Family Violence Statistics

1 Bureau of Justice Statistics Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Family Violence Statistics Including Statistics on Strangers and Acquaintances Reported and unreported Family violenceMurder of Family membersFamily Violence reported to policeFamily Violence recorded by policeState prosecution of Family assaultFederal prosecution of domestic violenceFamily Violence offenders in prisonFamily Violence offenders in Department of JusticeOffice of Justice Programs810 Seventh Street, , 20531 Alberto R. GonzalesAttorney General Office of Justice ProgramsPartnerships for Safer CommunitiesTracy HenkeActing Assistant Attorney GeneralWorld Wide Web site: Bureau of Justice StatisticsLawrence A. GreenfeldDirectorWorld Wide Web site: For information contactNational Criminal Justice Reference Service1-800-851-3420 Department of JusticeOffice of Justice ProgramsBureau of Justice StatisticsFamily Violence StatisticsIncluding Statistics on Strangers and AcquaintancesBy Matthew R.

2 DuroseCaroline Wolf Harlow, A. Langan, Motivans, R. RantalaErica L. SmithBJS StatisticiansAssisted byElizabeth ConstantinBJS Statistical AssistantJune 2005, NCJ 207846 Contentsii Family Violence StatisticsHighlights, definitions, and counting rules 1 DefinitionsSources of data on Family violenceCounting rulesReported and unreported Family Violence 8 About the data in this sectionOffense type (table )Offense location (table )Victim demographics (table )Victim injury (table )Victim medical care (table )Offender demographics (table )Offender weapon use (table )Offender drug or alcohol use (table )Number of victims and offenders (table )Fatal Family Violence 17 About the data in this sectionVictim demographics (table )Offender demographics (table )Offender weapon use (table )Number of victims and offenders (table ) Family Violence reported to police22 About the data in this sectionPercent of Family Violence reported to police (table )Reporting rates by offense (table )Reporting rates by victim demographics (table )Reporting rates by whether offender had a weapon (table )Reasons for not reporting Family Violence to police (table )Person who reported Family Violence to police (table )Arrest rate by offense (table ) Family Violence recorded by police29 About the data in this sectionOffense type (table )Offense location (table )Victim demographics (table )Victim injury (table )Offender demographics (table )Offender weapon use (table )Number of victims and offenders (table )Arrests by offense (table )Arrestee demographics (table )Victim demographics in crimes leading to arrest (table )Arrest rate by offense (table )

3 Arrest rate by arrestee demographics (table )Arrest rate by victim demographics (table )Weapon possession at time of arrest (table )Disposition of juvenile arrestees (table )State prosecution of Family assault 45 About the data in this sectionDefendant demographics (table )Prior arrests (table )Prior felony arrests (table )Prior convictions (table )Prior felony convictions (table )Criminal justice status at time of arrest (table )Pretrial release (table )Bail amount (table )Time from arrest to pretrial release (table )Time from arrest to adjudication (table )Court outcome (table )Time from conviction to sentencing (table )Sentence imposed (table )Length of prison and jail sentences imposed (table )Federal prosecution of domestic Violence 51 About the data in this sectionOffense type (table )Investigating agency (table )Profile of convicted offenders (table ) Family Violence offenders in prison 53 About the data in this sectionOffense type (table )Offense location (table )Victim demographics (table )Victim injury (table )Offender demographics (table )Offender weapon use (table )Offender drug or alcohol use (table )Number of victims and offenders (table )Federal, State, and local correctional facilitiesPrior sentences (table ) Family Violence offenders in jail 61 About the data in this sectionOffense type (table )Offense location (table )Victim demographics (table )Victim injury (table )Restraining orders among jail inmates convicted of Family violenceOffender demographics (table )Offender weapon use (table )Offender drug or alcohol use (table )Number of victims and offenders (table )

4 Methodology 68 Reported and unreported Family violenceFatal Family violenceFamily Violence recorded by policeState prosecution of Family assault (tables and )Federal prosecution of domestic violenceFamily Violence offenders in prisonFamily Violence offenders in jailAppendix 71 Discrepant findings from two different ways of measuring Family Violence (tables and )IntroductionThis compendium contains the mostrecent Family Violence Statistics fromthese sources: surveys conducted bythe Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS),the BJS database of Federal Statistics ,and two statistical databasesmaintained by the sources provide statisticalsnapshots of Family Violence at differentstages in the administration of justice. First are Statistics on the nature andextent of Family Violence . Next arestatistics on Family Violence that isreported to police, followed by statisticson the prosecution of persons chargedwith Family Violence .

5 Lastly are statisticson persons sent to prison or jail forfamily report is divided into eight sectionsgiving Statistics on Reported and unreported familyviolence Fatal Family Violence Family Violence reported to police Family Violence recorded by police State prosecution of Family assault Federal prosecution of domesticviolence Family Violence offenders in prison Family Violence offenders in in Family violenceThe rate of Family Violence fell between1993 and 2002 from an estimated to victims per 1,000 age 12 or older. Throughoutthe period Family Violence accounted forabout 1 in 10 violent victimizations. Reported and unreported familyviolenceFamily Violence accounted for 11% ofall reported and unreported violencebetween 1998 and 2002. Of theseroughly million violent crimescommitted against Family members,49% were crimes against spouses, 11%were sons or daughters victimized by aparent, and 41% were crimes againstother Family most frequent type of familyviolence offense was simple was less than half of 1% of allfamily Violence between 1998 and three-fourths of all Family violenceoccurred in or near the victim' percent of Family Violence victimswere injured during the incident.

