While an intimate partner should be a source of safety, the startling truth is that nearly half of all women and men in the United States will experience some form of intimate partner violence in their lifetime.
Key Takeaways
- The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) 2016/2017 reports that 47.3% of women and 44.1% of men in the US experienced some form of contact sexual violence, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime
- NISVS data indicates 24.3% of women and 13.8% of men experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner lifetime
- About 1 in 4 women (25%) experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner in lifetime per CDC fast facts
- Among multiracial women, 61.1% experienced contact sexual violence/physical violence/stalking lifetime
- Lifetime severe physical IPV women highest among non-Hispanic multiracial (44.6%)
- Hispanic women lifetime psychological aggression IPV 37.4%
- Severe physical violence includes being slapped, pushed, hit with fist, hair pulling, slammed against wall, burned, choked, beaten
- Contact sexual violence encompasses rape, being made to penetrate, sexual coercion, unwanted sexual contact
- Psychological aggression: expressive (called names, insulted, humiliated) and coercive (isolated, controlled, threatened)
- IPV injury lifetime 23.6% women needing medical care
- 41% women, 26% men IPV victims with injuries sought medical care
- PTSD from IPV 35.3% women, 16.3% men lifetime
- IPV lifetime costs $3.6 trillion over lifetimes women
- Medical/victim costs $8.3 billion annually for nonfatal IPV
- Lost productivity $1.5 billion yearly from IPV
Intimate partner violence affects millions with lifelong harm to both women and men.
Economic and Policy
- IPV lifetime costs $3.6 trillion over lifetimes women
- Medical/victim costs $8.3 billion annually for nonfatal IPV
- Lost productivity $1.5 billion yearly from IPV
- 42% women IPV missed work >3 days
- Criminal justice costs $5 billion annually IPV
- VAWA saved $14.2 billion in first 10 years
- Prevention programs ROI $1.78 per $1 invested
- 8 million paid work days lost annually IPV women
- Homelessness 63% women due IPV escape
- Child welfare costs $1.2 billion yearly linked IPV
- Screening in healthcare prevents $103 million costs
- Bystander programs reduce IPV 10-50%
- Policy: 35 states mandate IPV training healthcare
- Federal funding STOP program $170 million yearly
- Economic abuse prevents 89% leaving relationship
- IPV absenteeism costs employers $8.3 billion/year
- Prison recidivism 33% lower with batterer intervention
- School-based programs reduce dating violence 50%
- National hotline handles 350k calls/year
- Decreasing trend: IPV hospitalizations down 64% 1994-2011
- Policy impact: Firearm restrictions reduce IP homicide 10%
- Community prevention saves $5 per $1
- State budgets: TX $100M+ IPV services
- Global: IPV costs 2% GDP in some countries, US equiv $650B lifetime
- Training first responders reduces revictimization 20%
- Paid leave policies cut IPV economic loss 15%
- Multisector approach CDC DELTA $40M funded 14 states
- IPV linked welfare use 3x higher, costs $2B/year
- Legal aid prevents homelessness $500M savings
- Trends: past-year severe physical violence declined 38% women 2010-2017
Economic and Policy Interpretation
The staggering $3.6 trillion lifetime price tag of intimate partner violence reveals a societal plague, yet the hopeful math proves that every dollar we invest in prevention, protection, and policy not only saves lives but actually makes profound economic sense.
Health Impacts
- IPV injury lifetime 23.6% women needing medical care
- 41% women, 26% men IPV victims with injuries sought medical care
- PTSD from IPV 35.3% women, 16.3% men lifetime
- Depression 32.3% women, 25.5% men due to IPV
- IPV causes 2,200 deaths annually, mostly women
- Low birth weight babies 50% higher if maternal IPV
- 15-20% traumatic brain injuries from IPV
- Asthma exacerbated in 18% IPV victims
- 37.3% women missed work due to IPV
- Alcohol use disorder 1.5x higher post-IPV women
- Suicide attempts 2x higher among IPV victims
- 50-60% female homicide victims IPV-related
- Lifetime healthcare visits 1.7x more for IPV women
- Chronic pain 40% higher in IPV survivors
- Heart disease risk increased 1.6x for battered women
- Children witnessing IPV 3x more behavioral problems
- 92% child abuse-IPV co-occurrence
- Fractures/concussions 30% severe IPV injuries
- STDs 26% higher risk with IPV sexual violence
- Anxiety disorders 2.5x prevalence post-IPV
- 21% women fearful of partner daily due IPV
- Hospitalization rates 17x higher for assaulted women
- Lifetime medical costs $5.8 billion for female IPV victims
- Gunshot wounds 4% severe IPV men
- Dissociative disorders 40% IPV survivors
- Miscarriage risk 2.4x with physical IPV pregnancy
- State data: CA 25% IPV ER visits women
- Obesity 1.4x higher long-term IPV women
Health Impacts Interpretation
The statistics paint a grim portrait of intimate partner violence not merely as a crime of passion but as a public health catastrophe that systematically dismantles the bodies and minds of its victims while burdening society with a multibillion-dollar bill of human suffering.
