Statistics on Violence

Many of us have become inured to the presence of violence. Its ubiquity in the news and, for some of us, in our own neighborhoods has numbed us to the shock of this largely preventable condition. The following statistics offer a sobering reminder of the reality of the costs of violence--financial, human, physical and emotional. May we all remember that behind every statistic is a human being.

Download a partial list of these statistics.

• A World Heath Organization report estimates the cost of interpersonal violence in the U.S. at more than $300 billion per year. The cost to victims was estimated at more than $500 billion per year. Combined, this is the equivalent to nearly 10% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) [The Economic Dimensions of Interpersonal Violence, World Health Organization, 2004]

• In 2005, 5,686 young people ages 10 to 24 were murdered--an average of 16 each day. [Youth Violence Facts at a Glance, Summer 2008, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)]

• Direct expenditures for corrections (i.e., prisons and jails) by local, state and federal governments between 1982 and 2005 increased 619 percent to $65 billion per year. [Direct Expenditures by Criminal Justice Function, 1982-2005, Bureau of Justice Statistics]

• In the U.S., youth homicide rates are more than 10 times that of other leading industrialized nations, on par with the rates in developing countries and those experiencing rapid social and economic changes. The youth homicide rate in the U.S. stood at 11.0 per 100,000 compared to France (0.6 per 100 000), Germany (0.8 per 100 000), the United Kingdom (0.9 per 100 000) and Japan (0.4 per 100 000). [World Report on Violence and Health, World Health Organization 2002]

• With less than 5 percent of the world's population, the United States has nearly 25 percent - 2.3 million - of its prisoners. [San Francisco Chronicle, Norway, California: Contrast in criminal treatment Saturday, August 13, 2011]

A major study by the non-partisan Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that for every dollar spent on county juvenile detention systems, $1.98 of “benefits” was achieved in terms of reduced crime and costs of crime to taxpayers. By contrast, diversion and mentoring programs produced $3.36 of benefits for every dollar spent, aggression replacement training produced $10 of benefits for every dollar spent, and multi-systemic therapy produced $13 of benefits for every dollar spent.1

• Persons under the age of 25 accounted for 50 percent of those arrested for murder and 65 percent of those arrested for robbery in 2006. [Youth Violence Facts at a Glance, Summer 2008, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)]

• In 2007, approximately 14,000 terrorist incidents occurred worldwide, and deaths caused increased to 22,000 persons. [Report on Terrorist Incidents, 2007 (issued April 2008), National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC)]

• One in six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape, and 10% of sexual assault victims are men. [2004 National Crime Victimization Survey]

• In 2001, almost 21,000 homicides and 31,000 suicides occurred; and almost 1.8 million people were assaulted, while about 323,000 harmed themselves and were treated in hospital emergency departments. (Surveillance for Fatal and Nonfatal Injuries – 2001, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Vital Statistics System)

• Worldwide, an estimated 1.6 million people lost their lives to violence in 2000. About half were suicides, one-third were homicides, and one-fifth were casualties of armed conflict. [World Report on Violence and Health, World Health Organization, 2002]

• Homicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages 10 to 24 in 2001. Suicide was the third leading cause of death for people ages 10 to 24 in 2002. [Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System – 2002, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]

• The health-related costs of rape, physical assault, stalking and homicide committed by intimate partners exceed $5.8 billion each year. Of that amount, nearly $4.1 billion are for direct medical and mental health care services, and nearly $1.8 billion are for the indirect costs of lost productivity or wages. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States, April 2003.)

• A 1992 study in the United States put the annual cost of treating gunshot wounds at $126 billion. Cutting and stab wounds cost an additional $51 billion. (Miller TR, Cohen MA.,. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 1997, 29:329–341.)

Corrections and Public Safety Information

(from the Pew Charitable Trusts website 2009)

Corrections costs have risen from $9 billion 25 years ago to $60 billion today.

According to a report released in February, 2008 by the Pew Center on the States’ Public Safety Performance Project:

2,319,258 adults were held in American prisons or jails.

That’s one in every 99.1 men and women at the start of 2008.

U.S. Dept. of Justice data (2006):

1 in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 was behind bars.
1 in 9 for black males in that age group.
National recidivism rate remains virtually unchanged … about half of released inmates return to jail or prison within 3 years.

