This file was prepared for electronic distribution by the inforM staff. Questions or comments should be directed to inform-editor@umail.umd.edu. Violence Against Women: A Week in the Life of America Prepared by the Majority Staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee September 1 September 2 September 3 September 4 ... October 1992 ************************************* VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN: A Week in the Life of America TABLE OF CONTENTS OVERVIEW Introduction by Chairman Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Summary and Fact Sheet CHAPTER I: A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF AMERICAN WOMEN I. Beyond Statistics: A Week in the Life of Individuals II. The Terrifying Human Cost III. What the Stories Tell Us: Shattering the Myths IV. What the Stories Tell Us: New Dimensions CHAPTER II: A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF AMERICAN WOMEN -- THE TIMELINE CHAPTER III: THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT -- A NATIONAL RESPONSE APPENDICES Appendix A: Domestic Crimes in the United States Appendix B: Methodology of the Timeline Survey Appendix C: Acknowledgments Endnotes Violence Against Women: A Week in the Life of America Prepared by the Majority Staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee September 1 September 2 September 3 September 4 ... October 1992 ************************************* INTRODUCTION Senator Joseph R Biden, Jr. Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee October 1, 1992 For some time now, I have shared the view of others that the nation does not fully comprehend the magnitude and severity of the problem of violence against women. Two years ago, I began a series of hearings held during 1990 and 1991 on the topics of rape, domestic violence, and existing legal protections. In tandem with those hearings, I introduced the Violence Against Women Act -- the first comprehensive legislation attacking the problem. Through this process, I have come to believe more firmly than ever that this nation will be powerless to change the course of violence against women, unless and until its citizens fully realize the devastation this violence yields. Today, we release a report that graphically portrays the human tragedy of a single "Week in the Life of Violence Against Women." Data we have collected from across the nation shows, for the first time ever, the terrifying extent of violence in the home every single week of the year. Projected nationally, we have found that: * In 1991, at least 21,000 domestic crimes against women were reported to the police everv 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 committed in the home and reported to the police in 1991; unreported crimes may be more than three times this total. A Week in the Life of Violence Against Women Unfortunately, statistics like these have not always spoken loud enough in the past. Rather than focusing on a list of statistics or tables of facts and figures, we decided to look for the human face behind these statistics. From a cross-section of cities and towns across the country, we have gathered the stories of individual women who survived violence during the first week of September. These stories show, in gripping detail, the tragic human face of violence -- a violence that destroys individual lives, rips apart families, and sends children on to repeat the violence of their parents. Our snapshot of one week in the life of violence against women demonstrates not only the extent but also the depth of the brutality experienced by individual women. Over and over again, in trying to understand violence against women, we heard stories like these: * A 26-year-old Connecticut woman is attacked by her boyfriend of five years; he breaks her right arm with a hammer. * A 46-year-old New Mexico woman is beaten and pushed out of a moving car by her husband. She spends three days in the hospital recovering from a broken tailbone and other injuries. * Two Nebraska women go to play tennis on a university campus early in the morning, where they are attacked by three men, who rape them. The victims report that their attackers later brag to them that they had been stalking them and they had similarly attacked other women. * A Texas woman is stabbed in her apartment by a stranger who enters through sliding glass doors in the middle of the night. * A 29-year-old Connecticut woman is assaulted with an axe by her ex-husband; he threatens to kill her and then rapes her. * A 14-year-old Florida babysitter is sexually assaulted by the father of the children she is babysitting. * A 21-year-old Florida woman is beaten in the head by her father with a three-inch diameter pipe. He is arrested after neighbors call the police. 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. Our survey includes stories from women attacked in fast food restaurants, in public parks, at bus stops, in taxi cabs, 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. Unfortunately, our timeline represents only the tip of the iceberg. Our snapshot of violence against women takes 20 pages of text to describe, yet it represents just a fraction of the crimes that occur in a single week. Based on our projection of the total number of domestic crimes against women, we have concluded that: * The 200 incidents in our survey represent less than 1/100th of the violent attacks against women reported to the police every week. If we were to have included every reported incident, our timeline would be 2,000 pages long -- just for a single week. And if we were to add all the unreported crimes, our timeline would have be extended by over 7,000 pages. The Violence Against Women Act I hope that this story will mobilize us to take affirmative action, to move forward toward creating an America that is a safer place for women. I had hoped, that by the time this report was ready for publication, I would be able to include in this Introduction a schedule for debating the Violence Against Women Act on the floor of the Senate and then passing the Act. Unfortunately, at this time of the Senate's session, floor time is exceedingly difficult to obtain unless there is assurance that a bill will not be the subject of extended debate, and I have not been able to obtain this assurance. Reluctantly, therefore, I am not able to announce such a schedule today. Notwithstanding, this legislation -- while only one step in changing the way this nation's legal system addresses violence against women -- remains a top legislative priority for me, and I shall diligently pursue its expeditious passage in the 103rd Congress. The Violence Against Women Act includes: * $300 million in increased aid to police, prosecutors and victim advocates to help survivors navigate the legal system successfully; * Model education programs in our public schools on domestic violence and sexual assault, starting as early as junior high school; * Rape shield protections for civil cases (like sexual harassment cases) and all criminal cases (current law does not apply to crimes other than sexual assault); * New programs to increase the arrest and prosecution of spouse abusers and to encourage states to experiment with legal reforms to aid victims of spouse abuse. And, most importantly, the bill would for the first time: * Permit women to bring civil rights suits for attacks committed simply because of their gender, just like existing law provides civil rights remedies for attacks motivated by racial or religious discrimination. Conclusion As I release this report today -- with its horrifying tale of what women in America face each week -- I think of the individuals who have bravely survived the violence reported here. I hope that the accounts and descriptions in the report will help illuminate the pervasive and serious -- indeed, truly tragic -- dimensions of violence against women in our society. The point of retelling these stories is not to sensationalize this problem, but to advance our understanding of it. Then, I trust that this understanding will motivate others to join the ranks of those seeking to change this pattern of suffering and victimization. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the members of my staff who spent so many hours on this report: Kim Amick, Kathy Malowney, Marc Parsons, Lisa Robinson, Steven Segaloff, Nancy Solomon, and Jennifer Vollen. Special thanks to Don Long, Lisa Monaco, and Joel Vengrin for coordinating everyone's efforts and to Sally Shafroth for her patience and tolerance of this project. I would also like to thank Chris Putala, David Lavallee, and Evelyn Lieberman for their insightful comments. Finally, I owe much to the extraordinary commitment and dedication of Victoria Nourse, whose expertise guided all aspects of this report's preparation. Without the combined intelligence and diligence of all of these persons, this report could never have been written. Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. October, 1992 JUDICIARY COMMITTEE MAJORITY STAFF REPORT A Week in the Life of America's Women SUMMARY From across the nation, from small towns to major metropolitan areas, from mid-size cities to rural communities, reports during the week of September 1, 1992, showed that violence against women continues to plague this country. Here is a brief sample of the incidents we found: * September 1, 1992, 7:30 a.m., a city in Nebraska: Two women are playing tennis on a university campus. Three men attack them and use the women's clothing to tie them up. They are both violently raped. The victims report that their attackers later brag to them that they had been stalking them and they had similarly attacked other women. * September 2, 1992, 6:30 p.m., a small city in Connecticut: A 29-year-old woman is assaulted with an axe by her ex-husband; he threatens to kill her and then rapes her. * September 2, 1992, Time Unknown, a small city in West Virginia: A young woman is raped by an acquaintance while she is baby-sitting. The children witness the rape. Neighbors hear her screaming, but assume she is having a disagreement with the children. Charges are brought. * September 3,1992,1:00 p.m., California: An 18-year-old mentally disabled woman walks to a store to buy a soda; three men abduct her and take her to a town 45 minutes away. She is sodomized by all three men, who leave her in a field. * September 3, 1992, Time Unknown, Florida: A 21-year-old woman is beaten in the head by her father with a three-inch diameter pipe. He is arrested after neighbors call the police. * September, 7, 1992, 2:00 p.m., New Mexico: A 20-year-old woman, six-months pregnant, is beaten and abandoned by her boyfriend of one year. 