Intimate Partner Violence Prevention
Scientific Information:
Consequences
Intimate Partner Violence Prevention Navigation
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Cost to Society
- Costs of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in 1995 exceeded an estimated $5.8 billion. These costs included nearly $4.1 billion in the direct costs of medical and mental health care and nearly $1.8 billion in the indirect costs of lost productivity (CDC 2003). This is generally considered an underestimate because the costs associated with the criminal justice system were not included.
- When updated to 2003 dollars, IPV costs exceeded $8.3 billion, which included $460 million for rape, $6.2 billion for physical assault, $461 million for stalking, and $1.2 billion in the value of lost lives (Max et al. 2004).
- Victims of severe IPV lose nearly 8 million days of paid work-the equivalent of more than 32,000 full-time jobs-and almost 5.6 million days of household productivity each year (CDC 2003).
- Women who experience severe aggression by men (e.g., not being allowed to go to work or school, or having their lives or their children's lives threatened) are more likely to have been unemployed in the past, have health problems, and be receiving public assistance (Lloyd and Taluc 1999).
Consequences
In general, victims of repeated violence over time experience more serious consequences than victims of one-time incidents (Johnson and Leone 2005). The following list describes some, but not all, of the consequences of IPV.
Physical
In 2005, 329 males and 1181 females were murdered by an intimate partner (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2007).
As many as 42% of women and 20% of men who were physically assaulted since age 18 sustained injuries during their most recent victimization. Most injuries, such as scratches, bruises, and welts, were minor (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000).
More severe physical consequences of IPV may occur depending on severity and frequency of abuse (Campbell et al. 2002; Heise and Garcia-Moreno 2002; Plichta 2004; Tjaden and Thoennes 2000). These include:
- Bruises
- Knife wounds
- Pelvic pain
- Headaches
- Back pain
- Broken bones
- Gynecological disorders
- Pregnancy difficulties like low birth weight babies and perinatal deaths
- Sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS
- Central nervous system disorders
- Gastrointestinal disorders
- Heart or circulatory conditions
Children may become injured during IPV incidents between their parents. A large overlap exists between IPV and child maltreatment (Appel and Holden 1998). One study found that children of abused mothers were 57 times more likely to have been harmed because of IPV between their parents, compared with children of non-abused mothers (Parkinson et al. 2001).
Psychological
Physical violence is typically accompanied by emotional or psychological abuse (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000). IPV-whether sexual, physical, or psychological-can lead to various psychological consequences for victims (Bergen 1996; Coker et al. 2002; Heise and Garcia-Moreno 2002; Roberts, Klein, and Fisher 2003):
- Depression
- Antisocial behavior
- Suicidal behavior in females
- Anxiety
- Low self-esteem
- Inability to trust men
- Fear of intimacy
- Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder
- Emotional detachment
- Sleep disturbances
- Flashbacks
- Replaying assault in mind
Social
Victims of IPV sometimes face the following social consequences (Heise and Garcia-Moreno 2002; Plichta 2004):
- Restricted access to services
- Strained relationships with health providers and employers
- Isolation from social networks
Health Behaviors
Women with a history of IPV are more likely to display behaviors that present further health risks (e.g., substance abuse, alcoholism, suicide attempts) than women without a history of IPV.
IPV is associated with a variety of negative health behaviors (Heise and Garcia-Moreno 2002; Plichta 2004; Roberts, Auinger, and Klein 2005; Silverman et al. 2001). Studies show that the more severe the violence, the stronger its relationship to negative health behaviors by victims.
- Engaging in high-risk sexual behavior
- Unprotected sex
- Decreased condom use
- Early sexual initiation
- Choosing unhealthy sexual partners
- Multiple sex partners
- Trading sex for food, money, or other items
- Using harmful substances
- Smoking cigarettes
- Drinking alcohol
- Drinking alcohol and driving
- Illicit drug use
- Unhealthy diet-related behaviors
- Fasting
- Vomiting
- Abusing diet pills
- Overeating
- Overuse of health services
References
Appel AE, Holden GW. The co-occurrence of spouse and physical child abuse: a review and appraisal. J Fam Psychology 1998;12:578–99.
Bergen RK. Wife rape: understanding the response of survivors and service providers. Thousand Oaks (CA): Sage; 1996.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2007) Homicide trends in the U.S.: Intimate homicide. Available from: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/tables/intimatestab.htm [cited 2007 July 26]
Campbell JC, Jones AS, Dienemann J, Kub J, Schollenberger J, O'Campo P, et al. Intimate partner violence and physical health consequences. Arch Intern Med 2002;162(10):1157-63.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Costs of intimate partner violence against women in the United States. Atlanta (GA): CDC, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control; 2003. Available from: www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/ipv_cost/ipv.htm.
Coker AL, Davis KE, Arias I, Desai S, Sanderson M, Brandt HM, et al. Physical and mental health effects of intimate partner violence for men and women. Am J Prev Med 2002;23(4):260-8.
Heise L, Garcia-Moreno C. Violence by intimate partners. In: Krug E, Dahlberg LL, Mercy JA, et al., editors. World report on violence and health. Geneva (Switzerland): World Health Organization; 2002. p. 87-121.
Johnson MP, Leone JM. The differential effects of intimate terrorism and situational couple violence. J Fam Issues 26(3):322-49.
Lloyd S, Taluc N. The effects of male violence on female employment. Violence Against Women 1999;5:370-92.
Max W, Rice DP, Finkelstein E, Bardwell RA, Leadbetter S. The economic toll of intimate partner violence against women in the United States. Violence Vict 2004;19(3):259-72.
Parkinson GW, Adams RC, Emerling FG. Maternal domestic violence screening in an office-based pediatric practice. Pediatrics 2001;108(3):E43.
Plichta SB. Intimate partner violence and physical health consequences: policy and practice implications. J Interpers Violence 2004;19(11):1296-323.
Roberts TA, Auinger P, Klein JD. Intimate partner abuse and the reproductive health of sexually active female adolescents. J Adolesc Health 2005;36(5):380-5.
Roberts TA, Klein JD, Fisher S. Longitudinal effect of intimate partner abuse on high-risk behavior among adolescents. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2003;157(9):875-81.
Silverman JG, Raj A, Mucci L, Hathaway J. Dating violence against adolescent girls and associated substance use, unhealthy weight control, sexual risk behavior, pregnancy, and suicidality. JAMA 2001;286(5):572-9.
Tjaden P, Thoennes N. Extent, nature, and consequences of intimate partner violence: findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey. Washington (DC): Department of Justice (US); 2000. Publication No. NCJ 181867. Available from: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/181867.htm.
Page last modified: September 25, 2007