The United Nations Declaration defines violence against women as:

...any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty whether occurring in public or private life.

The Declaration describes the persistence of violence against women as:

...a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and which have prevented women's full advancement. Violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position compared to men.

• All women, simply by virtue of their gender, are potential victims of violence.
• Studies show that 73% to 85% of women do not experience physical violence until they have married or moved in with their partner, at which time the frequency and severity of violence tends to escalate.
  Violence Against Women, The Hidden Health Burden, 1994 p. 15 (Browne 1987)
• 30% of women presenting to emergency departments with traumatic injuries incurred the injuries as a result of woman abuse.
  Violence Against Women, The Hidden Health Burden, 1994
• Abused women are four to five times more likely than non-abused women to require psychiatric treatment and are five times more likely to attempt suicide.
  Stark & Flitcraft 1991
• Fear, anxiety, fatigue, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleeping and eating disturbances are common long-term reactions to violence. Studies show that abused women have significantly worse physical and mental health than non-abused women.

Violence Against Women, The Hidden Health Burden, 1994


• 28% of all annual violence against women is perpetrated by intimates.
  Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: National Crime Victimization Survey, Violence Against Women (NCJ-145325), January 1994
• 90 - 95% of domestic violence victims are women.
  Bureau of Justice Statistics Selected Findings: Violence Between Intimates (NCJ-149259) November, 1994
• As many as 95% of domestic violence perpetrators are male.
  A report of the Violence Against Women Research Strategic Planning Workshop Sponsored by the National Institute of Justice in cooperation with the US Department of Health and Human Services, 1995
• Much of female violence is committed in self-defence, and inflicts less injury than male violence.
  Chalk & King, eds., Violence in Families: Assessing Prevention & Treatment Programs, National Resource Council and Institute of Medicine, p. 42 (1998)
• 70% of intimate homicide victims are female.
  Bureau of Justice Statistics Selected Findings: Violence Between Intimates (NCJ-149259), November, 1994
• The number of women killed by their husbands or common-law partners has remained fairly stable, with an average of 78 women killed each year between 1974 and 1993).
  Dangerous Domains: Violence Against Women in Canada, Holly Johnson 1996, p. 179
• Gender violence cuts across all socioeconomic groups.
  Violence Against Women, The Hidden Health Burden, 1994, p. 14
• Domestic Violence is statistically consistent across racial and ethnic boundaries.
  Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey (NCJ-154348), August 1995, p.3
• Women who leave their batterers are at a 75% greater risk of being killed by the batterer than those who stay. The risk of homicide is higher in the first two months after separation.
  Wilson, Margo and Martin Daly. (1993) "Spousal homicide risk and estrangement." Violence and Victims, 8, 3-16.

London Abused Women's Centre, 2001