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Chapter I A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF AMERICAN WOMEN Almost four years ago, the Surgeon General of the United States warned that violence was the number one public health risk to adult women in the United States. -2 Unfortunately, four years later, it still remains the "leading cause of injuries to women ages 15-44," -3 more common than automobile accidents, muggings, and cancer deaths combined. * Some experts estimate that a woman has between a 1 in 5 and a 1 in 3 chance of being physically assaulted by a partner or ex-partner during her lifetime; total domestic violence, reported and unreported, affects as many as 4 million women a year. -4 * Experts estimate that a woman has between a 1 in 5 and a 1 in 8 chance of being raped in her lifetime; that means that at least 12.1 million women in America today have been victims of forcible rape. -5 * Three out of every four women will be the victim of a violent crime sometime during their life. -6 I. BEYOND STATISTICS: A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF INDIVIDUAL WOMEN Unfortunately, these statistics have not spoken loudly enough. If we are to fully appreciate this problem, we must put ourselves in the position of those who suffer from the violence. We must come to a more vivid, more human, understanding of the problem. To help achieve that, we conducted a random survey of a week in the life of violence against American women. We picked a single week, the first seven days of September, and called the institutions that come into contact with women victimized by violence and abuse -- rape crisis centers, emergency rooms, domestic violence shelters, and police stations. We asked for reports of violence against women occurring during the week of September 1 through September 7. The toll of violence against women -- the picture behind the numbers -- is demonstrated by our random selection of 200 all-too-real stories told by women to rape crisis centers, battered women shelters and police. Arranged in chronological order, each of these stories is told in Chapter II.** The result is a horrifying portrait of violence. Across the nation -- in big cities, small towns, and rural areas -- every week is a week of terror for at least 21,000 American women. For example, data we have collected from across the nation shows, for the first time, the number of domestic crimes reported to the police. Projected nationally, we have found that: * In 1991, 21,000 domestic crimes were reported to the police each week; * Almost 1/5 of all aggravated assaults (20%) reported to the police are aggravated assaults in the home; * These figures reveal a total of at least 1.1 million assaults, aggravated assaults, murders, and rapes against women reported to the police in 1991; unreported crimes may be more than three times this total. -7 ** The timeline's methodology is described in Appendix B. II. WHAT THE TIMELINE SHOWS: THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG Although our survey presents an extremely disturbing picture of violence against women, it represents only a very small portion of the violence. Our timeline that appears in Chapter II includes 200 incidents occurring over a period of 7 days -- September 1 through September 7. It takes 20 pages of text to describe, yet it represents just a fraction of the incidents that occur in a single week: * The 200 incidents reported in our survey represent less than 1/100th of the violent attacks against women that are reported to the police every week. If we were to include every reported incident, our timeline would be more than 2,000 pages long -- just for a single week. And if we were to add all the unreported crimes, our timeline would extend more than 7,000 pages. A. THE TERRIFYING HUMAN COST From across the nation, in big towns, rural areas, and major cities, our survey demonstrates the terrible human cost and suffering of violence against women. Here are some of the cases reported to us on a single day, Tuesday, September 1, 1992: * A 35-year-old Colorado woman is choked in her home by her husband of one year; she flees to another state where a restraining order is issued. * A 25-year-old Connecticut woman is leaving a shopping center when a stranger forces her into a car. He rapes her at knife-point and steals her car. * A 27-year-old Florida woman, six-months pregnant, is attacked by her live-in boyfriend, who chokes her, hits her in the forehead, and threatens to drop her on her head. The tragedy continues throughout the week. Wednesday, September 2 1992: On Wednesday, a nine-year-old girl in Texas reports that she has been raped by her father; a 43-year-old California woman is kidnapped and sodomized; a 15-year-old Connecticut girl is stabbed by her boyfriend who has just been released from jail for physically abusing her; an Idaho woman is raped by her boss after an office party; a 35-year-old Maine woman is raped by her husband as their children cry outside the bedroom door. Thursday September 3, 1992: On Thursday, it continues: a 22-year-old Colorado woman misses her bus to work and accepts a ride with two unknown men, who beat and rape her, leaving her in a public park; a 46-year-old woman in New Mexico is thrown out of a moving car by her husband, and, as a result, is treated at the hospital for a broken tailbone and abrasions; a 31-year-old Baltimore woman is beaten, choked and raped by a former friend as the attacker brandishes a knife; a 28-year-old Maryland woman is raped by a co-worker who is helping her move furniture. Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, September 4-7, 1992: On Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, all of this is repeated: A 27-year-old homeless woman is raped and beaten by two men and treated for serious injuries; a 15-year-old Washington girl is abducted while walking to school and raped by two people she has seen in her neighborhood; a middle-aged Missouri woman is raped by a family friend after she makes lunch for him; a Colorado woman is physically assaulted by her boyfriend at a fast food restaurant; a woman on an Indian reservation is punched and kicked by her husband and then walks several miles to the reservation police station; a New Mexico woman, eight-months pregnant, flees her home after her husband beats her with a broomstick and threatens to kill her; a 21-year-old woman is abducted at a bus stop by a stranger; a 30-year-old mother is beaten and raped by her husband. III. WHAT THE STORIES TELL US: SHATTERING THE MYTHS Beyond the shocking extent of the violence experienced by American women every day, what do these stories tell us? At the most basic level, they tell us that no one is immune. Violence happens to young women and old women, to rich women and poor women, to homeless women and working women. Indeed, these stories help to explode some of the most common myths we carry with us to deny and distance this terrible reality. A. MYTH: Being in the Wrong Place At the Wrong Time For example, our survey shows that "being in the right place at the right time" does not prevent violence. No area of the country is safe: violence happened in major cities and rural farmland, in Western states and Eastern communities, in southern cities and midwestern towns. Women were attacked in fast food restaurants, in public parks, at bus stops, in taxicabs, in parking lots, and on tennis courts. They were attacked at 7 in the morning and at 11 at night, at lunch and dinner, in the middle of the day and just after breakfast. B. MYTH: Domestic Crimes are Merely a "Push and a Shove" Contrary to the assumption of many, so-called "domestic violence" is not merely a push and a shove. Our survey shows acts of tremendous violence at home. Consider the following: * A 26-year-old Connecticut woman is attacked by her boyfriend of five years; he breaks her right arm with a hammer. * A Texas woman is threatened with a gun by her husband of 18 years. After slapping her, he tells her to load the gun. Threatening to kill her, he hits her with the butt of the gun, drawing blood and rendering her unconscious. * A 21-year-old Florida woman is beaten in the head by her father with a pipe three inches in diameter. * A 15-year-old Connecticut girl is stabbed by her ex-boyfriend, shortly after he has been released from jail for abusing her. * A 27-year-old New Mexico woman, eight-months pregnant, is pinned up against a wall of her home by her husband of five years. He beats her with a broomstick and threatens to kill her. * A Colorado woman is abused by her husband in their home. To frighten her, he breaks the legs of their dog and, to prevent her from leaving, he disables her car. C. MYTH: Violence Is Typically Caused by Strangers Finally, our survey shows that strangers are not the most dangerous sources of violence against women. The number of women attacked by those they loved, those they knew and those they had just met, far outweighed the number of women attacked by strangers. IV. WHAT THE STORIES TELL US: NEW DIMENSIONS While our survey helps to shatter some of the most basic myths about violence against women, it also helps to bring into focus some new, and important, dimensions of the problem. First, our survey makes clear that violence impairs some of the most fundamental liberties of life in America -- employment and educational opportunities. Second, the survey shows the extent to which violence against women involves repeat offenders and stalking behavior. Finally, our survey shows that the violence may have far reaching consequences, leaving a legacy of violence in children that will be replayed in their lives and relationships. A. The Effect on Everyday Lives Violence against women affects everyday lives, imperils jobs, infects the work-place, ruins leisure time and educational opportunities. In a single week our survey stories demonstrate all of these effects: A woman is raped after she misses her bus to get to work and accepts a ride from strangers; a woman is harassed in her work-place by her ex-boyfriend, and she is worried that she will lose her job. A woman trying to rent a room is raped by a man who answers her ad; a woman is raped by a man offering free landscaping estimates. A college student is raped by an acquaintance and drops out of school; another college student is raped by her academic advisor. It is no wonder that women ask themselves everyday what they must do to prevent violence, when they know that its cost may not only be paid in their lives, but also their livelihood and their education. B. The Repeat Offenders: Stalking, Recidivists, and Protective Orders The repetitive nature of violence against women is another disturbing dimension revealed by our survey. For example, we received a number of reports of harassing and stalking behavior. Consider the Connecticut woman who is stalked by a stranger for two months and then raped in her home by the stalker; or the Kansas woman who is followed by her ex-boyfriend, who repeatedly harasses her at work. Perhaps even more disturbing are the number of incidents that involve violence even after legal protection has been sought and obtained. Consider the 35-year-old mother at home with her child late in the afternoon when her ex-husband, against whom she has a protective order, breaks down her front door, forces her upstairs and then beats and rapes her. Or consider the 21-year-old Florida woman, with a protective order, whose boyfriend is making telephone calls threatening to kill her and kidnap her child. Or consider the 15-year-old girl who is stabbed by her 23-year-old boyfriend, who has just been released from jail for abusing her. C. The Other Victims: Children Finally, one of the saddest, and most troubling, aspects of our survey is the prominent role children play in these stories. Children were victims in a number of cases. Our survey includes 3-year-old, 8-year-old, 9-year-old, 12-year-old, and 14-year-old victims of rape or incest. But it is far more common to find reports in our survey where children are the indirect victims of violence: Like the two children in Connecticut who saw the rape of their mother and called 911; or the children who watched their mother as she was beaten by her husband of nine years; or the children who saw their 35-year- old mother threatened at knife- point by her husband. Unfortunately, studies show that these children may well learn to repeat the violent patterns they have witnesses. -8