6 Of million victims of Family violencebetween 1998 and 2002, less than 1%died as a result of the majority (73%) of Family violencevictims were female. Females were84% of spouse abuse victims and 86%of victims of abuse at the hands of aboyfriend or about three-fourths of the victimsof Family Violence were female, aboutthree-fourths of the persons whocommitted Family Violence were Family Violence victims were white(74%), and the majority were betweenages 25 and 54 ( ). Most familyviolence offenders were white (79%),and most were age 30 or older (62%).Fatal Family violenceAbout 22% of murders in 2002 werefamily murders. Nearly 9% weremurders of a spouse, 6% were murdersof sons or daughters by a parent, and7% were murders by other were 58% of Family murdervictims. Of all the murders of females in2002, Family members were responsiblefor 43%.Children under age 13 were 23% ofmurder victims killed by a familymember, and just over 3% of nonfamilymurder average age among sons ordaughters killed by a parent was 7years, and 4 out of 5 victims killed by aparent were under age in ten murderers who killed afamily member were male.

7 Males were83% of spouse murderers and 75% ofmurderers who killed a boyfriend 2002 Family murders were less likelythan nonfamily murders to involve afirearm (50% versus 68%). Parentswere the least likely Family murderers to use a firearm (28%), compared tospouses (63%) or other Family members(51%).Among incidents of parents killing theirchildren, 19% involved one parent killingmultiple victims. Highlights, definitions, and counting rules Family Violence Statistics 1 Family Violence reported to policeApproximately 60% of Family violencevictimizations were reported to policebetween 1998 and 2002. The reportingrate among female victims was notsignificantly greater than the reportingrate among male most common reason victims offamily Violence cited for not reportingthe crime to police was that the incidentwas a "private/personal matter" (34%).Another 12% of non-reporting familyviolence victims did not report the crimein order to "protect the offender.

8 "Among the million incidents offamily Violence reported to policebetween 1998 and 2002, 36% resultedin an Violence recorded by policeFamily Violence accounted for 33% ofall violent crimes recorded by police in18 States and the District of Columbiain 2000. Of these more than 207,000family Violence crimes, about half (53%,or 110,000) were crimes crimes recorded by police, 2%of Family Violence involved a firearm,compared to 6% of nonfamily weapon was used in 16% of familyand 21% of nonfamily 6% of all violent crime recordedby police in 2000 involved more thanone offender victimizing a lone exception was stranger crime, inwhich 14% of incidents involved multi-ple offenders victimizing a lone 49% of Family Violence crimesrecorded by police resulted in an comprised 77% of suspectedfamily Violence offenders arrested prosecution of Family assaultOf the approximately 1,500 defendantscharged with felony assault during May2000 in the State courts of 11 largecounties, about a third were chargedwith Family felony assault defendantscharged with Family Violence in Statecourts, 84% had at least one prior arrestfor either a felony or a misdemeanor(not necessarily for Family Violence )

9 ,and 73% had been previously convictedof some type of felony or misdemeanor(not necessarily Family Violence ).Nearly half of felony assault defendantscharged with Family Violence werereleased pending case the 1,500 felony assault cases,the probability of the case leading toconviction (felony or misdemeanor) wasgreater for Family assault defendants(71%) than nonfamily assault defen-dants (61%).State courts sentenced 83% of personsconvicted of assault (both Family andnonfamily) to either prison or felony assault defendantsconvicted in State courts 68% of incarceration sentences for Family assault were to jail 62% of incarceration sentences for nonfamily assault were to prison 45% of persons sent to prison forfamily assault received a sentence ofmore than 2 years, compared to 77%of nonfamily assault offenders sent prosecution of domesticviolencePersons suspected of domesticviolence made up 4% of the total18,653 Federal suspects referred attorneys for alleged violent crimesfrom 2000 to the 757 suspects referred to for domestic violenceoffenses between 2000 and 2002, mostwere firearm-related domestic violenceoffenses rather than interstate domesticviolence offenses.

10 The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,Firearms and Explosives accountedfor 80% of all referrals for firearm-related domestic Violence . The FBI accounted for 72% of allinterstate domestic Violence courts convicted 90% of defen-dants adjudicated for an interstatedomestic Violence offense. Among defendants convicted in federalcourts 79% of convictions were the productof a guilty plea, and the remaining21% were the product of convictionfollowing a trial most were male (96%), under age 40(67%), white (72%), and non-Hispanic(95%) 4 in 5 defendants had a prior 47 Federal defendants sentenced foran interstate domestic Violence offensebetween 2000 and 2002, 91% receiveda prison term with a median length of Family Violence StatisticsFamily Violence offenders in prisonOf the nearly 500,000 men and womenin State prisons for a violent crime in1997, 15% were there for a violentcrime against a Family half of all the Family violenceoffenders in State prisons were servinga sentence for a sex offense against afamily member.