Prevalence Rates
- The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) 2016/2017 reports that 47.3% of women and 44.1% of men in the US experienced some form of contact sexual violence, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime
- NISVS data indicates 24.3% of women and 13.8% of men experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner lifetime
- About 1 in 4 women (25%) experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner in lifetime per CDC fast facts
- 1 in 7 men (14%) experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner lifetime
- 32.5% of women and 28.5% of men report psychological aggression by an intimate partner in lifetime
- Past-year prevalence of severe physical IPV among women is 4.8%, among men 4.1%
- Lifetime stalking by intimate partner affects 9.2% women and 7.7% men
- Contact sexual violence by intimate partner lifetime: 18.3% women, 7.6% men
- NISVS 2010-2012: 35.6% women, 28.5% men psychological aggression lifetime
- Severe physical violence past 12 months: 2.3% women, 2.0% men
- Lifetime rape by intimate partner: 8.9% women
- Intimate partner stalking past year: 1.3% women, 0.8% men
- NISVS shows 10.4% women, 11.5% men experienced IPV with injury lifetime
- Psychological aggression with impact lifetime: 48.4% women, 48.8% men
- Severe concern for safety due to IPV: 5.9% women, 4.2% men lifetime
- NISVS 2016/17 past-year contact sexual violence IPV: 1.2% women, 0.3% men
- Lifetime physical violence by IP excluding severe: 22.3% women, 24.3% men
- Stalking with impact lifetime: 4.3% women, 2.5% men
- NISVS reports 13.2 million women, 12.1 million men affected by contact sexual violence/physical violence/stalking lifetime
- Annual estimate: 12 million people aged 18+ experience IPV
- Lifetime IPV victimization rate for women 43.6%, men 39.3%
- Past-year IPV: 8.6% women, 8.1% men
- NISVS 2010: 1 in 5 women raped by partner
- Homicide by intimate partner: 15% of all homicides of women
- 50% of female murder victims killed by intimate partners
- Lifetime prevalence of IPV among transgender individuals higher at 44-61%
- During COVID-19, IPV reports increased 8.1% per CDC analysis
- State-level: Alaska highest IPV lifetime women 59%
- DC highest for men severe physical IPV at 11.5%
- NISVS shows first IPV before age 25 for 78% women, 74% men
Prevalence Rates Interpretation
The staggering truth is that intimate partner violence is not a rare monster under the bed, but a pervasive epidemic lurking in plain sight, with nearly half of all people experiencing its cruel touch in a lifetime—a sobering reminder that 'home' can be the most dangerous place of all.
Types of Violence
- Severe physical violence includes being slapped, pushed, hit with fist, hair pulling, slammed against wall, burned, choked, beaten
- Contact sexual violence encompasses rape, being made to penetrate, sexual coercion, unwanted sexual contact
- Psychological aggression: expressive (called names, insulted, humiliated) and coercive (isolated, controlled, threatened)
- Stalking includes unwanted calls, emails, following, surveillance, threats
- 98% of IPV physical assaults against women involve offender known to victim as partner
- Slapped, pushed, shoved most common physical violence 80% women lifetime
- Choking/strangulation reported by 11.3% women severe IPV victims
- Forced sex lifetime 12.5% women by partner
- Made to penetrate: 5.9% men lifetime by partner
- Cyberstalking via social media increasing, 8% victims report
- Economic abuse: 99% IPV victims experience, controlling finances
- Reproductive coercion: 10.5% women tampered birth control
- Firearm threats in 10% severe IPV cases
- Emotional abuse precedes physical in 90% cases
- Dating violence physical: hit, slapped, 10% high school students
- Sexual violence unwanted touching 16.4% women lifetime IP
- Threats of harm 30.5% psychological aggression women
- Isolation from family/friends 25% coercive control
- Beaten nearly unconscious 4.5% severe physical women
- Burned/scalded 2.1% severe IPV victims
- Knifed/gunshot 2.2% lifetime severe physical men
- Head beaten 35% hospitalized IPV victims
- Animal cruelty as IPV tactic 20% cases
- Tech abuse monitoring phones 72% survivors
- State reports: slapping highest in AK 40% women
- Rape completed 6.1% women IP lifetime
Types of Violence Interpretation
The statistics lay bare a brutal calculus of control, where emotional manipulation is the nearly universal gateway to a horrifying spectrum of violence, proving that intimate partner violence is less a sudden outburst and more a deliberate campaign waged in the very place one should feel safest.
Victim Demographics
- Among multiracial women, 61.1% experienced contact sexual violence/physical violence/stalking lifetime
- Lifetime severe physical IPV women highest among non-Hispanic multiracial (44.6%)
- Hispanic women lifetime psychological aggression IPV 37.4%
- Non-Hispanic Black women severe physical IPV 29.2% lifetime
- American Indian/Alaska Native women highest stalking IPV 18.2%
- Women aged 18-24 highest past-year IPV 8.9%
- Men aged 25-34 peak severe physical IPV 16.2% lifetime
- Lesbian women lifetime IPV 43.8%, bisexual 61.1%
- Gay men 26%, bisexual men 37.3% lifetime physical violence by partner
- Low-income women (<$25k) 52.6% lifetime IPV
- Rural women 1.6 times higher severe physical IPV than urban
- Pregnant women IPV rate 4x higher than non-pregnant
- Adolescent girls 13-14 years: 10.6% physical dating violence
- Hispanic men lifetime severe physical IPV 17.1%
- Non-Hispanic Asian women lowest psychological aggression 24.8%
- Women with disabilities 40% higher IPV risk
- State variation: West Virginia women lifetime IPV 52.2%
- Nevada men highest lifetime severe physical IPV 17.4%
- Education <high school women 55.3% lifetime contact sexual violence/physical/stalking
- College-educated men lower IPV 32.1% lifetime
- Divorced/separated women 47.3% lifetime severe physical IPV vs 20.1% married
- Transgender women IPV 54.7% past year high
- Black men psychological aggression 49.0% lifetime
- Age 45-54 women peak lifetime stalking 12.1%
- Immigrants report lower but underreported IPV per CDC
- Military women 2x higher IPV than civilians
Victim Demographics Interpretation
These statistics paint a stark mosaic of suffering, revealing that violence weaves through every community but lands with a cruelly disproportionate weight on those marginalized by race, poverty, sexuality, disability, or geography.