While violent criminals and other serious offenders account for some of the growth, many inmates are low-level offenders or people who have violated the terms of the probation or parole.

During the last 20 years states’ spending on corrections jumped 315%.

Website: pewtrusts.org

• Seventeen percent of high school girls have been abused physically; twelve percent of high school girls have been abused sexually. (The Formative Years: Pathways to Substance Abuse Among Girls and Young Women Ages 8-22, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, 2003)

• About 1 in 3 high school students say they have been in a physical fight in the past year, and about 1 in 8 of those students required medical attention for their injuries. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Youth risk behavior surveillance – United States, 2001. In: CDC Surveillance Summaries, June 28, 2002. MMWR, 51(SS-4), p. 5.)

• In the United States, some 31,000 gangs were operating in 1996 in about 4800 cities and towns. [World Report on Violence and Health, World Health Organization 2002]

• Over 70 percent of School Resource Officers surveyed felt that aggressive behavior in elementary school children has increased in their districts in the past five years. (2003 NASRO School Resource Officer Survey, National Association of School Resource Officers)

• Of children in sixth through tenth grade, more than 3.2 million-nearly one in six-are victims of bullying each year, while 3.7 million bully other children. (“Bullying Prevention is Crime Prevention,” Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2003)

• Nearly 60 percent of boys who researchers classified as bullies in grades six through nine were convicted of at least one crime by the age of 24. Even more dramatic, 40 percent of them had three or more convictions by age 24. (“Bullying Prevention is Crime Prevention,” Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2003)

• A significant number of School Resource Officers (SROs) reported budget cuts for school safety funding in their local school districts, inadequacies in federal school safety funding, and the need for an “Education Homeland Security Act” to fund school terrorism training, improve security and crisis planning, and support SRO programs. (2003 NASRO School Resource Officer Survey, National Association of School Resource Officers)

• A study on the cost-effectiveness of early intervention to prevent serious crime in California, showed that training for parents whose children exhibited aggressive behavior was estimated to have prevented 157 serious crimes (such as homicide, rape, arson and robbery) for every $1 million spent. In fact, training in parenting skills was estimated to be about three times as cost-effective as the so-called ‘‘three-strikes’’ law in California. [Greenwood PW et al. Diverting children from a life of crime: measuring costs and benefits. Rand, 1996.]

• Domestic Violence is the single greatest cause of injury to women. [Journal of Amer. Med. Assoc.]

• In 2005, there were 191,670 victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assaults according to the 2005 National Crime Victimization Survey

• 22% of women in the U.S. have reported being physically assaulted by an intimate partner. [Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, 1999 (Population Reports, Series L, No. 11)]

• In the year 2001, more than half a million American women (588,490 women) were victims of nonfatal violence committed by an intimate partner. (Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003)

• In 2001, 41,740 women were victims of rape/sexual assault committed by an intimate partner. (Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003.)

• As many as 324,000 women each year experience intimate partner violence during their pregnancy. (Gazmararian JA, Petersen R, Spitz AM, Goodwin MM, Saltzman LE, Marks JS. “Violence and reproductive health; current knowledge and future research directions.” Maternal and Child Health Journal 2000;4(2):79-84.)

• The World Health Organization declared that violence is a leading worldwide public health problem. [World Report on Violence and Health, World Health Organization 2002]

• 37% of women treated in emergency rooms for violent injuries were hurt by a current or former partner. ["Violence Related Injuries Treated in Hospitals." US Dept. of Justice, August 1997]

• 44 - Percentage of women murdered by an intimate partner who vistied an emergency room in the two years prior to their deaths. ["Predicting Future Among Women in Abusive Relationships." The Journal of Trauma Injury, Infection and Critical Care, 2004.]

• A 1992 study estimates that direct and indirect costs of gunshot wounds $126 Billion. Cutting and stab wounds cost an additional $51 billion. [Accident, Analysis and Prevention, 1997, 29:329–341.]

