Facts about abuse

A quarter of U.S. women have been physically abused by a husband or boyfriend.
Battering is the leading cause of women's injuries.
One fifth of violent crimes against women are instigated by a husband or boyfriend; domestic violence causes 20 percent of all murders, and 1000 to 2000 women are killed each year.
Every year 1 to 4 million women need medical or police help due to domestic violence, and more than a thousand of them die.
A third of the women who arrive in ER’s were injured by a domestic partner – it’s the leading cause for women’s injuries -- and about a third of the women killed are killed by a partner.
A quarter of the victims are pregnant when beaten, and abused women are at greater risk for miscarriage and premature birth – abuse is a leading cause of birth defects.
Battering victims are overwhelmingly female.

Half of abusers also abuse the children; a third of violent juveniles saw violence at home.
About two thirds of boys arrested for murder from ages 11 to 20 killed the man who beat their mothers.
A third of college and high schoolers experience violence when dating.
About 200,000 mothers and children are homeless due to domestic violence; that’s somewhere between a quarter and a half of all homeless moms.

Some women have no choice but to go back to their abusers.
So domestic violence is a leading cause of birth defects, and homicide, and homeless mothers.
Despite all this, some states have more animal shelters, than shelters for battered women.
The emotional abuse can do even more damage than the physical abuse.

And solving this is YOUR job, no matter who you are – because domestic violence is a crime.

There are groups out there who are essentially apologists for abusers, and/or their lawyers, arguing that women hit men as much as the other way around, that the system is unfair to men, etc etc. And it's invariably hogwash. And an important thing to remember is that it is not impossible for a woman to hit a man, it is extremely rare -- essentially unheard-of -- for a woman to do what abusers do, namely to put her partner in daily fear for her safety and then use that fear to control her. That pattern is a male pattern, not a female pattern.