Family Violence Statistics: Including Statistics on Strangers and Acquaintances

Compares family and nonfamily violence statistics from victimization through the different stages of the justice system. Family violence is defined as all types of violent crime committed by an offender who is related to the victim and includes spouse abuse, parental violence against a child, and violence among other family members. Nonfamily relationships used for comparison include boyfriends and girlfriends, friends and acquaintances, and strangers. Data are drawn from victimization surveys, official police statistics, State and Federal court statistics, and surveys of inmates in State prisons and local jails.

Highlights include the following:

Family violence accounted for 11% of all reported and unreported violence between 1998 and 2002.
About 22% of murders in 2002 were family murders.
Of the nearly 500,000 men and women in State prisons for a violent crime in 1997, 15% were there for a violent crime against a family member.

6/05 NCJ 207846

Press release
Full report: Acrobat file (1M) | ASCII file (34K) | Spreadsheets (zip format 136K)

Individual sections:: Reported and unreported family violence
Acrobat file (739K) | Spreadsheets (zip format 15K)
About the source data; Fatal family violence
Acrobat file (718K) | Spreadsheets (zip format 9K)
About the source data; Family violence reported to police
Acrobat file (727K) | Spreadsheets (zip format 12K)
About the source data; Family violence recorded by police
Acrobat file (779K) | Spreadsheets (zip format 22K)
About the source data; State prosecution of family assault
Acrobat file (726K) | Spreadsheets (zip format 42K)
About the source data; Federal prosecution of domestic violence
Acrobat file (704K) | Spreadsheets (zip format 5K)
About the source data; Family violence offenders in prison
Acrobat file (735K) | Spreadsheets (zip format 14K)
About the source data; Family violence offenders in jail
Acrobat file (734K) | Spreadsheets (zip format 35K)
About the source data; Methodology and Appendix
Acrobat file (691K) | Spreadsheets (zip format 8K)

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Page last revised on June 12, 2005