Intimate Partner Violence in the
United States

Violence between intimates includes -
homicides, rapes, robberies, and assaults committed by intimates.

Intimate relationships involve -
current or former spouses, boyfriends, or girlfriends, including same sex relationships.

Intimates are distinguished from -
- other relatives (parent, child, sibling, grandparent, in-law, cousin)
- acquaintances (friend, co-worker, neighbor, schoolmate, someone known)
- strangers (anyone not previously known by the victim)

Domestic violence includes -
intimate partner violence as well as violence between family members.

Violence between intimates is difficult to
measure --
because it often occurs in private, and victims are often reluctant to report incidents to anyone because of shame or fear of reprisal.

Sources:

National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). See also NCVS methodology.

Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR) of the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) as presented in Homicide Trends in the United States

Print version: PDF format (491K)

Contents

• Overview
  
  
• Victim characteristics
Gender
Victim/offender relationship
Age
Marital status
Race
Hispanic origin
Income
Home ownership
Children exposed to intimate
             partner violence


• Offender characteristics
  
Gender
Age
Race


• Circumstances
Type of crime
Time
Place
Alcohol and drugs
Presence of weapons
Location of residence
             (urban, suburban, rural)


• Injury and treatment
Threats and attacks
Type of threat
Type of attack
Injury
Medical care


• Victim assistance
  
  
• Reporting to the police
Gender
Race
Hispanic origin
Reasons for not reporting

Additional information about the data

Definitions