Do abusers reverse order of events?

June 22, 2012

With my STBXW I noticed that she always reversed the order of events in any fight. I would do something that would get her angry (it didn't take a lot) and then she would get physically violent. After the physical violence I sometimes would call her names or yell back at her. (This is all I could do since I realized even laying a finger on her would send me to jail.) But then later on while recounting the fight she would talk about how I verbally abused her--and that if I didn't verbally abuse her then she wouldn't have hit me. A total reversal of events! Anyone else deal with this???

June 22, 2012

((((((((((hugs M30))))))))),

Yep, I have had individuals do this and in my experience it is one of the many tactics used by abusive individuals. It's much like gaslighting with a twist, she is not denying that the events took place, but changing the order so that she is justified....really glad to hear she is STBXW for the sake of YOUR sanity.

I think it's interesting that if you touched her you would end up in jail...I have seen this soooo many times. She's lucky you're a nice person, BUT she may not get so lucky in the next relationship.

Good luck M30, you got my prayers ...

June 23, 2012

With my STBXW I noticed that she always reversed the order of events in any fight.... Anyone else deal with this???

Yes, M30USA, my BPDer exW did this frequently. If your STBXW has strong BPD traits, as you suspect, this occurs primarily because BPDers (those with strong traits) are convinced they are eternal VICTIMS. Indeed, because they have fragile, unstable self images, their false self image of being The Victim is likely the closest thing to a self image they have. They therefore maintain a death grip on it.

The result is that a BPDer always has a great need to have a spouse around 24/7 to be "The Perpetrator" -- i.e., the cause of every misfortune to befall her. This is accomplished by simply reversing "cause" and "effect" in her mind. That is, you did not get angry because she hit you. Rather, in her mind, she hit you because you already were angry.

When cornered, a BPDer typically will not hesitate to flat-out lie. In those cases, she is perfectly aware that she is reversing cause and effect. The great problem with lies, however, is that she must then deal with the guilt of having lied. BPDers find guilt feelings to be extremely painful because, since early childhood, they have been filled with feelings of intense shame and self loathing. This is why a BPDer's subconscious will step in to protect her from seeing too much of reality. This protective intervention, at the subconscious level, is called "projection."

Projection works so beautifully to protect a BPDer's fragile ego because it works entirely at the subconscious level -- allowing her conscious mind to be firmly convinced that the outrageous things coming out of her mouth (i.e., the cause-effect reversals) are true. The beauty of projection, then, is that it is entirely guilt-free.

This is why most of the BPDers' ridiculous claims are false allegations that they sincerely believe to be true. And this is why, when the police get involved, the BPDers are very persuasive. Their apparent sincerity and absolute conviction make them very believable to a neutral third party. Moreover, this is why BPDers often make wonderful actors if they decide to enter that profession.

June 23, 2012

Downtown, she is telling me that I'M acting like a victim. I guess thats just more projection?

Pureinheart, thanks for encouragement.

June 23, 2012

Downtown, she is telling me that I'M acting like a victim. I guess thats just more projection?

Yes, by taking note of her projections, you can almost become a mind reader. With my exW, I oftentimes could tell what dark deeds she was wanting to do by simply observing the things she was accusing ME of wanting to do -- or to have done. Those thoughts have to be coming from someplace so, if not from your mind, they are being created in hers.

June 23, 2012

It's very typical for abusers to blame their victim for the abuse in order to justify or absolve themselves, and unfortunately, a lot of victims start believing it really is their fault and that is one reason why they stay in the relationship--because they think they are to blame, and if only they were better or did something differently, their spouse would not act that way. Although statistics show that 90%+ of abusers are males, there are some women who are physically abusive and can be criminally prosecuted for it. If a man does not lay a finger on his wife and has evidence that she abused him, he can call the police and have her prosecuted. If a spouse or SO is starting to rage, the best course of action is to leave the room or leave the house. Do not participate and escalate the fight.

June 23, 2012

Yes, by taking note of her projections, you can almost become a mind reader. With my exW, I oftentimes could tell what dark deeds she was wanting to do by simply observing the things she was accusing ME of wanting to do -- or to have done. Those thoughts have to be coming from someplace so, if not from your mind, they are being created in hers.

I KNOW!!!

In court she pulled out of THIN AIR that I would verbally abuse her if she denied me sex. I was like WTH??? The crazy thing is that SHE would go on BALLISTIC RAGES if I didn't have sex. If she denied ME I would just quietly go downstairs on couch! So twisted!

June 24, 2012

I said it before and I'll say it again- Stay away from people with Cluster B disorders or strong Cluster B traits:

-APD

-BPD

-HPD

-NPD

Custer B stay away from me!

June 24, 2012

It's very typical for abusers to blame their victim for the abuse in order to justify or absolve themselves, and unfortunately, a lot of victims start believing it really is their fault and that is one reason why they stay in the relationship--because they think they are to blame, and if only they were better or did something differently, their spouse would not act that way. Although statistics show that 90%+ of abusers are males, there are some women who are physically abusive and can be criminally prosecuted for it. If a man does not lay a finger on his wife and has evidence that she abused him, he can call the police and have her prosecuted. If a spouse or SO is starting to rage, the best course of action is to leave the room or leave the house. Do not participate and escalate the fight.

Not to get off on a tangent, but multiple sources (including CDC and other professional organizations) cite somewhere between 40 and 45% of domestic violence as being perpetrated by women. Now, it's possible that you're referring to abuse other than domestic violence. But after hearing the typical opinions by Oprah, et al, about it virtually always being a male perpetrator, I had to do some research. My own experience shows otherwise. Additionally, within my own circle I've known of one other male who was assaulted by his wife. Yet I don't know any women who have been. I still agree that it's primarily men who abuse, but the numbers are closer to even than most people realize--according to stats.

June 24, 2012

Not to get off on a tangent, but multiple sources (including CDC and other professional organizations) cite somewhere between 40 and 45% of domestic violence as being perpetrated by women. Now, it's possible that you're referring to abuse other than domestic violence. But after hearing the typical opinions by Oprah, et al, about it virtually always being a male perpetrator, I had to do some research. My own experience shows otherwise. Additionally, within my own circle I've known of one other male who was assaulted by his wife. Yet I don't know any women who have been. I still agree that it's primarily men who abuse, but the numbers are closer to even than most people realize--according to stats.

I just got done taking a class in domestic violence, and the 90% figure is what was quoted in the various texts and articles I've read. Here is an excerpt from one of those textbooks on domestic violence:

"Two disturbing trends in the last few years are the increases in dual arrests (when battered women who use force against their abusive partners are arrested along with the partners) and in arrests of women for domestic violence. Family-violence data from Connecticut illustrate this point: In 1987 women comprised 11 percent of the total arrests for domestic violence; by 1997 that figure had risen to 18 percent. Data from Boulder, Colorado, indicate that in 1997, women comprised 12 percent of those arrested for domestic violence. In the first six months of 1999 that number had doubled to nearly 25 percent. Some believe that the increase in female arrests represents a backlash against the adoption of mandatory arrest policies. David Herschel and Eve Buzawa, both with the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, explain: "As a consequence of the nationwide move to preferred and mandatory arrest policies in intimate partner violence cases, arrest rates for intimate partner violence has increased dramatically. It was anticipated that the rates of males arrested for domestic violence would increase. What was less expected was a concurrent and proportionally greater, increase in female arrests . . . Whereas in some cases the female partner is the sole person arrested, other cases involve the arrest of both her and her partner, resulting in a dual arrest. . . Many of the women in this study did not have a background that is consistent with premeditated or instrumentally aggressive behavior. As such, it seems likely that some of these women may have been arrested for engaging in defensive tactics following an attack by their intimate partner."

In other words, with the advent of mandatory arrest laws, dual arrests are being made with both male and female domestic partners being arrested. The likelihood, however, is that these women were being arrested for engaging in defensive tactics following an attack by their intimate partner.

Here are some statistics taken from the American Bar Association:

Survey of Recent Statistics

This survey is provided as a service for legal practitioners and advocates who may find it useful to include current statistical data in their arguments to the court. It is not intended to be a comprehensive listing of research in the area of domestic violence.