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 Chapter II WEEK IN THE LIFE OF AMERICAN WOMEN: THE TIMELINE Appearing below are 200 incidents of violence against women occurring during the week of September 1-7, 1992. These incidents were picked randomly from responses to a telephone survey of over 200 rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, emergency rooms and police stations. Of the over 200 locations contacted, we were able to obtain information from 85 centers. A. What the Survey Shows Based on our tally of statewide reported crime totals, we believe the 200 incidents below represent less than l/l00th of the actual violence committed against women in a single week in America. B. What the Survey Does Not Show The survey does not attempt to list all violent crime against women in proportion to national rates. For example, one cannot predict from this sample the relative proportions of various crimes or various victims; nor is the geographic distribution representative of the geographic distribution of crimes of violence against women.** Furthermore, because this report was intended to uncover detailed stories -- not just aggregate numbers -- these stories are drawn primarily from the reports of rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters. As a result, it does not take into account many other kinds of violence not typically reported to these institutions such as kidnappings, assaults outside the home, and property crimes like robbery. Nevertheless, this sample clearly reveals the intensity, the scope and the depth of the problem -- all in the short span of seven days. Confidentiality Concerns In collecting this information, every effort was made to be sensitive to survivors of these crimes as well as to the concerns of those supplying us with these stories. No names or identities were gathered or mentioned. The names of cities or towns in which incidents occurred, if known, have been omitted. Moreover, the 200 stories included in the timeline were selected to represent the overall picture of violence against women; no conscious effort was made to choose the most violent acts. Finally, some details of a sexual nature were omitted to avoid any appearance of impropriety or sensationalism. Finally, we emphasize that the stories listed below repeat the reports given to us by other persons. They are allegations of violence not adjudicated complaints. **See Appendix B: Methodology of the Timeline Survey A Week In the Life of Violence Against Women TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1,1992 12:45 a.m. - Rural California -- A woman with five children (11-months old to 11-years old) is physically abused by her husband. He punches her in the head with his fist. She sustains bruises. She escapes and runs to a friend's house for the night. She reports that she is afraid to call the sheriff because her husband threatens to take their 11-month old baby. 1:00 a.m. - A city in Texas -- A 21-year-old woman is sexually assaulted in her home by an acquaintance. The case is reported to the police and the victim goes to the hospital. 2-3:00 a.m. - A city in Texas -- A 13-year-old girl is sexually assaulted in her home by a 16-year-old friend. The victim also reports to a local hotline that she was assaulted at age eight by another offender. 7:30 a.m. - A city in Nebraska -- Two women are playing tennis on a university campus. Three men attack them and use the women's clothes to tie them up. They are both violently raped. The victims report that their attackers later brag to them that they had been stalking them and they had similarly attacked other women. 7:40 a.m. - A city in Colorado -- A 29-year-old woman is assaulted by her 30-year-old husband. She is leaving their home with their children (ages 4, 9, and 10) when he grabs her and drags her to the bedroom. She sustains bruises. She calls the police. Early Morning - Rural Texas -- A 38-year-old woman reports to the police that the previous evening, she and her daughter (age 18) were battered by the daughter's husband. He came home after drinking and attacked the women in the mother's home. Three children are present during the beating, two from the mother (ages 13 and 16) and one from the daughter (10 months); they are uninjured. Early Morning - Rural Texas -- A 33-year-old woman enters a local shelter after 15 years of abuse by her husband. She reports that he has tried to choke her and pulled a knife on her. She is seeking a protective order. Time Unknown - Northern California -- A 40-year-old woman is physically abused by her husband. They have three children (13-year-old son, 11-year- old daughter, and 6-year-old son). The woman has a restraining order. The husband has a gun in his house. The husband and his friends stalk and assault the woman. She calls the sheriff. Morning - Kansas -- A woman is beaten by her husband of two months. She reports that her husband was drunk when he beat her and that she is fearful that the abuse will extend to her daughter. 12:00 p.m. - Suburban Connecticut -- A 35-year-old mother of three is raped. The attacker is a stranger who has been stalking the woman for two months. He has followed her to the bank, pediatrician and grocery store. He beats her and attempts to strangle her with a rope. Her three children witness the rape and call 911. 12:20 p.m. - Rural West Virginia -- A woman arrives with her daughter at a local woman's shelter, having been beaten by her husband. She has bruises on her face where he hit her with his fist. 12:30 p.m. - A city in Colorado -- A 35-year-old woman is choked in her home by her husband of one year. She flees to another state where a restraining order is issued. Afternoon - West Virginia -- A 70-year-old woman trying to rent an apartment in her house, is raped by a man who answers her advertisement. 3:05 p.m. - A large city in Kansas -- A 20-year-old woman comes into a local shelter with her son who is 16-months old. Her husband had come home from work with friends and hit her in the head, threatening to take the baby and run away. She suffers bruises. 3:30 p.m. - A large city in Kansas -- A 22-year-old woman comes into a domestic violence shelter because she wants to leave her 27-year-old live- in boyfriend who locks her and her two children in the bathroom. She escapes through the bathroom window fearing further violence. 4:22 p.m. - A city in West Virginia -- A 20-year-old woman calls a local hotline, her husband has been beating her with his fists and she needs help in obtaining a restraining order. 4:23 p.m. - A city in West Virginia -- A call from the hospital comes into a local hotline. A woman has been brought into the emergency room because her husband has severely beaten her in a drunken rage. Time Unknown - Illinois -- An 18-year-old woman, a college freshman, is sexually assaulted by her academic advisor. 4:50 p.m. - Colorado -- A 46-year-old woman reports being threatened with a gun by her estranged husband. Time Unknown - A city in Southern California -- A woman in her 30s is raped by a family member in her home. She reports that this is not the first such incident. Time Unknown - A city in Southern California -- A 15-year-old girl phones a local crisis line to report that she has been raped by an acquaintance that afternoon. Late Afternoon - Maine -- A woman in her early twenties is thrown out of her trailer home by her live-in boyfriend as her two sons, ages two and three, watch. Bruised and cut she attempts to leave with her sons. The two-year-old child is taken from her hands by her boyfriend and she is ordered to leave and threatened with further physical violence. She departs from her home with one of her children, but does not contact the police. 5:00 p.m. - Suburban Connecticut - A 26-year-old woman is attacked by her boyfriend of five years. He breaks her right arm with a hammer. 5:30 p.m. - Colorado -- A 37-year-old woman is beaten by her husband of nine years; her two youngest children watch. Early Evening - A town in Michigan -- A 44-year-old woman is beaten by her husband when he returns home from work. She reports that he has choked her and beaten her with his fists and various household objects. Their two young children are present. Evening - Kansas -- A woman phones a local hotline. Her live-in boyfriend returned home from work today and beat her up. She has two daughters (ages six and three). She reports that he has physically abused the children in the past. 6:45 p.m. - Kansas -- A 19-year-old woman is beaten by her husband, who threatens to kill her. When she leaves the house, he makes threatening gestures with a kitchen knife, threatening to kill her and take their baby to Mexico. Evening - Kansas -- A 30-year-old woman and mother of two children, awakens to find her husband standing over her with a gun. She reports that he has threatened her repeatedly with a pistol and a shotgun. 