Over Thirty Million Adults Claim to be Victims of Domestic Violence

According to The Harris Poll^®, approximately 33 million or 15 percent of all U.S. adults, admit that they were a victim of domestic violence. Furthermore, six in 10 adults claim that they know someone personally who has experienced domestic violence.

These are some of the results of a Harris Poll of 2,377 U.S. adults ages 18 and older surveyed online by Harris Interactive^® between April 11 and 17, 2006. This survey was conceived by Harris Interactive and was not commissioned by any organization. However, we did seek and receive valuable input from the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

This survey attempts to gauge the magnitude of domestic violence. The term "domestic violence" refers to "physical harm (pushed, shoved, choked, hit, etc.), sexual harm and/or emotional harm (made fun of, yelled at, ignored, isolated, etc.) regularly occurring between spouses or dating partners."

Based on this definition, six in 10 (61%) adults claim that they know someone personally "who has ever experienced domestic violence." A quarter (25%) of adults say that they didn’t know anyone, while the remaining 15 percent say that they aren’t sure or refuse to provide an answer.

• Two-thirds (67%) of women say they know someone who has ever experienced domestic violence, compared to 21 percent who say they do not know anyone who has experienced it The respective figures for men are lower (55% who know someone, 28% who don’t know someone).

A quarter (24%) of those who say that they know someone personally who has experienced domestic violence say that the victim is themselves. This translates into 15 percent of the U.S. adult population, or approximately 33 million adults. Among women, this figure increases to 33 percent of women who know someone who has experienced domestic violence and 11 percent of men (22 percent of all women and 6 percent of all men).

• Among those who know someone personally who is a victim of domestic violence, 45 percent say that the victim was a family member or a friend, an acquaintance (28%), a co-worker (22%), or someone else (10%).

Separately, among all adults, 39 percent say that they have experienced at least one of the following, with 54 percent saying that they haven’t experienced any:

• Called bad names (31%)
• Pushing, slapping, choking or hitting (21%)
• Public humiliation (19%)
• Keeping away from friends or family (13%)
• Threatening your family (10%)
• Forcing you to have sexual intercourse without consent (9%)

Not surprisingly, these figures increase dramatically for the victims of domestic violence. Ninety-two percent of victims say that they have experienced one or more of these actions, with 95 percent of female victims and 81 percent of male victims saying this.

• In a hypothetical situation, majorities of those who do not know anyone who has experienced domestic violence say that they would take a number of steps if a friend or family member claimed they were a victim of domestic violence. This includes talking to a family member (73%), talking to a friend (67%), calling the police (65%) or calling a domestic violence hotline (62%).
• However, for those who know a victim, overall seven in 10 (72%) took some sort of action, while fewer numbers talked to a friend (34%), talked to a family member (30%), called the police (22%) or called a domestic violence hotline (5%).

The Harris Poll findings help draw attention to the fact that many acknowledge the seriousness of domestic violence and feel that resources need to be directed at helping victims of domestic violence. At the same time, the survey highlights that many adults are willing to come forward and acknowledge that they have been a victim themselves.

"Many people in the U.S. today experience a number of difficult family situations in and out of the home. Do you know someone personally who has ever experienced domestic violence?"

Base: All adults

Note: Percentages may not add up to exactly 100% due to rounding.

"Who was the victim? Please select all that apply."

Base: Adults who know someone who has ever experienced domestic violence

Note: Multi-response question.

"Which of the following actions, if any, did you take? Please select all that apply."

Base: Adults who know someone who has ever experienced domestic violence

Note: Multi-response question.

"If someone you knew, such as a friend or family member, were experiencing domestic violence, which of the following would you do? "

Base: Adults who do not know someone who has ever experienced domestic violence

"In your life, have you ever experienced any of the following from a partner or a spouse?

Please select all that you have experienced."

Base: All adults

Note: Multi-response question.

This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between April 11 and 17, 2006 among 2,377 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

All surveys are subject to several sources of error. These include: sampling error (because only a sample of a population is interviewed); measurement error due to question wording and/or question order, deliberately or unintentionally inaccurate responses, nonresponse (including refusals), interviewer effects (when live interviewers are used) and weighting.

With one exception (sampling error) the magnitude of the errors that result cannot be estimated. There is, therefore, no way to calculate a finite "margin of error" for any survey and the use of these words should be avoided.

With pure probability samples, with 100 percent response rates, it is possible to calculate the probability that the sampling error (but not other sources of error) is not greater than some number. With a pure probability sample of 2,377 adults one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/-2 percentage points. However that does not take other sources of error into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

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