Where can I find domestic violence stats?

Factual Questions
1

Actually…I guess what I’m really asking here is what domestic violence stats can I find that are considered reliable. Statistics from (admittedly fake organizations such as) “Women Haters of America” or “Men are Scum, Inc.” could probably be considered as suspect.

I have a friend who recently threw a stat at me that 1 out of 3 children are sexually molested. They got this stat while in training for an Abused Women Support Clinic and insist it’s reliable.

I’m not up on these numbers and I bet they are shocking whatever they are but 1 out of 3? If that is true it is worse than appalling (although I’m not suggesting that 1 out of 1,000 is somehow acceptable).

In addition my friend has been peppering me with other statistics that I sometimes find questionable as well. The class she is in, while worthwhile and good, seems to have somewhat of an agenda of its own. Every time I see her now she has a worse opinion of men as a whole.

Men certainly do many reprehensible things. I see no use in inflating the notion of our inherent evil beyond reality.

Please note again – I am looking for reliable sources of information. Sources that, as much as possible, can be considered to be without an agenda to find statistics one way or another. If in the end my friend’s stats are supported then so be it.

P.S. Stats accessible via the internet are preferable if possible.

2

First of all, I applaud you for wishing to get accurate info.

Part of the problem with finding it, comes from the fact that different states compile data differently, and ‘domestic abuse’, while it may be a specific crime, can also be charged under other assault legislation. But, I’ll give you some links to crime stats data (because it’ll be easier for me to just copy a page of stuff I have, it won’t be linked up nicely here, you’ll be seeing the actual link code and so on).

http://www.crime.org/fed-index.html - Federal crime stats index

National Crime stats link guide http://www.crime.org/links_nat.html

National Institute of Justice http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/

National archive of Criminal justice data:

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/

National Institute on Justice Child sexual molestation research issues: http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles/163390.txt

National Criminal Justice Statistics link http://www.ncjrs.org/statwww.html

US dept justice corrections statistics : http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/correct.html
yet another page of links from the National Criminal Justice Reseach S. Statistics : http://virlib.ncjrs.org/Statistics.asp

this aught to get you started.

3

[[Men certainly do many reprehensible things. I see no use in inflating the notion of our inherent evil beyond reality.]]

Yes, that’s counter-productive. BTW, Cecil wrote a column disputing the statistic that domestic violence against women goes up during the Super Bowl.

You may try calling your state Health Department. Many of them keep local stats and can provide you with national ones. Try the office of Epidemiology.
Jill