All citations conform to the format for court documents described in The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (18th Ed

Prevalence of Domestic Violence

The Violence Pol'y Ctr.,

When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2002 Homicide Data: Females Murdered by Males in Single Victim/Single Offender Incidents, at 7 (2004)

, available at

http://www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2004.pdf

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, between 1998 and 2002:

Of the almost 3.5 million violent crimes committed against family members, 49% of these were crimes against spouses.
84% of spouse abuse victims were females, and 86% of victims of dating partner abuse at were female.
Males were 83% of spouse murderers and 75% of dating partner murderers
50% of offenders in state prison for spousal abuse had killed their victims. Wives were more likely than husbands to be killed by their spouses: wives were about half of all spouses in the population in 2002, but 81% of all persons killed by their spouse.
Matthew
R
. Durose et al., U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 207846,
Bureau of Justice Statistics, Family Violence Statistics: Including Statistics on Strangers and Acquaintances, at 31-32 (2005)
, available at
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/fvs.pdf

Stalking According to the Stalking Resource Center:

1,006,970 women and 370,990 men are stalked annually in the United States.
1 in 12 women and 1 in 45 men will be stalked in their lifetime.
77% of female and 64% of male victims know their stalker.
87% of stalkers are men.
59% of female victims and 30% of male victims are stalked by an intimate partner.
81% of women stalked by a current or former intimate partner are also physically assaulted by that partner.
31% of women stalked by a current or former intimate partner are also sexually assaulted by that partner.
The average duration of stalking is 1.8 years.
If stalking involves intimate partners, the average duration of stalking increases to 2.2 years.
61% of stalkers made unwanted phone calls; 33% sent or left unwanted letters or items; 29% vandalized property; and 9% killed or threatened to kill a family pet.
28% of female victims and 10% of male victims obtained a protective order. 69% of female victims and 81% of male victims had the protection order violated.

Stalking Resource Ctr.,

The Nat'l Ctr. for Victims of Crime, Stalking Fact Sheet,

Stalking Resource Center -- National Center for Victims of Crime - home

(citing Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Justice, NCJ 169592,

Stalking in America: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey (1998)

In a study done between 1994 and 1998 in ten U.S. cities (Baltimore, Houston, Texas, Kansas City (KS), Kansas City (MO), Los Angeles, New York, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, St. Petersburg/Tampa, and Wichita:

76% of femicide victims had been stalked by the person who killed them.
67% had been physically abused by their intimate partner.
89% of femicide victims who had been physically abused had also been stalked in the 12 months before the murder.
79% of abused femicide victims reported stalking during the same period that they reported abuse.
85% of attempted femicide cases involved at least one episode of stalking within 12 months prior to the attempted femicide.
54% of femicide victims reported stalking to police before they were killed by their stalkers.

Stalking Resource Ctr.,

The Nat'l Ctr. for Victims of Crime, Stalking Fact Sheet,

Stalking Resource Center -- National Center for Victims of Crime - stalking facts/Intimate Partner Femicide

(citing Judith McFarlane et al., 3 Homicide Studies 300-316 (1999)

Stalking on Campus In a study carried out from February to May 1997 involving 4,446 college women,

13% of college women were stalked during one six to nine month period.
80% of campus stalking victims knew their stalkers.
3 in 10 college women reported being injured emotionally or psychologically from being stalked.
Bonnie Fisher et al., U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 182369,
The Sexual Victimization of College Women (2000),
available at
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/182369.pdf

17 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native women are stalked in their lifetime, compared to 8.2 percent of white women, 6.5 percent of African-American women, and 4.5 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander women.
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 169592,
Stalking in America: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey (1998),
available at
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/169592.pdf
See also Violence Against Women Office, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 186157,
Stalking and Domestic Violence: A Report to Congress (2001)
, available at
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojp/186157.pdf
(discussing stalking behaviors, cyberstalking, impact on victims, law enforcement response, legislation and case law); Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 183781,
Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, at iv (2000)
, available at
Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey | National Institute of Justice

Sexual Assault According to the National Violence Against Women Survey:

Women are more likely to be victims of sexual violence than men: 78% of the victims of rape and sexual assault are women and 22% are men.
Most perpetrators of sexual violence are men. Among acts of sexual violence committed against women since the age of 18, 100% of rapes, 92% of physical assaults, and 97% of stalking acts were perpetrated by men. Sexual violence against men is also mainly male violence: 70% of rapes, 86% of physical assaults, and 65% of stalking acts were perpetrated by men.
In 8 out of 10 rape cases, the victim knows the perpetrator. Of people who report sexual violence, 64% of women and 16% of men were raped, physically assaulted, or stalked by an intimate partner. This includes a current or former spouse, cohabitating partner, boyfriend/girlfriend, or date.
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 183781,
Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, at iv (2000)
, available at
Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey | National Institute of Justice

Another national survey found that 34% of women were victims of sexual coercion by a husband or intimate partner in their lifetime.
Kathleen C. Basile,
Prevalence of Wife Rape and Other Intimate Partner Sexual Coercion in a Nationally Representative Sample of Women, 17 Violence and Victims 511
(2002).

The National Women's Study, a three-year longitudinal study of a national probability sample of 4,008 adult women (2,008 of whom represent a cross section of all adult women and 2,000 of whom are an over sample of younger women between the ages of 18 and 34), found:

13% of adult women had been victims of completed rape during their lifetime
22% of rape victims were assaulted by someone they had never seen before or did not know well.
9% of victims were raped by husbands or ex-husbands.
11% were raped by fathers or stepfathers.
10% were raped by boyfriends or ex-boyfriends.
16% were raped by other relatives.
29% were raped by other non-relatives, such as friends and neighbors.
See Dean G. Kilpatrick et al.,
Rape in America: A Report to the Nation
(1992); Heidi S. Resnick et al.,
Prevalence of Civilian Trauma and PTSD in a Representative National Sample of Women, 61 J. of Consulting and Clinical Psychol. 984 (1993)
; Dean G. Kilpatrick et al.,
A 2-Year Longitudinal Analysis of the Relationship Between Violent Assault and Substance Use in Women, 65 J. of Consulting and Clinical Psychol. 834 (1997)
; Kilpatrick et al.,
Rape, Other Violence Against Women, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Critical Issues in Assessing the Adversity-Stress-Psychopathology Relationship, in Adversity, Stress, & Psychopathology 161-176
(Bruce P. Dohrenwend ed., 1998); Dean G. Kilpatrick,
Rape and Sexual Assault, Aug. 7, 2006,

Rape and Sexual Assault

Trafficking The UN defines trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

An estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international boarders each year, and approximately 80% of trafficking victims are women and girls.
U.S. State Dep't, 2005
Trafficking in Persons Report (June 2005),
available at
2005 Report

Of the 45,000 to 50,000 that are brought to the U.S., 30,000 come from Asia, 10,000 from Latin America and 5,000 from other regions e.g., the former Soviet Union. The primary Asian source countries to the U.S. are China, Thailand and Vietnam. Although trafficking into the U.S. and Europe has gained a lot of attention in recent years, anti-trafficking advocates in Asia have been addressing these issues on the continent for decades.
Firoza Chic Dabby, Asian & Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence,
Trafficking: Considerations and Recommendations for Domestic Violence Advocates
,
http://www.apiahf.org/apidvinstitute/CriticalIssues/trafficking.htm
(last visited August 14, 2006) (citing Lora Jo
Foo
,
Asian American Women: Issues, Concerns, and Responsive Human and Civil Rights Advocacy
, (2002)).)

Domestic Violence by Race and Ethnicity

Native Americans According the Southwest Center for Law and Policy:

Native Americans are victims of rape or sexual assault at more than double the rate of other racial groups.
For Native American victims of violence, the offender was slightly more likely to be a stranger than an intimate partner, family member or acquaintance.
Native Americans described the offender as an acquaintance in 34% of rapes/sexual assaults, and as an intimate partner or family member in 25% of sexual assaults.
Southwest Ctr. for L. and Pol'y, Statistics (2005),
http://www.swclap.org/statistics.htm
; Steven
W
. Perry, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 203097,
A Bureau of Justice Statistics Statistical Profile, 1992-2002: American Indians and Crime
(2004), available at
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/aic02.htm

African Americans African Americans, especially African American Women, suffer deadly violence from family members at rates decidedly higher than for other racial groups in the United States. However, it is observed that research concerning family violence among African Americans is inadequate.

