More than one in three women have experienced sexual assault, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey.
The same is true for more than one in four men, according to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey. The survey, released Wednesday, was based on telephone interviews with more than 16,500 adults in 2010.
Supported by the National Institute of Justice and the Department of Defense, the survey was aimed at better describing and monitoring "the magnitude of sexual violence, stalking and intimate partner violence victimization in the United States," the CDC said. The report is the first of its kind to provide data on national and state levels, the agency said.
The data can assist in understanding the burden of violence in populations and address some of the health issues that may accompany it. Those may include depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and suicide attempts, but also conditions such as gastrointestinal disorders, substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases and gynecological or pregnancy complications.
"The health problems caused by violence remind us of the importance of prevention," said Howard Spivak, director of the CDC's Injury Center Division of Violence Prevention, in a statement. "In addition to intervening and providing services, prevention efforts need to start earlier in life, with the ultimate goal of preventing all of these types of violence before they start."
Among the victims of intimate partner violence, more than one in three women reported experiencing multiple forms of rape, stalking or physical violence. Among males, 92% reported experiencing physical violence from a partner, while 6% said they experienced both physical violence and stalking. However, nearly half of all women and men reported experiencing "psychological aggression" from an intimate partner.
Nearly one in four women and one in seven men said they had been subjected to "severe physical violence" by an intimate partner -- defined in the report as being hit with a fist or hard object, beaten or slammed against something.
Of the victims of intimate partner violence, nearly three in 10 women and one-tenth of men reported effects of the violence -- fear; concern for their safety; symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder; needing medical treatment or suffering an injury; contacting a crisis hotline; needing housing, victim advocate or legal services or missing at least one day of work or school.
As far as sexual violence, nearly one in five women -- translating to nearly 22 million women in the United States -- reported having been raped or the target of an attempted rape during their lifetime, according to the survey. More than half of them, 51%, said they were raped by an intimate partner and nearly 41% by an acquaintance. Of the victims of completed rapes, nearly 80% said they experienced their first rape before the age of 25 and 42% before the age of 18. About one in five white and African-American women and one in seven Hispanic women reported being raped at some point.
One in 71 men also reported being raped during their lifetime; of those, more than one-fourth, or nearly 28%, experienced their first rape when they were 10 or younger. More than half the men, or 52%, said they were raped by an acquaintance.
Victimization by stalking was reported by one in six women and one in 19 men, to the point where "they felt very fearful or believed that they or someone close to them would be harmed or killed," the survey report said. Two-thirds of women reported their stalker was an intimate partner, while 80% of men said the stalker was an intimate partner or acquaintance. The most common form of stalking reported was repeatedly receiving unwanted telephone calls along with voice or text messages.
The estimates for sexual violence, stalking and intimate partner violence are "alarmingly high" for adult Americans, with intimate partner violence alone affecting more than 12 million people yearly, the CDC said. "Women are disproportionately impacted. They experienced high rates of severe intimate partner violence, rape and stalking and long-term chronic disease and other health impacts, such as PTSD symptoms."
Such victims need coordinated services to ensure healing and prevent a recurrence, the report said, including strengthening the response of the health care system.
"One way to strengthen the response to survivors is through increased training of healthcare professionals," the CDC said. "It is also critically important to ensure that legal, housing, mental health and other services and resources are available and accessible to survivors."
Holding perpetrators accountable is also a key issue, according to the survey, which noted that survivors of sexual violence, stalking or intimate partner violence may be reluctant to report the behavior because of shame, embarrassment, fear of retribution or a belief that authorities may not support them.
Prevention efforts should also focus on families, particularly on fostering healthy relationships between parents and children and emotionally supportive environments, the survey said.
"These environments provide a strong foundation for children," the survey said. "... It is equally important to continue addressing the beliefs, attitudes and messages that are deeply embedded in our social structures and that create a climate that condones sexual violence, stalking and intimate partner violence."