7:00 p.m. - A city in Washington state -- An 18-year-old woman is given a ride by some people she recognizes from her neighborhood. They take her to an abandoned house where they rape her and keep her overnight before she manages to escape. She is treated at a local hospital for injuries. Evening - A city in Maryland -- A 32-year-old woman is raped in her home by two male acquaintances. She calls a rape crisis line. 9:00 p.m. - A city in New Mexico -- A 57-year-old woman is crossing the parking lot of a friend's apartment when a man asks her if she wants a drink. She ignores him and continues walking. He then chases her across the parking lot, throws her down on the ground and grabs her throat. He threatens to kill her. She tries to fight him off. He forces her to take off her clothes and he ejaculates on her stomach. She begins to scream and he flees when someone comes out of the apartment building. 10:00 p.m. - A city in Texas -- A 30-year-old woman is sexually assaulted by her ex-boyfriend and his brother. The same ex-boyfriend assaulted her a year ago. She goes to the police and to the hospital. 10:30 p.m. - Suburban Connecticut -- A 25-year-old woman is leaving a shopping center. A stranger forces her into her car. They drive a few blocks and he rapes her at knifepoint. He then steals her car. 11:00 p.m. - A small city in Connecticut -- A 30-year-old woman is attacked by her husband of five years. He uses his closed fist to assault her, knocking out her front tooth and causing a black eye. Their three children are present during the attack. She obtains a restraining order. Midnight - Suburban Connecticut -- A 19-year-old university student is raped by another student behind the campus football stadium. She reports that she intends to file charges. Time Unknown - A large city in Texas -- A 33-year-old woman is sexually assaulted in her home by her brother's friend. She suffers bruises during the assault. She reports the case to the police, but does not pursue formal charges. Time Unknown - A small city in Connecticut -- A 32-year-old woman reports that she was raped a few days ago in her home by an acquaintance. The assailant is a vacuum cleaner salesman who initially met the victim through a product demonstration in her home. He pressed her for a date; she agreed. On their first date, he rapes her. She is hospitalized with multiple injuries. The police are never contacted. Since then, the assailant has continued to harass her, with several demands for another "date." Time Unknown - A county in Florida -- A 27-year-old woman who is six-months pregnant is attacked by her live-in boyfriend. He chokes her, hits her in the forehead, forces her to have sex with him and picks her up by her feet and threatens to drop her on her head. He then makes harassing telephone calls to her at home and at work. Time Unknown - Suburban Connecticut -- A 17-year-old girl reports that her grandfather raped her at his home. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1992 3:00 a.m. - A city in northern California -- A 43-year-old woman is kidnapped from a street near her house by a stranger who forces her into his car. He takes her to a remote area where he rapes, beats and sodomizes her. She goes to the hospital and reports the incident to police. 10:00 a.m. - A small city in Connecticut -- A 35-year-old mother of three is raped by her daughter's 21-year-old boyfriend. He has a knife and cuts her during the assault. 10:00 a.m. - Rural Texas -- A nine-year-old girl who lives with her grandmother reports a rape by her father during one of his visits. She is brought to the police with the help of her grandmother. The victim tells the police that this is not the first time her father has assaulted her. 10:15 a.m. - Rural Kansas -- A 25-year-old woman is hit in the face repeatedly by her husband causing visible lacerations near her mouth and forehead, a black eye and a swollen cheek. 11:00 a.m. - Rural Oregon -- A woman in her 30s is raped by a stranger in her home. The perpetrator advertised in a local paper that he was a landscaper and would provide free estimates. The victim answered the ad. Time Unknown - Suburban Connecticut -- After eight months of beatings, a middle-aged woman reports the physical abuse by her husband. She reports to a shelter with a black eye. The couple have been married for 12 years. The victim now has a restraining order against her husband. 2:00 p.m. - Rural Texas -- A l9-year-old woman is abused by her husband and she flees to a shelter. She had tried to leave him in August, but he chased her with a knife, and then proceeded to smash her car window with the knife. He was arrested by police, but later released. Time Unknown - A town in Texas -- A woman is beaten in her home by her husband from whom she has been separated for seven months. He throws her against the wall and chokes her. She suffers bruising to her throat, a concussion, and other injuries. She goes to the emergency room. The case is reported to authorities. 3:00 p.m. - Suburban Colorado -- A 40-year-old mother of three is physically abused by her husband of 18 years. He throws a lamp at her and hits her in the face, then locks her in the apartment. Mid-afternoon - Alaska -- A woman is physically abused by her husband of five years. He hits her in the face and tries to stab her in the stomach with a knife. He then shreds her clothes and belongings with a knife. Time Unknown - West Virginia -- A young woman is raped by an acquaintance while she is babysitting. The children witness the rape. Neighbors hear her screaming but think she is having a disagreement with the children. Charges are brought. 6:30 p.m. - A small city in Connecticut -- A 29-year-old woman is assaulted with an axe by her ex-husband. He threatens to kill her and then rapes her. Their two children, ages two and four, are in the house at the time. She now has a protective order. 7:00 p.m. - Suburban Connecticut -- A 15-year-old girl reports that she is trying to break off a relationship with her boyfriend. The 23-year-old man has just been released from jail for physically abusing the girl when he pulls out his knife and stabs her in her arm and her side. He is imprisoned. Evening - Rural Maine -- A woman in her early 20s is attacked and beaten by her husband of two years in their home. As her 16-month-old twins look on, her husband pushes, shoves, and bruises her, threatening to commit suicide if she follows through on her divorce proceedings. The police are notified by a neighbor and her husband is arrested, charged with criminal threatening with a weapon. 9:00 p.m. - Suburban Connecticut -- A 28-year-old woman is abused in her home by her boyfriend of two years. He leaves with their child after the incident. 11:00 p.m. - A small city in Connecticut -- A 36-year-old mother of two is leaving a shopping center. Three men (ages 25, 26, and 27), are hiding behind her car with a bat. They force her into her car and drive her to a park, where all three rape her. They steal her car. Although she is badly beaten, she is able to get to a pay phone to call the police. Time Unknown - Rural California -- A l9-year-old woman is physically abused by her husband of two years in their car. He grabs her with one hand, chokes her, and hits her across the face. Their one-year-old daughter is present. 11:17 p.m. - Rural West Virginia -- A woman calls a local hotline because her husband has broken the window of her car and threatened her life. He has been harassing her at work and she fears losing her job. 11:30 p.m. - A city in New Mexico -- A 22-year-old woman is asleep in her bedroom when she is awakened by a man in her bedroom holding a kitchen knife. He says he has seen her making love with her boyfriend; he then rapes her more than once. She calls the police as soon as he leaves. Time Unknown - A town in California -- A 33-year-old woman reports being raped at a friend's house by an ex-boyfriend. She calls the police. Local authorities plan on making an arrest. Night - A city in Idaho -- A woman is attending a party with her co-workers. Her boss offers her a ride home. Instead of taking her home, he takes her to his house and rapes her. Night - Suburban Maine -- A 35-year-old woman is raped by her husband. While forcing her to perform various acts, he threatens to call up his friends and have them gang rape her while he watches. Their two children, (ages 10 and 11 years), are listening and crying outside the bedroom door. The rape crisis hotline notifies the police. Night - Rural Maine -- A woman in her early 20s is picked up by the local police as she walks the streets in her nightgown. Her husband called the police to report that his wife had stabbed him but he has, in fact, stabbed himself She has been beaten severely around the face resulting in two black eyes and various lacerations. He is arrested and charged with assault. Time Unknown - A city in Florida -- After returning home from the grocery store, a 77-year-old woman is attacked by her 56-year-old husband. He threatens her with a knife, slaps her on the face and beats her in the face with a closed fist. She escapes to the hospital and is treated. Her husband is arrested. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1992 1:45 a.m. - A large city in Texas -- An eight-year-old girl is brought to the hospital by her mother who reports that the girl has been sexually assaulted by her father. The alleged abuse is reported to the police. 2:00 a.m. - A city in New Mexico -- An 18-year-old woman is sleeping in her room when she is awakened by a man on top of her. She is raped more than once. She fights back by screaming and kicking. The assailant flees. 3:00 a.m. - Suburban Colorado -- A 22-year-old woman misses her bus to work. She accepts a ride with two unknown men. They beat her and then rape her. She is left in a nearby park. 3:00 a.m. - Rural New Mexico -- A 35-year-old woman and her three daughters are awakened by her estranged husband who has broken into their home. The woman is beaten; the children look on. A legal aid office is contacted in hope of expediting the divorce. 