Overall, African Americans were victimized by intimate partners a significantly higher rates than persons of any other race between 1993 and 1998. Black females experienced intimate partner violence at a rate 35% higher than that of white females, and about 22 times the rate of women of other races. Black males experienced intimate partner violence at a rate about 62% higher than that of white males and about 22 times the rate of men of other races.
Callie Marie Rennison. and Sarah Welchans, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 178247,
Intimate Partner Violence
(2000), available at
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/ipv.txt

African-American women experience significantly more domestic violence than White women in the age group of 20-24. Generally, Black women experience similar levels of intimate partner victimization in all other age categories as compared to White women, but experience slightly more domestic violence. (Estimates are provided from the National Crime Victimization Survey, which defines an intimate partner as a current or former spouse, girlfriend, or boyfriend. Violent acts include murder, rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault.)
Callie Marie Rennison, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 187635,
Intimate Partner Violence and Age of Victim, 1993-1999
, at 4, (2001), available at
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/ipva99.htm

Approximately 40% of Black women report coercive contact of a sexual nature by age 18.
Africana Voices Against Violence, Tufts University, Statistics, 2002,
www.ase.tufts.edu/womenscenter/peace/africana/newsite/statistics.htm

The number one killer of African-American women ages 15 to 34 is homicide at the hands of a current or former intimate partner.
Africana Voices Against Violence, Tufts University, Statistics, 2002,
www.ase.tufts.edu/womenscenter/peace/africana/newsite/statistics.htm

In a study of African-American sexual assault survivors, only 17% reported the assault to police.
Africana Voices Against Violence, Tufts University, Statistics, 2002
www.ase.tufts.edu/womenscenter/peace/africana/newsite/statistics.htm

Hispanics

The rate of intimate partner violence for Hispanic women, like women of other races, peaked at ages 20-24.
Overall, the victimization rates of Hispanic women peaked at lower levels than non-Hispanic women in every age group, but spread over a wider range of ages.
(Estimates are provided from the National Crime Victimization Survey, which defines an intimate partner as a current or former spouse, girlfriend, or boyfriend. Violent acts include murder, rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault.) Callie Marie Rennison, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 187635,
Intimate Partner Violence and Age of Victim
, 1993-1999, at 4, (2001), available at
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/ipva99.htm

According to the Texas Council on Family Violence:

77% of all Hispanic Texans indicate that either they, a family member and/or a friend have experienced some form of domestic violence, indicating that approximately 5.2 million Hispanic Texans are personally affected by the epidemic of domestic violence. If the current prevalence rates remain the same, by the year 2030, more than 12.2 million Hispanic Texans could be personally affected by domestic violence.
64% of all Hispanic Texans indicate that they or a member of their family have experienced at least one form of domestic violence in their lifetime.
36% of all Hispanic Texans report being severely abused in their lifetime.
2 out of every 5 Hispanic Texas females (39%) reported experience severe abuse.
1 out of every 5 Hispanic Texas females (18%) reported being forced to have sex against their will.
40% of Hispanic Texans who reported experiencing at least one form of domestic violence took no action.
63% of all Hispanic Texans recall recent communications concerning domestic violence.
50% of all Hispanic Texans believe domestic violence is caused by circumstances beyond the batterers control showing that the Hispanic Texas community needs more information on domestic violence.
82% of all Hispanic Texans believe that it is never appropriate to stay in an abusive relationship, yet 46% acknowledge that leaving an abusive relationship can be more dangerous than staying.
83% of all Hispanic Texans agree that a husband who abuses his wife is more likely to also abuse his children; yet only 47% indicate a belief that domestic violence passes from generation to generation.
86% of all Hispanic Texans report that they would vote for a candidate who helps domestic violence victims. They are the ethnic group most likely to indicate such.
Texas Council on Family Violence, Statistics, 2002
http://makethecall.org/texas_stats.htm

Asian & Pacific Islanders

12.8% of Asian and Pacific Islander women reported experiencing physical assault by an intimate partner at least once during their lifetime; 3.8% reported having been raped. The rate of physical assault was lower than those reported by Whites (21.3%); African-Americans (26.3%); Hispanic, of any race, (21.2%); mixed race (27.0%); and American Indians and Alaskan Natives (30.7%). The low rate for Asian and Pacific Islander women may be attributed to underreporting.
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 181867,
Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence
,at 26 (2000), available at
Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey | National Institute of Justice
; see also Asian & Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence,
Fact Sheet: Domestic Violence in Asian Communities
, 2005,
http://www.apiahf.org/apidvinstitute/PDF/Fact_Sheet.pdf

The National Asian Women's Health Organization (NAWHO) interviewed 336 Asian American women aged 18-34 who reside in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas, via telephone:

16% of the respondents reported having experienced "pressure to have sex without their consent by an intimate partner."
12 % of respondents reported that an intimate partner had hurt or had attempted to hurt them by means of hitting, kicking, slapping, shoving, object throwing, or threatening their lives with a weapon.
27% experienced emotional abuse by an intimate partner
National Asian Women's Health Organization,
Silent Epidemic: A Survey of Violence Among Young Asian American Women
, (2002), available at
www.nawho.org

Project AWARE (Asian Women Advocating Respect and Empowerment) in Washington, DC, conducted an anonymous survey in 2000-2001 to examine the experiences of abuse, service needs, and barriers to service among Asian women. Using a sample of 178 Asian women:

81.1% of the women reported experiencing at least one form of intimate partner violence (domination/controlling/psychological, physical, and/or sexual abuse as categorized by the researchers) in the past year.
67% "occasionally" experienced some form of domination or controlling psychological abuse; 48% experienced it "frequently" in the past year.
32% experienced physical or sexual abuse at least "occasionally" during the past year.
Of the 23 women who reported not having experienced intimate partner violence themselves, more than half (64%) said they knew of an Asian friend who had experienced intimate partner violence. Smaller proportions of respondents reported that their mothers (9%) and sisters (11%) had experienced intimate partner violence.
28.5% of the survey participants knew of a woman who was being abused by her in-laws.
Karen A. McDonnell & Shamira E. Abdulla, Project AWARE, Asian/Pacific Islander Resource Project (2001).

Cambodians In a study conducted by the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence in Boston, using a self-administered questionnaire at ethnic fairs:

44-47% of Cambodians interviewed said they knew a woman who experienced domestic violence, by either physical abuse or injury.
37% of the respondents know a man who is being beaten by his partner.
Marianne
R
. Yoshioka et al.,
Asian Family Violence Report: A Study of the Cambodian, Chinese, Korean, South Asian, and Vietnamese Communities in Massachusetts
(2004),
http://www.atask.org/Resources_AFVR.htm

Chinese In a random telephone survey of 262 Chinese men and women in Los Angeles:

18.1% of respondents reported experiencing "minor physical violence" by a spouse or intimate partner within their lifetime, and 8% of respondents reported "severe physical violence" experienced during their lifetime. ["Minor-severe" categories were based on the researcher's classification criteria.]
More acculturated respondents (as assessed by the researchers) were twice as likely to have been victims of severe physical violence. [Although the author states "It is possible that traditional cultural values serve as a protective buffer against stressors engendered by immigration", higher rates among more acculturated respondents may be due to their increased likelihood to report abuse.]
Alice G. Yick,
Predictors of Physical Spousal/Intimate Violence in Chinese American Families
, 15 J. Fam. Violence 249 (2000).

Filipinas In a survey conducted by the Immigrant Women's Task Force of the Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Services:

20% of 54 undocumented Filipina women living in the San Francisco Bay Area reported having experienced some form of domestic violence, including physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, either in their country of origin or in the United States.
Chris Hogeland and Karen Rosen, Coalition For Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Services,
Dreams Lost, Dreams Found: Undocumented Women In The Land of Opportunity
, (1991).

Japanese In a face-to-face interview study of a random sample of 211 Japanese immigrant women and Japanese American women in Los Angeles County conducted in 1995:

61% reported some form of physical, emotional, or sexual partner violence that they considered abusive - including culturally demeaning practices such as overturning a dining table, or throwing liquid at a woman.
52% reported having experienced physical violence during their lifetime. When the probability that some women who have not been victimized at the time of the interview, but may be abused at a later date is calculated, 57% of women are estimated to experience a partner's physical violence by age 49.
Mieko Yoshihama,
Domestic Violence Against Women of Japanese Descent in Los Angeles: Two Methods of Estimating Prevalence
, 5
Violence Against Women 869
(1999); Mieko Yoshihama & Brenda
W
. Gillespie,
Age Adjustment and Recall Bias in the Analysis of Domestic Violence Data: Methodological Improvements Through the Application of Survival Analysis Methods
, 17 J. Fam. Violence 199 (2002).

Koreans In a study of 256 Korean men from randomly selected Korean households in Chicago and in Queens (which then had the largest Korean population on the East Coast) in 1993:

18% of the respondents reported committing at least one of the following acts of physical violence within the past year: throwing something, pushing, grabbing, shoving, or slapping their wife.
6.3% of the men committed what the researcher classified as "severe violence" (kicking, biting, hitting with a fist, threatening with a gun or knife, shooting, or stabbing).
Jae Yop Kim & Kuy-taik Sung,
Conjugal Violence in Korean American Families: A Residue of the Cultural Tradition
, 15 J. Fam. Violence 331 (2000).

In a survey of 214 Korean women and 121 Korean men in the San Francisco Bay Area conducted in 2000:

42% of the respondents said they knew of a Korean woman who experienced physical violence from a husband or boyfriend.
About 50% of the respondents knew someone who suffered regular emotional abuse.
Shimtuh, Korean American Domestic Violence Program,
Korean American Community of the Bay Area Domestic Violence Needs Assessment Report
(2000).

