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Domestic violence: Startling statistics in America

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IN a 2006 report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, declared that, “violence against women and girls is a problem of pandemic proportions.
“At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime with the abuser usually someone known to her.”
Early this week, the White House released a statement strongly condemning domestic violence after National Football League (NFL) running back, Ray Rice was cut by the Baltimore Ravens for an act of domestic violence.
The statement read, “The President is the father of two daughters.
“And like any American, he believes that domestic violence is contemptible and unacceptable in a civilised society.
“Hitting a woman is not something a real man does, and that’s true whether or not an act of violence happens in the public eye, or so far too often, behind closed doors.
“Stopping domestic violence is something that’s bigger than football – and all of us have a responsibility to put a stop to it.”
TMZ, a celebrity news site, released a video that appears to show Ray Rice knocking Janay Palmer (his fiancé at that time) unconscious with a single punch.
The website shows another video clip of Rice dragging Palmer out of the elevator, by her underarms, before dropping her face-down, her dress up and her feet still in the elevator.
Rice and Palmer have since married.
Because of this video release, Ray Rice was the star running back for the Baltimore Ravens.
Now the team has released him and the NFL has indefinitely suspended him.
Domestic violence is recognised as an important social problem by governmental and non-governmental agencies in America.
Various Violence Against Women Acts have been passed by Congress in an attempt to stem domestic violence.
In America, domestic violence is defined as a form of violence expressed by one partner or partners against another partner or partners against another partner or partners in the content of an intimate relationship.
However, women are more likely to suffer domestic abuse in the US.
Social and economically disadvantaged groups in the US regularly face worse rates of domestic violence than other groups.
About 60 percent of native American women are physically assaulted in their lifetime by a partner or a spouse.
In 2010, the 10 States with the highest rate of females murdered by males were, Nevada, South Caroline, Tennessee, Louisiana, Virginia, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Georgia.
Interestingly, several studies have found that domestic violence is significantly more common in the families of police officers than in other families.
What is disturbing is that police officers play a key role in responding to incidents of domestic violence reports.
While domestic violence crosses all socio-economic classes, it is more prevalent among poor people.
Ethnicity and socio-economic and other factors often have a lot to do with rates of domestic violence.
When comparing the African-American population to European Americans by socio-economic violence, the rates of domestic violence are the same.
Since there are more poor African-Americans, there is an overall higher incidence of domestic violence.
A 2007 study by Christopher G Ellison found that, ‘religious involvement’ specifically church attendance, protects against domestic violence and this protective effect is stronger for African-American and Hispanic women who are at an elevated risk of domestic violence.
On November 30 2012, the Huffington Post carried an article that had some shocking statistics about domestic violence in America.
At that time, according to the article’s fact sheet, 6 614 was the number of US troops that had been killed in action in Afghanistan and Iraq, during that same period, 11 766 women were killed as a result of domestic violence in America. It is distressing that domestic violence claims more deaths in peaceful America, than combatants in war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to the United Nations, in Australia, Israel, South Africa and the US, domestic violence accounts for between 40 and 70 percent of female murder victims.
Between 40 and 50 percent of women in European Union (EU) countries experience unwanted sexual advances, physical contact or other forms of sexual harassment at work.
Annual costs of domestic violence have been calculated at US$5,8 billion in the US in 2003.

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