CDC Features - Prevent Domestic Violence in Your Community

CDC Features - Prevent Domestic Violence in Your Community

Prevent Domestic Violence in Your Community

A key strategy in preventing intimate partner violence is the promotion of respectful, nonviolent intimate partner relationships through individual, community, and societal level change.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is committed to ensuring all Americans, especially those at risk for intimate partner violence (IPV), live their lives to their fullest potential. A key strategy in preventing IPV is the promotion of respectful, nonviolent intimate partner relationships through individual, community, and societal level change.

Intimate Partner Violence as a Public Health Problem

Intimate partner violence includes physical violence, sexual violence, threats of physical or sexual violence, and emotional abuse by a current or former spouse or non-marital partner. IPV exists along a continuum from a single episode of violence to ongoing battering.
IPV facts:

• Nearly 3 in 10 women and 1 in 10 men in the United States have experienced rape, physical violence, or stalking by a partner and report that the violence impacted them in some way (e.g., made them feel fearful or concerned for their safety, resulted in an injury or need for services, or they lost days from work or school).¹
• IPV resulted in 1,336 deaths in 2010—accounting for 10% of all homicides. Eight two percent of these deaths were females and 18% were males^.2
• The medical care, mental health services, and lost productivity (e.g., time away from work) cost of IPV was an estimated $5.8 billion in 1995. Updated to 2003 dollars, that’s more than $8.3 billion.^3,4

Prevention

All forms of IPV are preventable. The key to prevention is focusing on the first time someone hurts a partner (called first-time perpetration). Knowledge about the factors that prevent IPV is lacking. CDC is working to better understand the developmental pathways and social circumstances that lead to this type of violence. In addition, the agency is helping organizations evaluate the effectiveness of strategies, programs, and policies to reduce the perpetration of intimate partner violence.

More Information

• Intimate Partner Violence
• Domestic Violence Prevention Enhancement and Leadership Through Alliances (DELTA) Program
• When Closeness Goes Wrong [PODCAST - 8:22 minutes]
• Break the Silence: Stop the Violence [PODCAST - 4:12 minutes]

References:

1. Black MC, Basile KC, Breiding MJ, et al. The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2010 Summary Report. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2011.
2. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Crime in the United States, 2010 [online]. [cited 2012 Sep 27]. Available from URL: www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded/expandhomicidemain
3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Costs of intimate partner violence against women in the United States. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2003. [cited 2006 May 22]. Available from URL: www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/ipv_cost/ipv.htm.
4. Max W, Rice DP, Finkelstein E, Bardwell RA, Leadbetter S. The economic toll of intimate partner violence against women in the United States. Violence and Victims 2004;19(3):259–72.