7:23 a.m. - Rural Colorado -- An 18-year-old woman is physically abused by her live-in boyfriend of six months, leaving bruises. 9:00 a.m. - A city in Maryland -- A 28-year-old woman is raped in her home by a co-worker. He was helping her move furniture. 10:00 a.m. - A city in Texas -- A woman, eight-months pregnant, is beaten by the man with whom she lives. She phones a crisis line because he withholds food from her and only allows her to leave the house for prenatal care. 1:00 p.m. - A city in northern California -- An 18-year-old mentally disabled woman walks to a store to buy a soda. Three strange men abduct her and take her to a town 45 minutes away. All three men sodomize her, then leave her in a field. She reports the incident to police and receives medical attention. 2:15 p.m. - A city in New Mexico -- A 48-year-old woman is slapped repeatedly in her home by her husband of nine years. She flees to the hospital where she is treated for bruises and cuts. 2:15 p.m. - A city in New Mexico -- A 21-year-old woman with two children -- ages three and nine months -- is beaten by her boyfriend of five years. She reports that he has beaten her in the past; she has attempted suicide. 3:00 p.m. - A city in New Mexico -- A 31-year-old woman with two children -- ages 10-years and 18-months -- takes her older daughter to the police, reporting that her husband of five years has sexually abused the child. 3:00 p.m. - A city in Oregon -- A 22-year-old woman phones a hotline. She and her one-year-old child are the victims of abuse by her husband. In the past, he has thrown her over furniture and into walls. Her family says the violence is "part of marriage." She has obtained a restraining order. He is contesting it and trying to gain custody of their child. Time Unknown - A city in southern California -- A homeless woman is physically assaulted and raped in the street for the second time. She is taken to the hospital and files a police report. 6:05 p.m. - A city in New Mexico -- A 46-year-old woman is beaten and pushed out of a moving car by her husband of two years. She spends three days in the hospital recovering from a broken tailbone and skin abrasions. Time Unknown - A town in Texas -- A middle-aged woman is kicked and slapped by her husband in their home. They have two children, two and one, who are present during the violence, but are not beaten. Time Unknown - Florida -- A 21-year-old woman is attacked by her father. He hits her in the head with a pipe three inches in diameter, causing a large laceration and contusion to the right side of the head. The police responded to a neighbor's telephone call, and the man is arrested. Time Unknown - Rural California -- A six-year-old girl is raped by her mother's boyfriend who is in his early 30s. The mother finds out about the incident when her daughter describes where and how the boyfriend touched her. Time Unknown - Upper Ohio Valley, West Virginia -- A 20-year-old woman contacts a woman's help center, and reports that she has been the victim of acquaintance rape. Time Unknown - A city in Maryland -- A 31-year-old woman is beaten, choked and raped in her home by a former friend brandishing a knife. 6:30 p.m. - A small city in Connecticut -- A l9-year-old woman is attacked by her boyfriend of two years. He punches her in the head. Time Unknown - A city in Florida -- While watching television, a 42-year- old woman is attacked by the 22-year-old man she lives with. He beats her in the head and face, leaving her with a fractured cheek, a cut above her right eye that requires six stitches, four loose teeth and a large cut on the left side of her head. He then threatens to "really hurt" anyone seen talking to her and tells her, "I destroyed your face to prevent you from letting a cosmetic company use it for make-up." Previous incidents have left her with facial cuts and a fractured cheek bone. Time Unknown - Rural Texas -- A 10-year-old girl is brought into a local rape crisis center by her mother, who reports that the girl has been molested by her uncle. Evening - Rural Texas -- A 55-year-old woman, married to a clergyman, comes to a shelter seeking refuge because her husband has beaten her to the point where she is unable to move her left arm and she is severely bruised. Time Unknown - A city in Washington state -- A 32-year-old woman is approaching her home on foot. A stranger emerges from the bushes with a knife. He forces her into the house where he rapes her. She is treated at a hospital for injuries. 11:00 p.m. - A small city in Connecticut -- A 33-year-old woman is assaulted by her husband of 12 years. He strangles her, causing a concussion and a sprained neck. She now has a protective order. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1992 Time Unknown - A city in Washington state -- A 27-year-old homeless woman is sleeping on the street with her boyfriend. The boyfriend leaves before she wakes up. She is raped and beaten by two men while he is gone. She arrives at a local hospital where she is treated for serious injuries. Morning - Kansas -- A 39-year-old woman walks into a shelter. She has been in before. Her ex-husband has custody of their children. When she went to pick them up for visitation, he took her in the bathroom and raped her on the bathroom floor. The children were in the house and called the police when they heard her screaming. 7:30 a.m. - A small city in Washington state -- A 15-year-old girl is walking to school. She is abducted by two people she knows from her neighborhood. She is raped several times in the car. The assailants take her to school and dump her in the parking lot. 8:15 a.m. - Northern West Virginia -- A 40-year-old woman contacts a shelter seeking assistance because her husband continues to abuse her in her home. They have been separated for several years. He follows her and harasses her at home. 9:00 a.m. - Kansas -- A 31-year-old male is battering his 29-year-old wife in a park. She has facial lacerations, and bruises on her chest, but she does not go to the hospital. Police arrest the man and take the woman to a shelter. 10:15 a.m. - Suburban Colorado -- A 31-year-old woman is physically threatened by her husband of three years who threatens to "pound her head in." He has been physically abusive in the past and she has been hospitalized once. 11:00 a.m. - A city in Tennessee -- A 16-year-old girl is abducted by two men she knows and is taken to someone else's house where she is raped by both men. 11:25 a.m. - Kansas -- A 38-year-old woman comes to a shelter. Her ex- husband chased her down with his car and hit her car off the road. She ran to get help. He has told her that "he will cut her face up so that no one will want her." 12:00 p.m. - Missouri -- A middle-aged woman is raped by a family friend. He was at her house helping her with repairs. She had just made him lunch. 1:30 p.m. - West Virginia -- A 30-year-old woman, with a 21-month-old baby, arrives at a local shelter. She has been beaten and sexually abused by her husband. 2:30 p.m. - A small city in West Virginia -- A 17-year-old woman is sexually abused by her father. She tells her mother of the incident, but her mother does not urge her to report it until she is told that the abuse has been ongoing since her daughter was four years old. 2:30 p.m. - Kansas -- A 34-year-old woman comes into a shelter. Her husband of 16 years beat her up the previous night. She has several bruises on her arm and her nose is swollen. She reports to the shelter staff that her husband has broken her nose and jaw in the past. 3:00 p.m. - Colorado - A 69-year-old woman is beaten by her elderly husband. A nurse living in their home intervenes and phones the police. 4:00 p.m. - A small city in Washington state -- A 38-year-old mother of three girls (ages 12, 10 and 9) brings her family to a rape crisis center. In the past, all three daughters were sexually assaulted by a cousin. The cousin was recently released after serving a prison sentence for the crimes. The 10-year-old saw the abuser near her school today. The mother fears he is returning to terrorize the children. 5:30 p.m. - Colorado -- A woman is physically assaulted in public by her boyfriend at a fast food restaurant. He pulls her hair and throws her to the ground. She escapes and goes to call the police. Time Unknown - Northern California -- The mother of a 12-year-old girl brings her daughter to a center to report that the daughter has been molested by the mother's boyfriend. The case is reported to Child Protective Services, who are investigating. 6:00 p.m. - Connecticut -- A 39-year-old woman is beaten and raped in her house by her husband of 10 years. She reports that for the last five years, he has physically and sexually abused her. Time Unknown - Suburban Florida -- A 33-year-old woman returns home to find her husband beating their six year-old child with a shoe. The woman tries to intervene, but her husband grabs her and drags her to their bedroom by her hair. He pins her down on the bed and then beats her in the face with a closed fist. After struggling to free herself, the woman escapes with their child and flees the house. Her husband begins to chase her, but she is picked up down the street by a passing car which pulls over to help. Evening - Suburban Connecticut -- A 57-year-old woman is assaulted in her house by her husband of 22 years. He punches her in the eye and bites her in the forearm. She goes to a local hospital. She now has a protective order. Time Unknown - A town in Maine -- An elderly woman is beaten by her husband of 47-years in their home. He kicks her in the stomach and beats her with his fists around her face and torso. She reports that he threatens to have her admitted to a mental institution. 9:00 p.m. - Colorado -- A woman is physically abused by her husband in their home. He breaks their dog's legs to frighten her and disables her car to keep her from leaving. 