Home Violence Underreported, U.S. Study Says

Asserting that domestic violence is “seriously underreported,” the Justice Department released a study Sunday that found that a quarter of a million people were treated for injuries inflicted by an intimate partner in 1994--four times more than previously estimated.

The study, by the department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, is likely to refocus national attention on an issue that had fallen out of the spotlight in the wake of an otherwise dramatic drop in violent crime in the nation over the past four years.

The new estimate of domestic violence, which is notoriously difficult to measure, was compiled by examining emergency hospital admissions rather than the more common but less precise practice of surveying police records or interviewing victims of violence.

Of the 1.4 million people treated for nonfatal injuries stemming from willful or suspected intentional acts of violence in 1994, almost half were injured by someone they knew. And about 243,000, or 17%, were treated for injuries inflicted by someone with whom they had had an intimate relationship--a spouse, former spouse or current or former boyfriend or girlfriend.

Among the incidents reported, women were up to eight times more likely than men to be treated for injuries inflicted by a current or former spouse or lover. Men were more likely than women to be treated for injuries caused by acquaintances and strangers.

The 243,000 injuries were four times higher than the number reported in the department’s National Crime Victimization Survey--an annual study that is the second-largest government survey, after the national census.

Experts say the new study confirms that while America’s streets may be safer, much work remains to be done to curb violence in homes, offices and schools.

“We are not surprised by the department’s figures,” said John Stein, deputy director of the National Organization for Victim Assistance, a Washington-based advocacy group. “There is a significant amount of frustration in the victims’ movement that efforts of public education do not appear to be producing significant progress.

“The initial promise that we saw in the increased use of arrests, protective orders and treatment [for batterers] in response to known cases of family violence seems not to be getting the message across to significant numbers of abusers,” Stein added.

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Bruises and bumps accounted for just over one-third of the 1.4 million injuries overall, and cuts, stab wounds or internal injuries comprised 31%.

When the location of the violent act was known, almost half (48%) occurred in someone’s home. And 29% were in or near a store, an office or a factory, while 4% occurred in or near a school.

Bonnie J. Campbell, director of the Justice Department’s Violence Against Women Office, said the new data indicate that the government needs “to redouble our efforts to engage emergency-room personnel in the battle to end domestic abuse” because police statistics and other survey methods often don’t uncover the full extent of the problem.

State and community experts on domestic violence in California have long complained that incidents of abuse are woefully underreported. One authority said Sunday that she thinks the national trends of underreporting would be mirrored locally in Southern California. Statistics for Southern California were unavailable.

Campbell stopped short of endorsing nationwide mandatory reporting of suspected domestic abuse cases by hospital personnel--as is required in California and some other states. Campbell said such controversial rules can conflict with other rules protecting doctor-patient confidentiality and thus serve to confuse medical personnel and discourage reporting.

“I don’t think we are looking at anything mandatory on the federal level,” Campbell said. “But this data really underscores that health-care providers are in a position to help out with early intervention with victims of abuse.”

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Stein, of the National Organization for Victim Assistance, agreed. “We have more shelters for animals than we have for human victims of abuse.”

Although nearly 60% of the injuries did not involve the use of a weapon, guns inflicted injury in 5% of the cases, and knives or other sharp objects were used in 7%.