South Asians A study of 160 South Asian women (who were married or in a heterosexual relationship), recruited through community outreach methods such as flyers, snowball sampling, and referrals in Greater Boston, found that:

40.8% of the participants reported that they had been physically and/or sexually abused in some way by their current male partners in their lifetime; 36.9% reported having been victimized in the past year.
65% of the women reporting physical abuse also reported sexual abuse, and almost a third (30.4%) of those reporting sexual abuse reported injuries, some requiring medical attention.
Anita Raj & Jay G. Silverman,
Intimate Partner Violence Against South-Asian Women in Greater Boston
, 57 J. Am. Med. Women's Ass'n 111 (2002).

Immigrants

A recent study in New York City found that 51 percent of intimate partner homicide victims were foreign-born, while 45 percent were born in the United States.
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Femicide in New York City: 1995-2002 (2004), available at
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/ip/femicide1995-2002_report.pdf

48% of Latinas in one study reported that their partner's violence against them had increased since they emmigrated to the United States.
Mary Dutton et al.,
Characteristics of Help-Seeking Behaviors, Resources, and Services Needs of Battered Immigrant Latinas: Legal and Policy Implications
, 7 Geo. J. on Poverty L. and Pol'y 245 (2000).

A survey of immigrant Korean women found that 60 percent had been battered by their husbands.
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 181867,
Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey
(2000), available at
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/181867.htm

Married immigrant women experience higher levels of physical and sexual abuse than unmarried immigrant women, 59.5 percent compared to 49.8 percent, respectively.
Mary Dutton et al.,
Characteristics of Help-Seeking Behaviors, Resources, and Services Needs of Battered Immigrant Latinas: Legal and Policy Implications
, 7 Geo. J. on Poverty L. and Pol'y 245 (2000). See also, Family Violence Prevention Fund,
The Facts on Immigrant Women and Domestic Violence
(2006),
http://endabuse.org/resources/facts/Immigrant.pdf

Teens

18-24 year-olds comprised only 11.7% of the population in 1998 and 2002, but were the majority of victims of violence committed by a boyfriend or girlfriend (42%).
Matthew
R
. Durose et al., U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 207846, Bureau of Justice Statistics,
Family Violence Statistics: Including Statistics on Strangers and Acquaintances
, at 11 (2005), available at
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/fvs.pdf

Approximately one in five female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner.
Jay G. Silverman et al.,
Dating Violence Against Adolescent Girls and Associated Substance Use, Unhealthy Weight Control, Sexual Risk Behavior, Pregnancy, and Suicidality
, 286 J. Am. Med. Ass'n 572-579 (2001).

In a study of eighth and ninth graders, 25 percent indicated that they had been victims of dating violence, including eight percent who disclosed being sexually abused.
Vangie A. Foshee et al.,
The Safe Date Project: Theoretical Basis, Evaluation Design, and Selected Baseline Findings
, 12 Am. J. of Preventive Med. 39 (1996).

In a survey of 232 high school girls, 17.8% of the participants indicated that they had been forced to engage in sexual activity against their will by a dating partner.
David
R
. Jezl, Christian E. Molidor & Tracy L. Wright,
Physical, Sexual & Psychological Abuse in High School Dating Relationships: Prevalence Rates and Self-esteem Issues
, 13 Child & Adolescent Soc. Work J. 69 (1996).

Among female students between the ages of 15-20 who reported at least one violent act during a dating relationship, 24% reported experiencing extremely violent incidents such as rape or the use of weapons against them.
P.Y. Symons et al., Prevalence and Predictors of Adolescent Dating Violence, 7
J. of Child & Adolescent Pediatric Nursing
14 (1994).

Girls who reported that they had been sexually or physically abused were more than twice as likely as non abused girls to report smoking (26% versus 10%), drinking (22% versus 12%), and using illegal drugs (30% versus 13%). In addition, 32 percent of girls who had been abused reported bingeing and purging, compared to 12 percent of girls who had not been abused.
Cathy Schoen et al., The Commonwealth Fund,
The Commonwealth Fund Survey of the Health of Adolescent Girls
(1997).

In a study of 724 adolescent mothers between the ages of 12-18, one of every eight pregnant adolescents reported having been physically assaulted by the father of her baby during the preceding 12 months. Of these, 40 percent also reported experiencing violence at the hands of a family member or relative.
Constance
M
. Wiemann et al.,
Pregnant Adolescents: Experiences and Behaviors Associated with Physical Assault by an Intimate Partner
, 4 Maternal & Child Health J. 93 (2000).

Physical aggression occurs in 1 in 3 teen dating relationships.
Sarah Avery-Leaf & Michele Cascardi,
Dating Violence Education: Prevention and Early Intervention Strategies, in Preventing Violence in Relationships
82 (Paul A. Schewe ed., 2002).

Fifty to eighty percent of teens report knowing someone involved in a violent relationship.
Maura O'Keefe & Laura Trester,
Victims of Dating Violence Among High School Students
, 4 Violence Against Women 195 (1998). See also Family Violence Prevention Fund,
The Facts on Teenagers and Intimate Partner Violence
,
http://www.endabuse.org/resources/facts/Teenagers.pdf
(2006); and National Center for Victims of Crime, Teen Dating Violence Sheet,
The National Center for Victims of Crime - Dating Violence Resource Center
(2004).

Elders

According to the best available estimates, between 1 and 2 million Americans age 65 or older have been injured, exploited, or otherwise mistreated by someone on whom they depended for protection.
Committee on Nat'l Statistics & Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education,
Elder Mistreatment: Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation in an Aging America
(Richard J. Bonnie & Robert B. Wallace eds., 2003).

Estimates of the frequency of elder abuse range from 2% to 10% based on various sampling, survey methods, and case definitions.
Mark S. Lachs & Karl Pillemer,
Elder Abuse
, 364 The Lancet 1192 (2004).

Data on elder abuse in domestic settings suggest that 1 in 14 incidents, excluding incidents of self-neglect, come to the attention of authorities.
Karl Pillemer & David Finkelhor,
The Prevalence of Elder Abuse: A Random Sample Survey
, 28 The Gerontologist 51 (1988).

Current estimates put the overall reporting of financial exploitation at only 1 in 25 cases, suggesting that there may be at least 5 million financial abuse victims each year.
John F. Wasik,
The Fleecing of America's Elderly
, Consumers Digest, March/April 2000.

It is estimated that for every one case of elder abuse, neglect, exploitation, or self neglect reported to authorities, about five more go unreported.
National Ctr. on Elder Abuse, The Am. Pub. Hum. Serv. Ass'n,
The National Elder Abuse Incidence Study
(1998), available at
www.aoa.gov/eldfam/Elder_Rights/Elder_Abuse/ABuseReport_Full.pdf

In 1996, nearly 450,000 adults aged 60 and over were abused and/or neglected in domestic settings. Factoring in self neglect, the total number of incidents was approximately 551,000.
National Ctr. on Elder Abuse, The Am. Pub. Hum. Serv. Ass'n,
The National Elder Abuse Incidence Study
(1998), available at
www.aoa.gov/eldfam/Elder_Rights/Elder_Abuse/ABuseReport_Full.pdf

A University of Iowa study based on 1999 data found 190,005 domestic elder abuse reports from 17 states; 242,430 domestic elder abuse investigations from 47 states; and 102,879 substantiations from 35 states. Significantly higher investigation rates were found for states that require mandatory reporting and tracking of reports.
Gerald J. Jogerst et al.,
Domestic Elder Abuse and the Law
, 93 Am. J. of Pub. Health 2131 (2003).

In 2000, states were asked to indicate the number of elder/adult reports received in the most recent year for which data were available. Based on figures from 54 states, the total number of reports was 472,813.
Pamela B. Teaster, The Nat'l Ctr. On Elder Abuse, et al.,
A Response to the Abuse of Vulnerable Adults: The 2000 Survey of State Adult Protective Services
(2003).

In 2003, state Long Term Care Ombudsman programs nationally investigated 20,673 complaints of abuse gross neglect, and exploitation on behalf of nursing home and board and care residents. Among seven types of abuse categories, physical abuse was the most common type reported.
U.S. Admin. on Aging,
National Ombudsman Reporting System Data Tables
(2003). See also Nat'l Ctr. on Elder Abuse,
Fact Sheet: Elder Abuse Prevalence and Incidence
,
http://www.elderabusecenter.org/pdf/publication/FinalStatistics050331.pdf
(2005).

Same-Sex Violence Domestic violence occurs within same-sex relationships as it does in heterosexual relationships. The acronym LGBT is often used and stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

11% of lesbians reported violence by their female partner and 15% of gay men who had lived with a male partner reported being victimized by a male partner.
Patricia Tjaden,
Symposium on Integrating Responses to Domestic Violence: Extent and Nature of Intimate Partner Violence as measured by the National Violence Against Women Survey
, 47 Loy. L. Rev. 41, 54 (2003).