9:00 p.m. - New Mexico -- A woman on an Indian reservation is punched and kicked by her husband. She flees on foot to the reservation police station several miles away. She is brought to a battered women's shelter 60 miles away. 11:00 p.m. - Colorado -- A 17-year-old woman is sexually and physically abused by her l9-year-old ex-boyfriend. He kidnaps her and locks her in his apartment. Night - A small town in Tennessee -- A 17-year-old girl is at a college party with her best friend. The two are separated in the crowd, so she leaves with a male friend and three of his friends whom she does not know. They go to his house where she falls asleep on the couch. She wakes up later with one of the men on top of her, raping her. The next day, her friend is at a different party where she overhears the man bragging about the incident saying, "I can't believe it took her so long to wake up, considering all the other things we did to her." The police are notified. Time Unknown - Connecticut -- After being assaulted by her boyfriend, an 18-year-old woman returns to a local crisis center. On this occasion, she suffers several knife cuts. After going to the police, she gets a restraining order, and her attacker is arrested for assault. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1992 Time Unknown - A county in West Virginia -- A 30-year-old woman is beaten by her husband and arrives at a local shelter seeking help to file a protection order. Time Unknown - A town in Florida -- A 14-year-old girl is babysitting for some friends of her family. The parents return home. The mother of the children goes to bed, and the father says he will drive the girl home. However, he takes her into the room where one of the children is asleep and forces the babysitter to have oral sex with him. 12:45 a.m. - A city in Tennessee -- A 26-year-old woman is beaten in her house by a man who has been stalking her. He threatens her with a knife. She does not tell the police because of the threat. 2:30 a.m. - Colorado -- A woman is physically abused by her 35-year-old husband in their home. He grabs her hair and punches her. The police are called. 4:00 a.m. - A city in Washington state -- A 16-year-old girl is staying at her 18-year-old friend's house. She is sleeping on his couch. She wakes up to find him on top of her. She is raped. 9:15 a.m. - Colorado -- A woman is physically and verbally abused by her husband at their mutual place of work. The husband brings a gun to work. The woman tells her other co-workers about the gun and that her husband has threatened to kill her. Time Unknown - Florida -- A 40-year-old woman and her son are held hostage by her husband who has a shotgun. He threatens to kill them and fires the gun into the air when he hears the police arrive. He refuses to surrender to the police. Only after the police shoot pepper mace into the house does the man surrender. Time Unknown - A city in Southern California -- A woman in her 20s is raped by her boyfriend. 10:00 a.m. - Kansas -- A young woman phones a local crisis intervention line to report that she has been raped two evenings earlier. She goes to the hospital. 11:00 a.m. - Colorado -- A 28-year-old woman phones a local hotline to report that her live-in boyfriend has threatened to kill her. Time Unknown - Kansas -- A 17-year-old girl reports being raped by an acquaintance. A rape examination is done at the hospital, and she goes to police. Time Unknown - Kansas -- A 17-year-old girl is physically abused by her live-in boyfriend who takes their baby and threatens to leave. She reports the attack to the police. Time Unknown - Kansas -- A college student is beaten by her live-in boyfriend of three months. He pulls her hair and shoves her against the wall. Time Unknown - A large city in northeastern Kansas -- A 27-year-old woman is driven into a secluded area by two men. One of the men is a friend that she reports she "did not know well." They rape and sodomize her. She reports the incident to the police and goes to the hospital. 1:00 p.m. - Colorado -- A 29-year-old woman is physically abused and threatened in her home by her boyfriend with whom she has been living for 10 months. 1:00 p.m. - New Mexico -- A 30-year-old woman is slapped and kicked by her husband of eight years. She refuses medical treatment because she does not want the story to spread across town. 2:00 p.m. - Unknown town in Vermont -- A businesswoman is vacationing with her live-in boyfriend. He grabs her head and beats it repeatedly against the side of a boat. Then he throws her into the water and attempts to drowned her by choking her and holding her under the boat. She is admitted to the local hospital with two black eyes, a swollen lip, head wounds, bruises on her arms and neck, and a fractured knee cap. She does not report the incident to the police. Afternoon - A city in southern California -- A woman in her 30's is raped, assaulted, and forced to perform oral sex by a stranger outside her house. Her family is in the house at the time. Time Unknown - New Mexico -- A 32-year-old woman is beaten about the head and chest by her husband of five years. He twists her arms behind her back while punching her. She flees to a shelter and files for a restraining order. Time Unknown - A city in Maine -- A young woman reports threatening phone calls from her ex-husband. She has a protective order against him, but it soon expires. He calls to tell her that when the order expires, she will receive "a beating she will never forget." 7:20 p.m. - Colorado -- A l9-year-old woman is physically abused by her 48-year-old husband. He bruises her upper body. She is six-months pregnant with their child. She also reports that he has been violent in the past. 8:00 p.m. - A city in Tennessee -- A 16-year-old is raped by a stranger at knifepoint in a park. She suffers some internal injuries during the attack. 9:00 p.m. - New Mexico -- A woman from a rural area is shot at by her husband. He shoots at another family member before escaping. The local police bring her to the city for her protection until they can locate the husband. 9:00 p.m. - Connecticut -- A 30-year-old woman is abused in her home by her husband of ten years. He waves a knife in her face, threatening to kill her and himself He grabs her, bruising her arm. Their two children witness the events. 9:05 p.m. - A city in New Mexico -- A 35-year-old woman is beaten by her husband of three years when he returns home from work. She is punched in the face while her children -- ages ten and six -- look on. 10:00 p.m. - A city in Maryland -- A woman is raped in her home by her neighbor. Her two children are home during the attack, and one witnesses the rape. 10:15 p.m. - Colorado -- A 34-year-old woman phones a local hotline to report that her live-in boyfriend has abused her. She reports that he choked her and held a television over her head, threatening to hit her with it. 11:00 p.m. - Colorado -- A 35-year-old woman is physically abused by her husband in their home. The have six children; two of the children are present at the time of the fighting. The police escort her out of the house. She checks into a hospital for treatment. Night - Suburban New Hampshire -- A 23-year-old woman with two children is held at gun-point and raped twice by her live-in boyfriend. Her injuries require her to be hospitalized for six days. She is then transferred to a local domestic violence shelter. Night - Suburban New Hampshire -- A 29-year-old woman is shoved into a door of their home by her husband. Her two children are in the room when he burns her by throwing a hot plate of spaghetti at her. Time Unknown - Maine -- A woman phones a local crisis line. She has been beaten by her husband of one year. She suffers a broken collar bone and needs stitches. Night - A city in Texas -- A 27-year-old woman who works in a night club is abducted by two men as she is leaving work. She is raped by both men and abandoned. After returning home, she relates the story to her husband. He responds by beating her and throwing her out of the house. SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6,1992 2:00 a.m. - A city in West Virginia -- An 8-year-old girl is raped by her 16-year-old brother. He had been arrested previously for two other rapes in the neighborhood. He was released on bond when he raped his sister. 4:00 a.m. - A city in Colorado -- A 45-year-old woman is physically abused in a bar by her husband of 20 years. She suffers a black eye and numerous bruises. She is taken to the hospital for treatment. He is arrested for drunken and disorderly conduct. 9:00 a.m. - Colorado -- A 15-year-old girl is physically abused by her 18-year-old boyfriend. He hits her in the face. He grabs her left arm and throws her against a wall. The police escort her out of the apartment. The boyfriend is arrested because of outstanding abuse charges by two other women. 11:00 a.m. - West Virginia -- A woman is raped by a taxi driver. The assault occurs in the back seat of the taxi. 11:00 a.m. - A city in Tennessee -- A 16-year-old girl calls a shelter after spending the night on the street. She reports that she ran away from home the previous night after being raped by her stepfather. 12:30 p.m. - Colorado -- A woman is physically abused by her husband in their home. He threatens to slit her throat with a knife. He calls her a "cancer to be thrown away." He threatens to kill her with a gun. 2:00 p.m. - Suburban Connecticut -- A 23-year-old woman calls a crisis center and reports that her boyfriend tried to choke her last night. She also reports that he has repeatedly beaten her daughter. 