• Nearly 16 children a day died in 1997 as a result of a firearms homicide, suicide or unintentional shooting. [Children’s Defense Fund, 1998]

• Handguns are used in 80 percent of homicides, nearly 70 percent of suicides and nearly all accidental shootings. [Prevention First]

• Between 1986 and 1992, the total number of children killed by firearms rose by 144 percent. [National Campaign to Reduce Youth Violence]

• From 1985 to 1993, murders committed by people over age 25 dropped 20 percent; but they increased 65 percent among 18- to 24-year-olds and increased 165 percent among 14- to 17-year-olds. [Northeastern University’s College of Criminal Justice]

• From 1985 to 1992, the homicide rate for 16-year-olds increased 138%, while the rate among 18-year-olds doubled, and the rate for 24-year-olds and above either remained the same or declined. [National Institute of Justice Research Preview, 1995]

• $48,000,000 - Amount by which federal family violence prevention services program were under funded in 2005. [Campaign for funding to end violence againt women. FY Budget Briefing Book. www.ncadv.org/files/compiledbriefingbookandchartsfy06.pdf]

• Children in adult jails commit suicide eight times as often as their counterparts in juvenile facilities. In addition, children in adult facilities are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted, and twice as likely to be beaten by jail staff. [Children’s Defense Fund, 1998]

• Annual rates of firearm homicides for youths age 15-19 increased 155% between 1989 and 1994. [National Summary of Injury Mortality Data, 1987-1994; National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 1996]

• In the United States, some 31,000 gangs were operating in 1996 in about 4800 cities and towns. [World Report on Violence and Health, World Health Organization 2002]

• Large cities claim that 72% of their school violence is attributable in part to gang activity. [National League of Cities 1994 survey of 700 U.S. cities]

• In Los Angeles County between 1981 and 1992, 15,000 people died of AIDS, but 22,000 died as a result of homicide. [Los Angeles Department of Health Services]

• In Los Angeles County between 1981 and 1992, a child between five and nine was slain, on average, every eight and a half days. [Los Angeles Department of Health Services]

• In Los Angeles County, the use of semiautomatic handguns in gang-related killings has more than quadrupled, to more than 40 percent. [Los Angeles Department of Health Services]

• In 1992, handguns killed 33 people in Great Britain, 36 in Sweden, 97 in Switzerland, 60 in Japan, 13 in Australia, 128 in Canada, and 13,200 in the United States. [Handgun Control Inc., cited in The Washington Post, 1998]

Additional Data:
(sources not secure)

- every 15 seconds a women in U.S. is beaten by current or former husband or intimate partner

-30% of female murder victims are killed by intimate partners.

-A woman is battered every 13 seconds

-Between 2 & 4 million women abused annually

-1,500 - 2,000 women are murdered each year by current or former partners(FBI)

-2/3 of men who beat their wives also abuse their children (stark & fitcraft)

-1/3 of all teenagers report having experienced violence in a dating relationship

-4 million women are victims of severe assaults by boyfriends & husbands each year.

-1 in 4 are likely to be abused by a partner in her lifetime (sara glazer,"violence against women," CQ reseacher congressional quarterly inc.vol13,no.8 feb 1998.p.171.)

-Females are victims of family violence at a rate of 3 times that of males (bureau of justice stats.hglghts from 20 yrs. Of surveying crime victims wash.dc.us dept of justice 1993 p25)

-30% of female murders in 1992 were by husbands or boyfriends (U.C.R.FBI 1993.p.16)

-Battered women increase risk of being murdered when they try to escape (NYC dept of health)

-81% of men who batter had fathers who abused their mothers (n.j. dept. of community affairs divison of women)

-1500 American women are murdered by husbands or boyfriends each year (FBI UCS.1996)

School Statistics

1996-97 School violence reported:
4,170 rape or sexual battery
7,150 robberies
10,950 physical attack or fight w/weapon 98,490
vandalism 115,500 theft larceny

Source: U.S. dept of ed. National center for edu. Stats
College Campus in U.S. crime stats. National center for education stats.

1996-97 School year
50 states reported expelling an estimated 6,093 of the 46 million public students for bringing a firearm to school.

WAR

Okinawa 1945
April 1 1945 - Aug.15 1945
13,395 killed
57,000 casualties
4.5 months of battle
provided by the 96th RSC affairs office (801) 656 4133

Revolutionary war
4,435 killed

Civil war
498,332 killed

WWI
116,708 killed

WWII
407,316 killed

Korea
25,604 killed

Vietnam
58,168 killed

Rapes per year
2000- 90,178
2001- 90,491

Tools and Education