Of the LGBT victims who sought services from the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, 36% of clients in 2003 and 38% of clients in 2004 filed police reports regarding intimate partner violence.
Diane Dolan-Soto & Sara Kaplan,
New York Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Bisexual Domestic Violence Report
, at 6 (2005), available at
http://www.avp.org/publications/reports/2005nycdvrpt.pdf
.

Eighty-eight percent of victims in 2003 and 91 percent of victims in 2004 reported experiencing prior incidents of abuse, with the majority (45 percent and 47 percent, respectively) reporting having experienced more than 10 prior incidents.
Diane Dolan-Soto & Sara Kaplan,
New York Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Bisexual Domestic Violence Report
, at 5 (2005), available at
http://www.avp.org/publications/reports/2005nycdvrpt.pdf
.

One survey found that same-sex cohabitants reported significantly more intimate partner violence than did opposite-sex cohabitants. Among women, 39.2% of the same-sex cohabitants and 21.7 of the opposite- sex cohabitants reported being raped, physically assaulted, and/or stalked by a marital/cohabiting partner at some time in their lifetime.
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 181867,
Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey
, at 30 (2000), available at
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/181867.htm

15.4% of same-sex cohabiting men reported being raped, physically assaulted and/or stalked by a male partner, but 10.8% reported such violence by a female partner.
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 181867,
Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey
, at 30 (2000), available at
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/181867.htm

According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs:

6,523 incidence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender violence were recorded in eleven distinct cities and regions across the USA and Toronto, Ontario. 44% of the victims were men and 36% were women. This represented a 13% increase over the 5718 cases reported in 2002 by the same agencies and includes six reported deaths in the context of actual or suspected LGBT violence. Arizona reported one death and New York City reported five deaths.
4,964 or about 79% of the new incidents were reported in Los Angeles. The number of LGBT incidents in other cities and states include Boston (290), New York City (501), San Francisco (388), Colorado (139) , Chicago (65), Columbus, Ohio (46) , Pennsylvania (19) , Burlington, Vermont (21), Tuscon (64).
5,374 (82%) of the victims of domestic violence reported to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs identified themselves as gay; 575 (9%) were cases in which the victim declined to specify a sexual orientation or it was not recorded; 263 (4%) identified as bisexual; and 44 (0.6 %) were not sure or questioned their sexual orientation.
Of the 42% incidence of domestic violence where race was recorded, 1,211 or 44% were white, 684 or 25% were Latino, 413 or 15% were of African descent, 153 or 5% were Asian/Pacific Islander, 125 or 4% were multicultural; just under 36 or 0.01% were indigenous/first people and about 0.01 were Arab/Middle Easterners, Jewish and others.
Nat'l Advoc. for Local Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Communities, Nat'l Coal. of Anti-Violence Programs,
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Domestic Violence: 2003 Supplement - An Update from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs
(2004), at 3-8, 10, available at
Reports--AVP: The Anti-Violence Project

Welfare Recipients

Studies consistently show that at least 50 to 60 percent of women receiving public benefits have experienced physical abuse by an intimate partner at some point during their adult lives, compared to 22 percent of the general population; some studies indicate rates as high as 82 percent. A significant number of women receiving public benefits also report a history physical and sexual abuse in childhood, and as many as 30 percent of women on public benefits report abuse in a current relationship
Richard Tolman and Jody Raphael,
A Review of the Research on Welfare and Domestic Violence
, 56 J. of Soc. Iss. 655 (2000); Sharmila Lawrence,
Research Forum on Children, Families, and the New Federalism
, National Center for Children in Poverty,
Domestic Violence and Welfare Policy: Research Findings That Can Inform Policies on Marriage and Child Well-Being
, Issue Brief (2002); Eleanor Lyon,
Building Comprehensive Solutions to Domestic Violence
, Publ'n No. 10, Welfare, Poverty and Abused Women: New Research and Its Implications, (2000).

In a recent study of two California counties (Kern and Stanislaus) public benefits recipients had lifetime abuse rates of 80 percent and 83 percent, respectively.
Joan Meisel, Daniel Chandler & Beth Menees Rienzi,
Domestic Violence Prevalence and Effects on Employment in two California TANF Populations
, 9 Violence Against Women 1191 (2003).

A Wisconsin study found that 70 percent of domestic violence victims on public benefits did not disclose abuse to their caseworker.
Thomas Moore & Vicky Selkowe,
Institute for Wisconsin's Future, Domestic Violence Victims in Transition
from Welfare to Work: Barriers to Self-Sufficiency and the
W
-2 Response (1999). See also Family Violence Prevention Fund, The Facts on Welfare and Domestic Violence,
http://endabuse.org/resources/facts/Welfare.pdf
(last visited August 13, 2006).

Domestic Violence And The Workplace

Of the approximately 1.7 million incidents of workplace violence that occur in the US every year, approximately 18,700 (1.1 percent) are committed by an intimate: current or former spouse, lover, partner, or boyfriend/girlfriend.
Detis T. Duhart, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 190076,
Violence in the Workplace 1993-99, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report
(2001) available at
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/vw99.pdf
.

Some abusive partners may try to stop women from working by calling them frequently during the day or coming to their place of work unannounced. Research indicates that about 50 percent of battered women who are employed are harassed at work by their abusive partners.
U.S. Gen. Accounting Office, GAO/HEHS-99-12,
Domestic Violence: Prevalence and Implications for Employment Among Welfare Recipients
(1998), available at
www.gao.gov/archive/1999/he99012.pdf

According to a 2004 Maine study:

Over three-quarters of offenders used workplace resources at least once to express remorse or anger, check up on, pressure, or threaten the victim.
74% had easy access to their intimate partner's workplace, with 21% of offenders reporting that they contacted her at the workplace in violation of a no contact order.
48% of offenders had difficulty concentrating at work, with 19% of offenders reporting a workplace accident or near miss from inattentiveness due to pre-occupation with their relationship.
42% of offenders were late to work.
Kim C. Lim et al., Maine Department of Labor and Family Crisis Services,
Impact of Domestic Violence Offenders on Occupational Safety & Health: A Pilot Study
(2004), available at
http://www.state.me.us/labor/labor_stats/publications/dvreports/domesticoffendersreport.pdf
See also
Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence, Facts and Statistics: Workplace Statistics
,
CAEPV - Facts & Stats
(last visited Aug. 12, 2006)

Offender Recidivism According to a 2000 study which interviewed the former and current partners of male batterers referred to batterer programs by the court:

41% of participants reported that the men committed a re-assault during the 30-month follow-up period.
Nearly 2/3 of the first time re-assaults occurred in the first 6 months.
About 20 percent of the men repeatedly re-assaulted their partners and account for most of the reported injuries.
Edward Gondolf,
Reassault at 30-Months after Batterer Program Intake
, 44 Int'l J. of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 111 (2000), available at
http://www.iup.edu/maati/publications/outcomeabstracts.shtm#outcome4

In an examination of 1,309 cases under a program mandate at the Bronx misdemeanor domestic violence court:

8% of the defendants were rearrested between the initial arrest and case disposition, 35% during the program mandate period, 31% during the one year following the end of the mandate and 44% during the two years following the mandate.
Overall, from the moment of index arrest to two years post release, 62 % of all defendants were rearrested.
Nora K. Puffett & Chandra Gavin, Ctr. for Ct. Innovation,
Predictors of Program Outcome and Recidivism at the Bronx Misdemeanor Domestic Violence Court
(2004), available at
http://www.courtinnovation.org/_uploads/documents/predictorsbronxdv.pdf

Domestic Violence & Children

Slightly more than half of female victims of intimate violence live in households with children under age 12.
Lawrence A. Greenfield et al.,U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 167237,
Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouse, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends
(1998) available at
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/vi.pdf

A recent study of low-income pre-school children in Michigan found that nearly half (46.7 percent) of the children in the study had been exposed to at least one incident of mild or severe violence in the family. Children who had been exposed to violence suffered symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, such as bed-wetting or nightmares, and were at greater risk than their peers of having allergies, asthma, gastrointestinal problems, headaches and flu.
Sandra Graham-Bermann & Julie Seng,
Violence Exposure and Traumatic Stress Symptoms as Additional Predictors of Health Problems in High-Risk Children
, 146 J. of Pediatrics 309 (2005).

Battered women are not the only victims of abuse - it is estimated that anywhere between 3.3 million and 10 million children witness domestic violence annually. Research demonstrates that exposure to violence can have serious negative effects on children's development.
Sharmila Lawrence, National Center for Children in Poverty, Domestic Violence and Welfare Policy:
Research Findings That Can Inform Policies on Marriage and Child Well-Being
5 (2002).

One study of 2,245 children and teenagers found that recent exposure to violence in the home was a significant factor in predicting a child's violent behavior.
Mark I. Singer, et al., Cuyahoga County Cmty. Health Research Institute,
The Mental Health Consequences of Children's Exposure to Violence
(1998).

