Violence Against Women

The Facts:

- "1 in 6 American women has been the victim of completed or attempted rape. (2004 National Crime Victimization Survey)." -vday.org


- "In a 1995 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease control, 1 in 5 female college students answered “yes” to the question “In your lifetime have you been forced to submit to sexual intercourse against your will?”(Douglas, K. A. et al. (1997). Results from the 1995 national college health risk behavior survey. Journal of American College Health, 46, 55-66.)." vday.org

- "64% of women who reported being raped, physically assaulted, and/or stalked since age 18 were victimized by a current or former husband, cohabiting partner, boyfriend, or date. (Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women, Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November, 2000)." -feminist.com

- "1 of every 7 victims of sexual assault reported to law enforcement agencies were under age 6. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Incident-Based Reporting System, based on reports from law enforcement agencies of 12 States from 1991 through 1996." -vday.org

- "A random survey of 2,627 women and men conducted by the Los Angeles Times found that 27% of the women and 16% of the men had been incestuously abused as children (By Silence Betrayed, John Crewsdon, Little Brown, 1988)." vday.org

- "US Bureau of Justice found that family violence accounted for 11 to 33 percent of all violent crime from 1998 to 2002, depending on whether the source was victimization surveys or police data." -vday.org

- "# Domestic violence is the major cause of death and disability for European women aged 16 to 44 and accounts for more death and ill-health than cancer or traffic accidents. (reported by Amnesty International) http://web.amnesty.org/actforwomen/domestic-index-eng " -vday.org

- Women with abusive partners often report increase rates of violence when they are pregnant. Women with abusive partners are at an increased risk of being killed by their partner when they are pregnant.

- In Ghana, 1 in 7 (15%) females had been the victims of female genital mutilation (Coker-Appiah & Cusack, 1999; Ghana National Study on Violence 1998,survey of 2,069 women and girls supplemented by a five-year review of official records). -vday.org

- In the United States more than half the cases of violence against women go unreported.

For information on ways you can help end violence against women, go to:

now.org
stopvaw.org/
unifem.org
vday.org
womenshealth.gov/violence

or contact your local women's shelter to find out about you can help in your area.

HIV/AIDS in the United States

1. The current most at risk population, for contracting HIV in the United States of America, is African-American women.

2. Of women, those under the age of 34 are most at risk for contracting HIV.

3. HIV/AIDS is a common killer, only second to heart disease and cancer.

4. For women the most common routes of transmission are: unprotected sex with an HIV+ man, and intravenous drug use (sharing infected needles).

5. HIV+ women who are pregnant can transmit HIV to the fetus, however there are medications that can be taken to lower the risk. HIV can also be transmitted through breast-feeding.

Resources:

Information on prevention challenges specific to women:
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/women/challenges.htm

Information for women of color:
http://www.womenshealth.gov/minority/africanamerican/hiv.cfm

Information on what women can do to protect themselves:
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/women/protection.htm

Information on HIV for women with same-sex partners:
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/women/resources/factsheets/wsw.htm

Information on HIV for transwomen (click on slide link):
http://www.aidsetc.org/aidsetc?page=cf-trans-te

Information on surveillance of HIV in U.S. including rates by state:
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/resources/slides/women/index.htm