5:00 p.m. - A small city in Connecticut -- A 35-year-old mother is at home with her one-year-old child. Her ex-husband, against whom she has a protective order, breaks down her front door and enters her house. He forces her upstairs and beats and rapes her. Evening - A city in northern California -- An 18-year-old woman is sexually assaulted when four men with guns force their way into her house. Evening - Suburban New Hampshire -- A 30-year-old woman is cut with a knife wielded by her husband. Their five children witness the wounding. She is taken to a local hospital and she contacts the police. 6:00 p.m. - A city in Washington state -- A 34-year-old woman with two children (ages nine and six) reports that her husband of 15 years has slapped her, threatened to kill her, and accused her of losing some important documents from his work. He returns home to find her packing. He drags her across the kitchen by her hair as the children try to stop him. He draws a gun on all three when one of the children tries to call 911. Eventually, the woman and her children escape to the police station. 9:00 p.m. - A city in Colorado -- A 55-year-old homeless woman is assaulted by her homeless boyfriend. She has multiple bruises, a black eye and a split lip which requires three stitches. 10:00 p.m. - A city in Washington state -- A 30-year-old woman is raped by an acquaintance she had invited into her apartment for a drink. She calls the police when he leaves. 10:15 p.m. - A city in Connecticut -- A 22-year-old woman is on a first date with a co-worker. After dinner, he drives her to a lake where he beats and rapes her. She is able to escape and call the police. Time Unknown - Maine -- A 20-year-old woman is beaten and raped by her former live-in boyfriend and father of their 15-month old child. She calls a local hotline for information on obtaining a protective order. Time Unknown - A city in Texas -- A 14-year-old girl is assaulted by an acquaintance outdoors. The victim suffers cuts during the attack. Night - Suburban New Hampshire -- A 28-year-old woman is strangled in front of her 8-year-old child. Her husband tries, unsuccessfully, to break her leg. He refuses to let her get medical attention until the next day. Time Unknown - A city in Colorado -- A 30-year-old woman is physically abused by her husband of 12 years in their home. They have two children, (ages five and nine) who witness the fighting. She has multiple bruises, facial injuries, a black eye, a split lip and upper body bruises. The police become involved when the violence extends outside the home. She is taken to the hospital for treatment. Time Unknown - Maine -- A young woman is choked and stabbed by her boyfriend who threatens to kill her. She is hospitalized. She reports that he has been convicted before for aggravated assault. Time Unknown - A city in Florida -- A 23-year-old woman, also a mother of two children (ages one and two) is cooking for her husband who is about to return from work. Upon returning home, her husband attacks her. He puts her head in the kitchen sink and starts beating her in the face with a closed fist. He then drags her through the house by her hair, while telling her, "I am smart enough not to leave bruises. I'm going to hurt you, but I won't leave any evidence behind." He has previously tried to run over her with his car. 10:15 p.m. - Rural Colorado -- A 23-year-old woman is physically abused by her common-law husband of five years. The woman is badly bruised and is taken to the hospital for treatment. Time Unknown - A large city in northeastern Kansas -- A 41-year-old woman is raped by three men. She knows one of the men. She does not report the rape to police because she is frightened they will find and kill her. Time Unknown - A small town in Connecticut -- While on a date with a 37-year-old acquaintance, a 28-year-old woman is raped twice and abused with an object. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7,1992 Time Unknown - A city in Florida -- A 21-year-old woman calls the police because her ex-boyfriend is making telephone calls threatening to kill her and kidnap her child. She had obtained a court order restraining her abusive boyfriend from threatening her. The man is charged with aggravated stalking. Time Unknown - A city in Connecticut -- A 37-year-old woman is assaulted by her husband. 12:00 a.m. - Alaska -- A man holds a gun on his girlfriend and their child, takes her keys, locks and puts chairs in front of the doors in their house, and then threatens to kill them if they try to leave him. She calls the state troopers, but they do not arrive. 1:00 a.m. - A city in New Mexico -- A 16-year-old girl leaves a party to get away from the cigarette smoke. She is followed outside by a man who throws her down, leaving bruises on her body. He then tears her clothes and rapes her. 1:00 a.m. - A city in northern California -- A three-year-old girl is raped in her home by her mother's boyfriend. Her mother catches him. She takes the child to the hospital and calls the police. He is arrested. 5:00 a.m. - A city in Colorado -- A 20-year-old woman observes a rape self-defense class and then goes home to bed. She awakes with a man on top of her. She screams, punches her assailant in the eye, and then chases him out of her apartment complex. She then enrolls in the self-defense course. Morning - Northern California -- A 33-year-old woman is raped by her husband. She reports that he has abused her, both sexually and physically, for six years. In one case, he choked her and hit her in the eye. After this particular incident, the woman refuses to report the case to the police, and returns home. Time Unknown - Northern California -- A 30-year-old woman reports the abuse of her husband. While driving, he hits her and pulls her hair, then threatens her with a knife. She goes to the hospital, and later reports the case to the police. The man is taken to jail. 8:00 a.m. - A city in Washington state -- A 21-year-old woman is abducted by a man as she waits at a bus stop. She is driven to a secluded area where he chokes her and rapes her in his car. 9:55 a.m. - Colorado -- A 29-year-old woman phones a local crisis center to report that her husband grabbed her by the neck and by the hair and slapped her repeatedly. She had a restraining order against him at the time of the assault for previous violence. 10:00 a.m. - Colorado -- A woman is physically abused by her husband in their home. They have an argument over cleaning the car. He grabs her by the throat and hair, and hits her in the face. She tries to get away, but he strikes her face with the back of his hand. She tries calling 911, but he stops her. He finally leaves and she is able to call the police. 12:30 p.m. - A small city in New Mexico -- A woman, married for three months, is threatened by her husband who is wielding a hammer. She is frightened and tries to leave the house, so he smashes the windshield of her van. She and her five children flee on foot to a shelter. Time Unknown - A town in Connecticut -- A 14-year-old girl is sexually assaulted by a 30-year-old acquaintance. 12:45 p.m. - A city in the Southwest -- A woman enters a shelter after fleeing from a northern state. She reports that her husband has beaten her repeatedly and has threatened to find her and kill her. She hopes he will not look for her and her two children in her new home. Time Unknown - A city in New Mexico -- A 10-year-old girl is thrown out of a moving car by her aunt, who is drunk. The child's mother confronts the aunt. The situation escalates to involve the entire family punching and kicking each other. 1:05 p.m. - Oregon -- A woman in her 30s is raped by her husband in her home. 2:00 p.m. - A city in New Mexico -- A 20-year-old woman who is six-months pregnant, is beaten and abandoned by her boyfriend of one year. She finds a shelter for battered women. 3:00 p.m. - A small city in Connecticut -- A 30-year-old mother of two children, walks her two-year-old boy home from school. Her ex-boyfriend, and father of her two children, follows her home and forces his way into the house. He beats and rapes her and beats the child. He uses a cigarette lighter to burn the child's nose hairs. At the time, the woman has a protective order against the abuser. 4:30 p.m. - A small city in Kansas -- A 25-year-old mother of two children is beaten in the head by her husband. She arrives at a local hospital confused and disoriented. She goes to a shelter with her children, who are uninjured. Early Evening - A city in Kansas -- A young woman residing in a community home for the mentally disabled is walking back to her home when a stranger grabs her and rapes her. She reports the case to the police. 7:00 p.m. - A military base in the state of Washington -- A 24-year-old woman with two sons (ages four and one) flees from a nearby military base where her husband has abused her by locking her in the basement, beating her, burning her with cigarettes, and raping her. The military police have arrested him three times for abuse. 9:00 p.m. - Colorado -- A 15-year-old woman is drinking at a party and falls asleep. She wakes to find a 17-year-old male assaulting her. 9:00 p.m. -- A city in northern California -- A 25-year-old woman goes for a ride with an acquaintance. He says he wants to talk with her. He drives her to the country and rapes her. She goes to the hospital and files a report with the police. 10:00 p.m. - New Mexico -- A 27-year-old woman who is 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. She seeks medical treatment for cuts and bruises. 