Domestic-Partner Violence in US Fell Sharply

By Spencer S. Hsu
The Washington Post

Friday 29 December 2006

Domestic violence rates in the United States dropped sharply between 1993 and 2004 but showed recent signs of a rebound, the Justice Department reported yesterday.

The number of domestic homicides fell 32 percent from 1993 to 2004, and the frequency of nonfatal violence between domestic partners dropped by more than 50 percent, from 5.8 attacks per 1,000 U.S. residents age 12 or older, to 2.6 attacks, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Men benefited from the decline more than women, and black victims more than white women. The number of women killed by current or former partners fell from 1,572 in 1993 to 1,159 in 2004, or 26 percent. The number of men killed dropped from 698 to 385, or 45 percent.

"The best news overall is that 'intimate partner violence' has declined since 1993, but there's still too much of it," said bureau statistician Shannan M. Catalano, author of the Justice Department online report. The report did not address violence among other household members or relatives.

Noting that current or former partners account for 22 percent of violence against women, but 3 percent of violence against men, Catalano said, "It still is a crime against women.... Women are more often victimized by someone they know. Men are more often victimized by strangers."

The report did not offer an explanation for the trend, but experts said it continued a decline in domestic violence recorded since 1976 and mirrored a drop in violent crime overall in the past decade.

Other theories credit increased policing, neighborhood-watch and victim-assistance programs, and awareness raised by the 1994 Violence Against Women Act.

Analysts worry that declines may have bottomed out, however. Although overall rates remained unchanged between 2003 and 2004, violence against black women and white men increased slightly.

"The crime rates have kind of flattened out in the past couple of years. That could be of some concern," said Michael R. Rand, chief of victimization statistics for the bureau.

On average, 18.2 of 1,000 American Indian and native Alaskan women were victimized a year, nearly three times the rate among white women and twice the rate among black women. The least violence was reported against Asian men, white men and people age 50 and older.

-------