This file was prepared for electronic distribution by the inforM staff. Questions or comments should be directed to inform-editor@umail.umd.edu. Appendix A DOMESTIC CRIMES IN THE UNITED STATES Crimes committed against women continue to be among the most under-reported of all crimes. The timeline in Chapter II demonstrates the widespread nature of violence against women. However, it is important to put that timeline in a nationwide, year-long, perspective. Unfortunately, there is no official estimate of violent crimes against women. Until recently, few states collected enough information to indicate how many of the crimes reported to police were comrnitted against women and how many were committed against men. Similarly, crimes reported as domestic violence were rarely identified (e.g.an aggravated assault by an unknown assailant was not distinguished from an aggravated assault by a husband). This process, however, is beginning to change. A number of states now collect enough data to estimate the number of domestic crimes in a year. We have assembled this data and projected the number nationally, yielding the first national figure for domestic crimes reported to the police. Table A-1 is a state-by-state breakdown of the 17 states that keep state-wide 1991 data on either reported domestic violence offenses, or could provide victim\offender relationship for the crimes that make up the Uniform Crime Report's (UCR) Class I crimes (murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.) The Nature of the Data The data varies from state to state depending on the kind of data collection each state performs. Some states track a single domestic assault or abuse category, while others record all of the types of violence that occur in domestic situations. The footnotes for the table detail the exact make-up of each state's domestic crime total. Extrapolating A National Figure The 17 states that collect domestic crime information account for 43% of the population of the United States. Extrapolating from the total of 589,228 domestic crimes for the 17 states -- by multiplying by the ratio of the population of the 17 states to the population of the United States -- produces an estimate of 1.37 million domestic violence offenses reported to the police in 1991. In order to verify this methodology -- and this estimate -- we utilized this same methodology for similar crimes where we had both the 17-state total and the national total. For example, the national rape total revealed by multiplying the 17-state total by the ratio of the population of the 17 states is within 1% -- 106,663 as compared to 106,593 -- of the actual total. It is important to note, however, that the estimate of 1.37 million domestic violence crimes is not entirely made up of violence against women. Unfortunately, many of the states that collect information on domestic crimes do not distinguish between female and male victims. From the limited number of states that collect this information, we estimate that roughly 83% of the victims of domestic crimes reported to the police are women. This estimate was generated by averaging data obtained from five states that provide information on the sex of domestic crimes victims. ** This percentage translates into a staggering 1.13 million American women who are victims of reported domestic violence every year. **The percentages from the five states were: Maine 75.32%, Michigan 82.84%, New York 86.15%, West Virginia 89.57%, and Wisconsin 80.4% Undercounting Our estimated total of domestic crimes in the United States is an extremely conservative estimate. Even when a "domestic violence" total is reported, many states exclude broad crime categories from the total (e.g., some states do not include rapes or kidnapping with their "domestic crimes" total). Our estimate does not count unreported cases, (perhaps three times the number of reported cases). Nor does it count all cases of domestic crime reported to the police: some rapes and murders are not classified by police as domestic crimes even if they occur between spouses or family members. Other Calculations In addition to the national domestic violence estimate, the data collected also permits estimates of the percentage of reported aggravated assaults and sexual assaults that occur in domestic situations. We compared the data -- from states that collect both domestic aggravated assault and domestic sexual assault totals -- with the UCR's totals for aggravated assault and sexual assault. From this information we were able to estimated the percentage of aggravated assaults and sexual assaults that occur in domestic situations. ** Table A-2 presents the states used in developing the aggravated assault total and Table A-3 shows the states used in the sexual assault total. We found that an astonishing l/5th of all reported aggravated assaults -- assaults where the victim suffered serious bodily injury -- occur in domestic situations, and more than 16% of all reported sexual assaults are domestic in nature. ** States that provided specific domestic aggravated assault and domestic sexual assault information were used for these estimates. Because the sample size is much smaller than for the national estimate, these estimates do not have the same accuracy level. Table A-1 Domestic Crimes Reported to the Police in 1991 Reported Domestic State Population Violence Offenses Alabama 4,089,000 5,400 (1) California 30,380,000 203,638 (2) Connecticut 3,291,000 21,520 (2) Delaware 680,000 6,548 (3) Florida 13,277,000 99,802 (4) Maine 1,235,000 3,760 (2) Maryland 4,860,000 16,388 (5) Michigan 9,368,000 27,204 (2) Montana 808,000 2,091 (2) New Jersey 7,760,000 55,698 (6) New York 18,058,000 79,190 (7) Olklahoma 3,175,000 15,020 (8) South Carolina 3,560,000 20,016 (9) Vermont 567,000 1,343 (10) West Virginia 1,802,000 4,142 (11) Wisconsin 4,955,000 24,163 (2) Wyoming 460,000 3,305 (6) Total 108,325,000 589,228 Total Population of the United States 252,177,000 Estimated Total of Reported Domestic Crimes in the United States 1,370,000 Percentage of Women Victims of Domestic Crime 82.85% Total Female Victims of Reported Domestic Crime in the United States 1,130,000 Table A-l Footnotes (1)Homicides, forcible rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults in domestic situations. (2)Domestic abuse (causing, attempting to cause bodily injury, or placing another in reasonable apprehension of serious bodily injury in domestic situations.) (3)Simple assault committed in a domestic situations. (4)Homicides, sexual assaults and other sex offenses, aggravated and simple assaults committed in domestic situations. (5)Spousal Battery. (6)Homicides, assaults, kidnapping, sexual assaults, other sex offenses, harassment, and other crimes in domestic situations. (7)Aggravated and simple assaults, sex offenses, violations of protective orders, and other crimes in domestic situations. (8)Homicides, sexual assaults, assaults, and battery in domestic situations. (9)Domestic aggravated and simple assaults. (10)Offenses against the family, not including homicide, rape, or assault. (11)Homicides, aggravated and simple assaults, sexual assaults, and other crimes in domestic situations. Table A-2 Domestic Aggravated Assualts Reported to the Police Domestic Total Aggravated Aggravated State Population Assaults Assaults Alabama 4,089,000 5,400 26,348 Florida 13,277,000 24,706 96,047 New Jersey 7,760,000 5,757 23,848 New York 18,058,000 8,441 90,186 Oklahoma 3,175,000 5,068 12,594 West Virginia 1,802,000 126 2,135 Total 48,161,000 49,498 251,158 Percentage of Aggravated Assaults in Domestic Situations 20% Table A-3 Domestic Sexual Assualts Reported to the Police Domestic Total Sexual Sexual State Population Assaults Assaults Alabama 4,089,000 156 1,455 Florida 13,277,000 1,825 6,865 New Jersey 7,760,000 82 2,259 Texas 17,349,000 1,120 9,266 Wyoming 460,000 28 119 Total 42,935,000 3,211 19,964 Percentage of Sexual Assualts in Domestic Situations 16%