11:00 p.m. - A city in Colorado -- A woman is confined to her house by her husband who rapes, kicks and strangles her. She files for a temporary restraining order. Night - A city in Idaho -- A woman is given a ride home by a man she meets in a bar. Before taking her home, he drives to a different location, beats and rapes her. Pressing her face into the car seat, he threatens to kill her. He then drives her home. Sometime During the Week Night - Texas -- A stranger enters a woman's apartment through a set of sliding glass doors in the rear of the apartment complex. He searches her apartment and enters her bedroom. The woman awakens to the sound of his heavy breathing and his weight on top of her. She begins to scream and struggles with him. He stabs her in the breast and leaves through the sliding glass doors again. Time Unknown - A town in Texas -- A woman is threatened with a gun by her husband of 18 years. After slapping her around he orders her to get the gun that is kept in their home and load it. After threatening to kill her he hits her with the butt of the gun, drawing blood and knocking her unconscious. Time Unknown - A town in Texas -- A woman living in an isolated area is beaten in her home by her husband of seven years. Her husband jams her face into the floor and throws her onto a table. He cuts her with broken glass. Time Unknown - A city in Texas -- A 12-year-old girl is sexually assaulted by a stranger with a gun. She suffers some bruises. She goes to the police and the hospital. Time Unknown - A town in West Virginia -- The mother of an 18-year-old pregnant woman arrives at her daughter's house to find her daughter with two black eyes apparently inflicted by her daughter's husband. The mother gets into a fight with her son-in-law in an effort to intervene on her daughter's behalf. Time Unknown - A city in Texas -- A woman calls a shelter because she and her two children are fleeing her abusive husband. The shelters in the area are full and she decides to go to her sister's apartment. She begins proceedings for a protective order and agrees to keep in touch with the shelter. Later, she and her husband are found dead. She has been stabbed repeatedly and her throat has been slit. Her husband has hung himself. Chapter III THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT: A NATIONAL RESPONSE For too long, this country has ignored the question women in America must ask themselves every day: "Will I be safe today? How can I prevent this violence from happening?" Our survey shows, in dramatic fashion, that this problem will never be addressed adequately if people continue to say to themselves that all it requires is to "be in the right place at the right time." The Failure of Our Laws Policies and Attitudes Despite enormous strides in some areas, our laws, policies and attitudes remain inadequate to the task of fighting this epidemic of violence. * We live in a country with three times as many animal shelters as battered women's shelters. * We live in a country where a county task force recently reported that, while 60 individuals were sentenced for sexually assaulting children in a year, only 1 person received a prison sentence. -9 * We live in a country where a recent survey of teenagers showed high levels, of approval of violence: almost 10 percent of the students surveyed said they approved of a husband hitting his wife "if she would not listen to reason;" and more than 12 percent approved of a wife hitting a husband in a similar situation. -10 The Violence Against Women Act In January of 1991, Senator Biden introduced the Violence Against Women Act. This legislation attacks not only the violent effects of the problem, but the subtle prejudices that lurk behind it. As Senator Biden has said before, none of the proposals in the bill, alone or together, are likely to end violence against women. However, the legislation is an important step in the right direction, in the direction of developing what we need the most -- a national consensus that this society will not tolerate this kind of violence and the terror that it spawns. This chapter summarizes each of the five titles of the "Violence Against Women Act of 1991." Title I - Safe Streets for Women Title I of the bill -- the Safe Streets for Women Act -- signals that crimes against women must be taken seriously as a law enforcement priority. To ensure that states will have the necessary resources to target violent crimes against women as a top priority, Title I provides $300 million to states and areas most in need of assistance. * Creates special units of police, prosecutors, and victim advocates to fight crimes against women. Title I also takes simple, but necessary, measures to increase safety for women in public parks and on public transit. * Earmarks existing funding to put more lights and security cameras in bus stops and adjacent parking lots, in national parks, state parks, and subway stations. * Set aside existing park funds for emergency telephones and police in public parks. * Provides grants and loans to study ways to reduce violent crimes against women in public transit through better design or operation of public transit systems. This title also makes significant improvements in the Federal system's response to crimes against women: * Doubles for rape and aggravated rape prosecuted in federal courts, creates new penalties for sex offenders, and mandates restitution to the victims of sex crimes. Title I also enhances the Federal system's response to violence against women by encouraging women to prosecute their attackers. The encouragement comes in many forms, from educating women about their rights, to helping them prove their case, to making rape trials more bearable. * Extends "rape shield law" protection to criminal civil cases; bars the use of a woman's clothing to show, at trial, that the victim incited or invited a sexual assault. * Authorizes $65 million in funds for rape prevention and education. * Requires states to pay for all forensic rape examinations. Finally, Title I establishes the National Commission on Violent Crime Against Women. The Commission will promote a national policy on violent crime against women and will make recommendations on reducing such crime. Title II - Safe Homes for Women Title II of the bill -- the Safe Homes for Women Act -- focuses on crimes of domestic violence. National leadership on the issue is sorely needed. To put it in the words of one witness who testified at Committee hearings on the bill, "we have to make a ***clear[er], a louder statement that this criminal, that in this country this is not accepted, nor will be tolerated." ^11 Title II responds to this challenge in many important ways. To protect women from abusive spouses, Title II provides the following federal remedies: * Creates the first federal penalties for crimes committed against spouses during interstate travel and crimes committed by the spouse abusers who cross state lines to continue their abuse; * Requires that a protection order issued by the court of one state be accorded full faith and credit by the court of another state. Title II provides significant incentives to encourage states to treat domestic violence as a serious crime. * Authorizes $25 million for states that implement pro-arrest programs and policies in police departments and improve case tracking to promote the arrest of abusing spouses. * Provides additional grants to "model states" to engage in innovative techniques to increase arrest, prosecution and conviction rates in domestic violence cases. * For states suffering from strain on their systems because of increased arrests, the bill provides additional assistance to centralize and systematize the process. * More than triples existing levels of funding for battered women's shelters. Finally, Title II heightens awareness about domestic violence through schools and the media. * Authorizes a national media campaign against such violence. * Funds programs for education of young people about domestic violence and violence among intimate partners, with programs for primary, middle, and secondary schools, as well as institutions of higher education. Title III - Civil Rights for Women Title III of the bill -- the Civil Rights for Women Act -- creates the first civil rights remedy aimed at violent gender-based discrimination against women. While this society has announced, and upheld, a national commitment against violent discrimination for 120 years, that commitment has never adequately protected victims of gender-motivated violence. It is the fundamental purpose of Title III to correct that imbalance by providing these victims with an effective anti-discrimination remedy for violently expressed prejudice. * Allows women to vindicate their right to be free of gender-based violence through a civil suit for monetary or other relief * Makes gender-based assaults a violation of federal civil rights laws. Title III seeks to put gender-motivated bias crimes against women on the same footing as other bias crimes. Whether the attack is motivated by racial bias or ethnic bias or gender bias, the results are often the same. The violence not only wounds physically, it degrades and terrorizes, instilling fear and inhibiting the lives of all those similarly situated. As Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris testified before the committee: "Until women as a class have the same protection offered others who are the object of irrational, hate-motivated abuse and assault, we as a society should feel humiliated and ashamed.''12 Title IV - Safe Campuses for Women Title IV of the bill -- the Safe Campuses for Women Act -- focuses on the special problems facing young women on campuses. Women between the ages of 18 and 24 are among those most likely to be raped, and a significant portion of these young women are in college. Title IV creates: * A $20 million grant program for the neediest colleges to fund campus rape education and prevention programs. Title V - Equal Justice for Women in the Courts Title V of the bill -- the Equal Justice for Women in the Courts Act -- recognizes the crucial role played by the Judicial Branch in forming an effective response to violent crimes against women in our society. * Creates training programs for State and Federal judges to raise awareness and increase sensitivity about rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, and crimes of violence motivated by the victim's gender. Training curricula must be developed in conjunction with a broad array of experts, including law enforcement officials, volunteer victim advocates, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and other legal experts. The programs will focus on a number of issues, including sexual assault, domestic violence and gender stereotyping. 