Children exposed to Intimate Partner Violence were 1.6 times as likely to score in the borderline to clinical level range on externalizing behaviors relative to children of similar age and sex (as measured on three scales of internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors, and social competence according to the standardized psychometric instrument of Achenbach's Child Behavior Checklist, or CBCL).
Mary A. Kernic et al.,
Behavioral Problems Among Children Whose Mothers are Abused by an Intimate Partner
, 27 Child Abuse & Neglect 1231 at 1239 (2003).

Children exposed to maternal Intimate Partner Violence, without experiencing child maltreatment, were 40% more likely to have a total behavioral problem score within the borderline to clinical range than CBCL normative children.
Mary A. Kernic et al.,
Behavioral Problems Among Children Whose Mothers are Abused by an Intimate Partner
, 27 Child Abuse & Neglect 1231 at 1239 (2003). See also Family Violence Prevention Fund,
The Facts on Children and Domestic Violence
, (2005), available at
http://endabuse.org/resources/facts/Children.pdf
(Aug 1, 2005).

Physical Injury and Medical Treatment

The U.S. Department of Justice reported that 37% of all women who sought care in hospital emergency rooms for violence-related injuries were injured by a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend.
Michael
R
. Rand, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 156921,
Violence-Related Injuries Treated in Hospital Emergency Departments
, (1997) available at
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/vrithed.txt

Women are significantly more likely than men to be injured during an assault: 31.5% of female rape victims, compared with 16.1% of male rape victims, reported being injured during their most recent rape, and 39-42% percent of female physical assault victims, compared with 20-25% of male physical assault victims, reported being injured during their most recent physical assault.
35.6% of the women injured during their most recent rape and 30.2% of the women injured during their most recent physical assault received medical treatment. Approximately 21.5% of male victims of intimate partner physical assaults that resulted in an injury sought medical treatment.
Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 183781,
Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey
, at iv (2000) available at
Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey | National Institute of Justice
; Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 181867,
Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey
, at iv (2000), available at
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/181867.htm

4% of men and 5% of women reported receiving serious injuries (knife wounds, internal injuries, broken bones, or loss of consciousness).
Callie Marie Rennison & Sarah Welchans, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 178247,
Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: Intimate Partner Violence
at 6 (2000), available at
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/ipv.pdf

The level of injury resulting from domestic violence is severe: of 218 women presenting at a metropolitan emergency department with injuries due to domestic violence, 28% required hospital admission, and 13% required major medical treatment. 40% had previously required medical care for abuse.
Daniel C. Berrios & D. Grady,
Domestic Violence: Risk Factors and Outcome
, 155 The
W
. J. of Medicine 133 (1991).

Fifty-six percent of women who experience any partner violence are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. Twenty-nine percent of all women who attempt suicide were battered, 37% of battered women have symptoms of depression, 46% have symptoms of anxiety disorder, and 45% experience post-traumatic stress disorder.
Kirstie K. Danielson et al.,
Comorbidity Between Abuse of an Adult and DSM-III-
R
Mental Disorders: Evidence From an Epidemiological Study
, 155 Am. J. of Psychiatry 131 (1998); Evan Stark & Anne Flitcraft,
Killing the Beast Within: Woman Battering and Female Suicidality
, 25 Int'l J. of Health Sci. 43 (1995); B.
M
. Housekamp & David
W
. Foy,
The Assessment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Battered Women
, 6 J. of Interpersonal Violence 367 (1991); Richard J. Gelles & John
W
. Harrop,
Violence, Battering, and Psychological Distress Among Women, 4 J. of Interpersonal Violence
400 (1989).

From 1987 to 1990, crime costs Americans $450 billion a year. Adult victims of domestic violence incurred 15% of the total cost of crime on victims ($67 billion). A study conducted at Rush Medical Center in Chicago found that the average charge for medical services provided to abused women, children and older people was $1,633 per person per year. This would amount to a national annual cost of $857.3 million.
Ted
R
. Miller, Mark A. Cohen, & Brian Wiersema, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 155282,
Victims Costs and Consequences: A New Look
(1996), available at
http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/victcost.txt
; Harris Meyer, The Billion Dollar Epidemic, 35 Am. Med. News 7 (1992).

A study conducted at a large health plan in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1994, found that an annual difference of $1775.00 more was spent on abused women who utilized hospital services than on a random sample of general enrollees. The study concluded that early identification and treatment of victims and potential victims will most likely benefit health care systems in the long run.
Catherine L. Wisner et al.,
Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Do Victims Cost Health Plans More?
, 48 J. of Fam. Prac. 429 (1999).

Ninety-two percent of women who were physically abused by their partners did not discuss these incidents with their physicians; 57% did not discuss the incidents with anyone. Additionally, in four different studies of survivors of abuse, 70% to 81% of the patients studied reported that they would like their healthcare providers to ask them privately about intimate partner violence.
Panagiota V. Caralis & Regina Musialowski,
Women's Experiences with Domestic Violence and Their Attitudes and Expectations Regarding Medical Care of Abuse Victims
, 90 S. Med. J. 1075 (1997); Jeanne McCauley et al.,
Inside 'Pandora's Box': Abused Women's Experiences with Clinicians and Health Services
, 13 Archives of Internal Med. 549 (1998); Lawrence S. Friedman et al.,
Inquiry About Victimization Experiences: A Survey of Patient Preferences and Physician Practices
, 152 Archives of Internal Med. (1992); Michael Rodriguez et al.,
Breaking the Silence: Battered Women's Perspectives on Medical Care
, 5 Archives of Fam. Med. 153 (1996).

A 1999 study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that an estimated ten percent of primary care physicians routinely screen for intimate partner abuse during new patient visits and nine percent routinely screen during periodic checkups.
Michael Rodriguez et al.,
Screening and Intervention for Intimate Partner Abuse: Practices and Attitudes of Primary Care Physicians
, 282 J. Am. Med. Ass'n 468 (1999).

A 2001 study in North Carolina found that only 23% of women injured shortly after pregnancy received treatment for their injuries. However, almost all of these women used care for their infants indicating that pediatric practices are important settings for identifying domestic violence.
Sandra L. Martin et al.,
Physical Abuse of Women Before, During, and After Pregnancy
, 285 J. Am. Med. Ass'n 1581 (2001). See also Family Violence Prevention Fund,
Get the Facts - Domestic Violence and Health Care
, (2006), available at
Futures Without Violence: Our Work: Health

Law Enforcement According to the Department of Justice:

Approximately 60% of family violence victimizations were reported to police between 1998 and 2002, up from about half between 1993 and 1998.
Among felony assault defendants convicted in State courts, 45% of persons sent to prison for family assault received a sentence of more than 2 years, compared to 77% of non-family assault offenders sent to prison.
Federal courts convicted 90% of defendants adjudicated for an interstate domestic violence offense.
Black women (67%) reported their victimization to police at significantly higher percentages than black men (48%), white men (45%), and white women (50%). No difference in white male and female percentages reporting emerged (45% versus 50%). Hispanic females reported intimate partner violence to the police at higher percentages than did non-Hispanic females (65% versus 52%).
Among victims of violence by an intimate partner, the percentage of women who reported the crime was greater in 1998 (59%) than in 1993 (48%).
Fear of reprisal by the perpetrator made up 19% of the reasons females did not report their victimization to the police. About 1 in 10 male victims and fewer than 1 in 10 female victims said they did not report the crime to the police because they did not want to get the offender in trouble with the law.
About half of the male victims' reasons and a third of the female victims' reasons for not reporting their intimate partner victimization to the police was because it was a "private or personal matter." While this reason was the most often given by both male and female victims, it was given by male victims in a significantly higher percentage than female victims.
Matthew
R
. Durose et al., Dep't of Just., NCJ 207846, Bureau of Justice Statistics,
Family Violence Statistics: Including Statistics on Strangers and Acquaintances
at 2 (2005) available at
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/fvs.pdf
; Callie Marie Rennison & Sarah Welchans, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 178247, Bureau of Justice Statistics
Special Report: Intimate Partner Violence
at 1, 7 (2000), available at
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/ipv.pdf

The Effect of Protection Orders

Reports indicate some 86% of the women who received a protection order state the abuse either stopped or was greatly reduced.
James Ptacek,
Battered Women in the Courtroom: The Power of Judicial Response
(1999), (reviewed in Meda Chesney-Lind, James Ptacek,
Battered Women in the Courtroom: The Power of Judicial Response
, 35 Crime, L. & Soc. Change 363 (2001)).

A six-month longitudinal study, found that among 65 abused African-American, White, Hispanic, and Asian women applying and qualifying for a protection order against a sexual intimate, only half of the women actually received the order.
Julia Henderson Gist et al.,
Protection Orders and Assault Charges: Do Justice Interventions Reduce Violence Against Women
, 15 Am. J. Fam. L. 59 (2001).

