‘Statistics on Domestic Violence’: www.womensaid.org.uk)

7          Forced Marriage: A Wrong not a Right, Home Office and Foreign & Commonwealth Office, 2005

8          S Walby, The Cost of Domestic Violence

 9         Unifem (2003) Not a minute more: Ending Violence Against Women. United Nations Development Fund for Women. New York. http://www.un.org/en/women/endviolence/pdf/VAW.pdf

10        Unifem (2003) Not a minute more: Ending Violence Against Women. United Nations Development Fund for Women. New York. http://www.un.org/en/women/endviolence/pdf/VAW.pdf

11        Walby, S. & Allen, J. (2004) Domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking: Findings from the British Crime Survey. Home Office. London.