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% Appendix B METHODOLOGY OF THE TIMELINE SURVEY Chapter II's timeline compiles reports of violent crimes against women gathered from across the country. To present a snapshot of a week in the life of violence against American women, data was gathered from those institutions women are most likely to contact after they have been victimized -- rape crisis centers, emergency rooms, police stations, and domestic violence centers. The states selected for this survey represent every region of the country -- the far west, the southwest, the northeast, the midwest, and the south. The states selected also fall into every socio-economic category. And, within those states, we contacted centers in a variety of areas -- rural, urban, and suburban. The Responses We Received The vast majority of responses we received were from service providers -- rape crisis centers and domestic violence centers. In most cases, their response to our inquiries did not attempt to provide all incidents of violence occurring at a particular location, because the number of incidents involved was too large. Instead, respondents provided us with what they considered to be a "representative" list, based on the kinds of calls or reports they typically receive. Indeed, respondents were specifically cautioned against providing only the most serious acts of violence. In addition, verbal disputes with no serious threatening aspect were eliminated from the list -- as outside the scope of the survey. What the Survey Does Not Show The incidents in our timeline do not present a census of the actual amount of violence that occurs in our homes or on our streets. First, the timeline represents only the incidents reported to us, not adjudicated complaints. Moreover, only those incidents reported to the institutions we surveyed were included in the timeline. Other institutions which women might have reported violent crimes to -- churches, synagogues, and other groups -- were not surveyed. Obviously, women who told only friends, family and relatives or no one at all, were not captured in our survey. Second, this is not a complete list of even those crimes reported to the institutions we contacted. Third, we did not contact every institution which is likely to receive reports of violent crimes against women. Because respondents provided us with "representative" samples, the timeline cannot be used to predict the actual proportions of different types of violence, different types of victims, or different locations of violence. The incidents presented in the timeline were not selected to represent the actual proportions of each specific type of violence, each specific type of relationship between offender and victim, or each specific location of the violence. They were, however, selected to represent a broad cross-section of violent crimes against women during one week. Thus, the timeline presented here, and the stories detailed in it, are a sample, not a census, of cases of violence against women during the week of September 1-September 7, 1992. Appendix C CHAIRMAN'S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to acknowledge the organizations listed below. Their assistance in gathering information for this report was invaluable. We would especially like to thank all of the many centers across the country which invested an inestimable amount of time and energy to help us compile the timeline survey. We would have liked to acknowledge each center individually. Unfortunately, we are unable to do so because of our desire to maintain the anonymity of the women described in these stories, many of whom live in fear that their ordeals will become public, their identities revealed and their whereabouts will become known to those who have attacked them. California Attorney General's Office Department of Justice Division of Law Enforcement Sacramento, California Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center Medical University of South Carolina Georgia Bureau of Investigation Georgia Crime Information Center Decatur, Georgia Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault Minneapolis, Minnesota Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women St. Paul, Minnesota Minnesota Department of Corrections St. Paul, Minnesota Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence Tumwater, Washington Colorado Domestic Violence Center Coalition Denver, Colorado Iowa Department of Public Safety Research and Development Bureau Des Moines, Iowa Kansas Coalition Against Sexual And Domestic Violence Pittsburgh, Kansas Maryland State Police Department Central Records Division Baltimore, Maryland Michigan Department of State Police East Lansing, Michigan National Victim Center Arlington, Virginia Network Against Domestic Abuse of Northern Central Connecticut, Inc. New Jersey Coalition for Battered Women Trenton, New Jersey New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence Las Cruces, New Mexico Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Oklahoma City, Oklahoma South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Columbia, South Carolina State of Alabama Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center Montgomery, Alabama State of California Office of Criminal Justice Planning Domestic Violence Branch Sacramento, California State of Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services Aging and Adult Services Tallahassee, Florida State of Florida Department of Law Enforcement Division of Criminal Justice Information Systems Special Services Branch Tallahassee, Florida State of Delaware Executive Department Statistical Analysis Center Dover, Delaware State of Hawaii Department of the Attorney General Crime Prevention Division Honolulu, Hawaii State of Michigan Department of Management and Budget Lansing, Michigan State of Michigan Department of Social Services Lansing, Michigan State of Montana Department of Justice Board of Crime Control Helena, Montana State of New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department Roswell, New Mexico State of New York Department of Social Services Albany, New York State of New York Division of Criminal Justice Services Office of Justice Systems Analysis Bureau of Statistical Services Albany, New York State of South Dakota Office of Attorney General Pierre, South Dakota State of Texas Council on Family Violence Austin, Texas State of Texas Department of Human Services Sexual Assault Prevention and Crisis Services Austin, Texas State of Texas Department of Public Safety Austin, Texas Office of the Honorable Bob Graham of Florida Office of the Honorable Donald Reigle of Michigan West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence Charleston, West Virginia State of Vermont Department of Public Safety Division of State Police Waterbury, Vermont State of Wyoming Office of the Attorney General Division of Criminal Investigation Cheyenne, Wyoming Sexual Assault Information Network of Michigan Midland, Michigan ENDNOTES 1. These figures are based on our survey described in Appendix A; Independent estimates may show as many as 4 million incidents of domestic violence every year; see Testimony of Dr. Angela Browne, hearings before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Senate Hearing 101-939, Part 2,101st Cong. 2d Sess. 117 (Dec. 11, 1990). 2. See Los Angeles Times, p. 17, col. 5, (January 4,1989); Los Angeles Times, p. 2, col. 3, (May 23,1989). 3. Surgeon General Antonio Novello, "From The Surgeon General, U.S. Public Health Services," Journal of the American Medical Association. Vol. 267 no. 23, p. 3132, (June 17,1992). 4. The 1 in 3 to 1 in 5 figure is from the Journal of the American Medical Association. vol. 267, No.3, p.3185. The other figure is from the Testimony of Dr. Angela Browne, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, Senate Hearing 101-939, Part 2,101st Cong., 2d Sess. 116-17 (Dec. 11, 1990). 5. The 1 in 5 figure is taken from Dr. Mary Koss, Testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee (Aug.29,1990); the 1 in 8 figure and estimate of 12.1 million is taken from National Victim Center and the Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, "Rape in America: A Report to the Nation," April 23, 1992, p. 4. 6. U.S. Department of Justice, Report to the Nation on Crime and Justice 29 (2d ed. 1988). 7. These figures are based on our survey described in Appendix A; independent estimates show as many as 4 million incidents of domestic violence every year; see Testimony of Dr. Angela Browne, hearings before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 101st Cong. 2d Sess. 117 (Dec. 11,1990). 8. see Testimony of Sarah Buel, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Senate Hearing 101-939, Part 2, (August 1990). (Citing 1985 Massachusetts Department of Youth study showing that children growing up in violent homes have a "74% greater chance of committing crimes against the person...." 9. The Boulder County Rape Crisis Team, nSexual Assault in Boulder County, Colorado: The Crimes and their Consequencesn p.17 (June 17,1992). 10. "Adolescents May Experience Home, School Abuse," Journal of the American Medical Association. vol. 267, no. 23 at 3127-28, (June 17,1992). 11. Testimony of Dr. Angela Browne, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Senate Hearing 101-939, Part 2, 101st Cong., 2d Sess. (Dec. 11,1990). 12. Testimony of Attorney General Burris, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Senate Hearing 102-369, 101st Cong., 2d Sess. p. 76, (Apr. 9, 1991).