FMI: National Violence Against Women Survey To further understanding of violence against women, the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention jointly sponsored, through a grant to the Center for Policy Research, a national survey that was conducted from November 1995 to May 1996. The National Violence Against Women (NVAW) Survey sampled both women and men and thus provides comparable data on women's and men's experiences with violent victimization. Respondents to the survey were asked about:

Physical assault they experienced as children by adult caretakers.
Physical assault they experienced as adults by any type of assailant.
Forcible rape and stalking they experienced at any time in their life by any type of perpetrator.

Respondents who disclosed that they had been victimized were asked detailed questions about the characteristics and consequences of their victimization, including injuries they sustained and their use of medical services.

NIJ Publications from the National Violence Against Women Survey Stalking in America: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey, Research in Brief, by Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 1998, NCJ 169592. This document provides detailed information from the survey on women's and men's experiences with stalking. Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey, Research in Brief, by Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 1998, NCJ 172837. This document summarizes the findings presented in this Research Report. Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey, Research Report, by Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 2000, NCJ 181867. This document provides detailed information from the survey on women's and men's experiences with intimate partner violence. Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, by Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, national Institute of Justice, 2000 NCJ 183781. To obtain copies of these publications, visit NIJ's Web site at: National Institute of Justice: Criminal Justice Research, Development and Evaluation , or contact the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, P.O. Box 6000, Rockville, MD 20849-6000; 800-851-3420 or 301-519-5500; or send an e-mail message to [email protected] .

Journal Articles about the National Violence Against Women Survey Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, " Co-Worker Violence and Gender: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey," American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Special Edition on Workplace Violence, Vol. 20, Issue 1 (forthcoming 2001). Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, " Effects of Interviewer Gender on Men's Responses to a Telephone Survey on Violent Victimization," Journal of Quantitative Criminology (forthcoming 2001). Patricia Tjaden, Nancy Thoennes, and Christine Allison, " Comparing Stalking Victimization from Legal and Victim Perspectives," Violence and Victims, Vol. 15, No. 1 (2000): 1-16. Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, " Prevalence and Incidence of Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey," The Criminologist, Vol. 24, No. 3, (May/June 1999): 1, 4, 13-14. Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, " Prevalence and Consequences of Male-to-Female and Female-to-Male Partner Violence as Measured by the National Violence Against Women Survey," Violence Against Women, Vol. 6, No. 2 (February 2000): 142-161. Patricia Tjaden, Nancy Thoennes, Christine Allison, " Comparing Violence Over the Lifespan in Samples of Same-Sex and Opposite-Sex Cohabitants," Violence and Victims, Vol. 14, No. 4 (1999): 413-425. National Violence Against Women Survey Methodology Report by Patricia Tjaden, Steve Leadbetter, John Boyle, and Robert A. Bardwell provides a more detailed account of the survey methods. This document is under review at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To learn about CDC prevention activities related to family violence and intimate partner violence, visit CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Web site at CDC - Violence Prevention Home Page - Injury .

The deadline for the 2012 Law Student Writing Competition is May 31, 2012. Stipend is paid to the winner.
Commission Listservs

The Commission hosts listservs for litigators, professors, and law students related to domestic and sexual violence. Visit the listserv page for more information.

From the data I just posted, it shows 84% of domestic abuse arrests are of men. 83% of domestic homicides are committed by men. The percentage of arrests was 90% men until the mandatory arrest laws were enacted, at which time females were also arrested along with the male batterers, likely because they were using physical force to protect themselves from their male batterer.

June 24, 2012

My understanding is that many cases of female perpetrators are classified as "assault" and not "domestic violence", thereby giving the false impression that women are almost always the victim of domestic violence (since "assault" is not included). This is why data can be so darn misleading. Humans, with their agendas, are behind the numbers and how they are processed.

Look up the Harvard University study, which concluded that, in cases where the domestic violence is one-sided (ie, not mutual), the woman is the perpetrator in 70% of cases. That's not a typo. 70%.

I'm just showing you how screwed up statistics can be. Trust me, there are millions and millions of dollars behind any study with the intent to have the results come out in their favor.

June 24, 2012

My understanding is that many cases of female perpetrators are classified as "assault" and not "domestic violence", thereby giving the false impression that women are almost always the victim of domestic violence (since "assault" is not included). This is why data can be so darn misleading. Humans, with their agendas, are behind the numbers and how they are processed.

Look up the Harvard University study, which concluded that, in cases where the domestic violence is one-sided (ie, not mutual), the woman is the perpetrator in 70% of cases. That's not a typo. 70%.

I'm just showing you how screwed up statistics can be. Trust me, there are millions and millions of dollars behind any study with the intent to have the results come out in their favor.

No, when the police are called to a residence where there is a report of violence, it is recorded as domestic abuse if it is between two parties involved in an intimate relationship, regardless of whether that person is a male or female. Most calls to the police are domestic violence cases and are reported as domestic violence cases. The American Bar Association, which published the report I posted, would not have any gain or agenda for skewing the statistics on domestic abuse. Where is your Harvard University study? You don't post any links or articles or studies. Where are they? I would actually trust police records or legal system records about arrests made than some college student studies. But I would agree that you have to consider the source when interpreting any statistics. All of the books and material I have read in my domestic violence classes said that males are the overwhelming purpetrators of domestic violence.

June 24, 2012

Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have called the cops on my wife when she assaulted me. Since >80% the time men are arrested, I really put myself in jeopardy. Even my lawyer said it was a risky thing to do because he's seen a guy get taken to jail after calling the cops when his wife stabbed him with a pair of scissors.

NOTE: I think it HIGHLY depends on your location. Some states and counties will almost always haul the man off to jail regardless. Other states are a bit more balanced and go entirely on evidence rather than stereotypes.

June 24, 2012

Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have called the cops on my wife when she assaulted me. Since >80% the time men are arrested, I really put myself in jeopardy.

I agree. Certainly, that was my experience. My exW went into a rage, chasing me all over our apartment. Our grand daughter and my SIL took refuge from the yelling in one of the bedrooms and shut the door. I withdrew to the other bedroom and had to shut the door four times. On the fourth time, my exW started slamming it against the wall, trying to hit me with it. To prevent her from destroying the door and wall, I restrained her but, when she stepped backward, she tripped and fell down. She called the police and had me arrested for "brutalizing" her.

On the way to jail, the cops explained to me that, next time she had a temper tantrum, it was important that I be the first person to call the police. It is the policy in this city, they said, that -- when in doubt -- to arrest the spouse that did NOT make the call and then let the judge figure it out in arraignment.

No doubt, the policy varies greatly city to city. I nonetheless believe that there is a great bias in our society toward blaming the male whenever there is doubt -- and there usually is much doubt. Further, many males are too embarrassed to report being abused by a woman because it is "unmanly" and weak to admit that one needs help in handling a woman. A 1994 study by Stets and Straus, for example, found that "men are only one-tenth as likely to call police when assaulted as are women." See p. 32 of http://lab.drdondutton.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/DUTTON-2006-DOMESTIC-ABUSE-ASSESSMENT-IN-CHILD-CUSTODY-DISPUTES.pdf.

I therefore agree, M30, that public arrest records greatly overstate the role of men in family violence. I suspect that, of the many arrest statistics offered above by Kathy, the closest to the truth is that shown in the prevalence of DV arrests seen in gay couples (15%) versus lesbian couples (11%), because much of the gender-specific biases are removed when you are comparing M-M domestic violence rates against F-F domestic violence rates. Kathy credits those figures to Patricia Tjaden, Symposium on Integrating Responses to Domestic Violence: Extent and Nature of Intimate Partner Violence as measured by the National Violence Against Women Survey, 47 Loy. L. Rev. 41, 54 (2003).

Finally, I note that a 1993 Canadian study found that nearly all batterers (of spouses or children) have a personality disorder and that half of them have BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder). See Melton's description of the study at Romeo's Bleeding - When Mr. Right Turns Out To Be Mr. Wrong -- Health & Wellness -- Sott.net.

If that finding is representative, it is significant to our discussion because a large-scale study (pub. 2008) found that the incidence of BPD (6%) is the same for men and women. See Prevalence, Correlates, Disability, and Comorbidity of DSM-IV Borderline Personality Disorder: Results from the Wave 2 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions.

June 24, 2012

It's madness, pure and simple, and the difference between you (and me in a former life) and other people is we try to make sense of it. Other people just shut it off and walk away. My advice to you is to do just that.

June 24, 2012

I agree. Certainly, that was my experience. My exW went into a rage, chasing me all over our apartment. Our grand daughter and my SIL took refuge from the yelling in one of the bedrooms and shut the door. I withdrew to the other bedroom and had to shut the door four times. On the fourth time, my exW started slamming it against the wall, trying to hit me with it. To prevent her from destroying the door and wall, I restrained her but, when she stepped backward, she tripped and fell down. She called the police and had me arrested for "brutalizing" her.

