Violence and Crime Against Women Must Stop!
In 1994, Legislation was passed which paved the way for the Violence Against Women Act. This Legislation provided $1.6 billion to enhance investigation and prosecution of the violent crimes perpetrated against women. However, the heinous crimes against women continue to increase each year. Preliminary results for the first half of 2006 revealed that there was a 3.7 percent increase in all violent crimes compared to the first half of 2005.
Here are some appalling statistics in the U.S. Every three minutes a woman is attacked in the United States. Women are 10 times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate partner. Conservative estimates indicate that two to four million women of all races and classes are battered each year. An estimated 572,000 assaults were by intimate partners. Every day four women die in this country as a result of domestic violence, which approximates 1,400 women a year according to the FBI. Every year approximately 132,000 women report that they have been victims of rape or attempted rape, and more than half of them knew their attackers. It’s estimated that two to six times that many women are raped, but do not report it. Every year approximately 1.2 million women report being forcibly raped by their current or former male partner. Approximately 17 percent of pregnant women report being battered. The results of the battering include miscarriages, stillbirths and a two to four times greater likelihood of the baby having a low birth weight.