On the way to jail, the cops explained to me that, next time she had a temper tantrum, it was important that I be the first person to call the police. It is the policy in this city, they said, that -- when in doubt -- to arrest the spouse that did NOT make the call and then let the judge figure it out in arraignment.

No doubt, the policy varies greatly city to city. I nonetheless believe that there is a great bias in our society toward blaming the male whenever there is doubt -- and there usually is much doubt. Further, many males are too embarrassed to report being abused by a woman because it is "unmanly" and weak to admit that one needs help in handling a woman. A 1994 study by Stets and Straus, for example, found that "men are only one-tenth as likely to call police when assaulted as are women." See p. 32 of http://lab.drdondutton.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/DUTTON-2006-DOMESTIC-ABUSE-ASSESSMENT-IN-CHILD-CUSTODY-DISPUTES.pdf.

I therefore agree, M30, that public arrest records greatly overstate the role of men in family violence. I suspect that, of the many arrest statistics offered above by Kathy, the closest to the truth is that shown in the prevalence of DV arrests seen in gay couples (15%) versus lesbian couples (11%), because much of the gender-specific biases are removed when you are comparing M-M domestic violence rates against F-F domestic violence rates. Kathy credits those figures to Patricia Tjaden, Symposium on Integrating Responses to Domestic Violence: Extent and Nature of Intimate Partner Violence as measured by the National Violence Against Women Survey, 47 Loy. L. Rev. 41, 54 (2003).

Finally, I note that a 1993 Canadian study found that nearly all batterers (of spouses or children) have a personality disorder and that half of them have BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder). See Melton's description of the study at Romeo's Bleeding - When Mr. Right Turns Out To Be Mr. Wrong -- Health & Wellness -- Sott.net.

If that finding is representative, it is significant to our discussion because a large-scale study (pub. 2008) found that the incidence of BPD (6%) is the same for men and women. See Prevalence, Correlates, Disability, and Comorbidity of DSM-IV Borderline Personality Disorder: Results from the Wave 2 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions.

That's an interesting study in your last paragraph. The most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders states that the prevailance of BPD is 2% of the population, with 75% of those being women. So now it's 6% of the population who have BPD with equal distribution between men and women. You're bringing in child abuse statistics into this mix though, when you said half of all those in prison for domestic abuse or child abuse have BPD. You're skewing the results there by adding child abuse to the mix. Many domestic abuse perpetrators suffer from Antisocial or Narcissistic Personality Disorder. This really doesn't refute what I've said at all. 84% of all those arrested for domestic abuse are male--down from 90% since the adoption of mandatory arrest laws, which cause women who are defending themselves against abuse to also be arrested. I don't want to dismiss the fact that there are genuinely male victims that are abused by females that are not retaliatory, but it's still heavily perpetrated by males. (84% or more).

June 24, 2012

The most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders states that the prevailance of BPD is 2% of the population, with 75% of those being women.

The "most recent" DSM is many years out of date and thus is being replaced next May with DSM5. DSM-IV was published in 1980. Only one large scale of BPD prevalence has ever been done anywhere, due to the enormous expense. That study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, took four years to complete and was published in 2008 -- finding that BPD is about 6% for both women and men.

The earlier studies, which yielded 2% figures, were all based on very small samples of clinical diagnoses -- which were not only small but biased because therapists are loath to tell BPDers the name of their disorder for fear of harming them (either driving them away or causing a complete loss of insurance coverage). This is why the large scale study was not done based on clinical diagnoses but, rather, face to face interviews and tests with nearly 35,000 American adults.

June 25, 2012

The "most recent" DSM is many years out of date and thus is being replaced next May with DSM5. DSM-IV was published in 1980. Only one large scale of BPD prevalence has ever been done anywhere, due to the enormous expense. That study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, took four years to complete and was published in 2008 -- finding that BPD is about 6% for both women and men.

The earlier studies, which yielded 2% figures, were all based on very small samples of clinical diagnoses -- which were not only small but biased because therapists are loath to tell BPDers the name of their disorder for fear of harming them (either driving them away or causing a complete loss of insurance coverage). This is why the large scale study was not done based on clinical diagnoses but, rather, face to face interviews and tests with nearly 35,000 American adults.

Actually, the most recent DSM (DSM IV), was published in 2000 (12 years ago), and a prior edition of the DSM IV was published in 1997. It's possible the DSM III was published in 1980. According to the DSM IV published in 2000 (the one I have), 2% of the population had BPD, with 75% of those female. Perhaps they will change those figures in the next DSM V edition next year based on the study you mentioned. That's very surprising that BPD is so prevalent (1 in 17 people have BPD?). Wow. I know it often goes undiagnosed, or sometimes gets confused with other disorders, such as bipolar, and it is often comorbid and the person is diagnosed with something else and the BPD does not get diagnosed.

June 26, 2012

Kathy, thanks for the correction. I don't know whether the 6% figure will appear in the DSM5 or not. I expect that it will but the committee could always take the very conservative approach of not using a figure that has not been verified by another study. That seems unlikely, however, because they may have to wait 20 or 30 years before another study of 35,000 adults is funded and undertaken.

I believe the 6% figure substantially understates the problem. It reflects the prevalence of BPDers who, at some point in their lifetimes, have BPD traits so severe that they meet 100% of the diagnostic guidelines. Yet, because BPD is a spectral disorder, there likely are more people having moderate to strong BPD traits that never rise to the diagnostic level. (Indeed, this is why DSM5 abandons the dichotomous approach in favor of a graduated approach to diagnosis.)

Even when BPD traits are well below the diagnostic level, they can be strong enough to make your life miserable and undermine a marriage. Hence, when these other BPD sufferers are included, I would not be surprised if the prevalence rises to at least 8 or 9% -- making such strong traits at least as common as left handedness. I have seen no study results, however, to support these higher figures.

July 1, 2012

Thanks Kathy for the info. Wow, lots of stuff there. I read about my own race in there. Thanks for the stats.

Downtown, sorry that happened to you.

July 1, 2012

Kathy, thanks for the correction. I don't know whether the 6% figure will appear in the DSM5 or not. I expect that it will but the committee could always take the very conservative approach of not using a figure that has not been verified by another study. That seems unlikely, however, because they may have to wait 20 or 30 years before another study of 35,000 adults is funded and undertaken.

I believe the 6% figure substantially understates the problem. It reflects the prevalence of BPDers who, at some point in their lifetimes, have BPD traits so severe that they meet 100% of the diagnostic guidelines. Yet, because BPD is a spectral disorder, there likely are more people having moderate to strong BPD traits that never rise to the diagnostic level. (Indeed, this is why DSM5 abandons the dichotomous approach in favor of a graduated approach to diagnosis.)

Even when BPD traits are well below the diagnostic level, they can be strong enough to make your life miserable and undermine a marriage. Hence, when these other BPD sufferers are included, I would not be surprised if the prevalence rises to at least 8 or 9% -- making such strong traits at least as common as left handedness. I have seen no study results, however, to support these higher figures.

A person would have to have five out of the nine diagnostic criteria in order to be diagnosed with BPD. It would be hard to imagine that more than 6% of the population would meet five out of nine of the symptoms. That figure seems quiet high for such a serious disorder as BPD. But I'm sure you're right that many people have some BPD tendencies, but not enough to be diagnosed with the disorder.

July 1, 2012

I'm sure you're right that many people have some BPD tendencies....

Actually, ALL people have "some BPD tendencies." Every adult on the planet occasionally exhibits all nine of the BPD traits. At low levels, these traits are essential for our survival and thus arise from primitive ego defenses. They become a problem only when they are so strong that they distort our perceptions of other peoples' intentions and motivations -- thereby undermining our ability to sustain long term relationships.

July 1, 2012

Actually, ALL people have "some BPD tendencies." Every adult on the planet occasionally exhibits all nine of the BPD traits. At low levels, these traits are essential for our survival and thus arise from primitive ego defenses. They become a problem only when they are so strong that they distort our perceptions of other peoples' intentions and motivations -- thereby undermining our ability to sustain long term relationships.

I would not agree with you there. To say a tendency is borderline, it has to be outside of what is normal. For example, one characteristic of borderlines is to have recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior. I can safely say that I have never made threats or attempts of suicide or engaged in self-mutilating behavior, and I'm sure there are many others who have not. But I would say that every adult on the planet has some tendencies towards a disorder (not necessarily BPD). Some people have a narcissistic tendency, but would not have enough symptoms to be diagnosed with that disorder. Some have an avoidant tendency, but not enough to be diagnosed with Avoidant Personality Disorder.

Do abusers reverse order of events?

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