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Unit 4 Social Institutions
Country Reported Abuse
Canada
New Zealand Switzerland United Kingdom United States
Industrialized Countries
29% of ever-married/common law–partnered women report being physically assaulted by a current or
former partner since the age of sixteen.
20% of women report being hit or physically abused by a male partner.
20% of women report being physically assaulted.
25% of women had been punched or slapped by a partner or ex-partner in their lifetimes. 28% of women report at least one episode of physical violence from their partner.
Asia and the Pacific
Korea 38% of wives report being physically abused by their spouses in the last year.
Thailand 20% of husbands acknowledge physically abusing their wives at least once in their marriage.
Middle East
Egypt 35% of women report being beaten by their husbands at some point in their marriage.
Israel 32% of women report at least one episode of physical abuse by their partners during the last twelve months; 30% report sexual coercion by their husbands in the last year.
Africa
Kenya 42% of women report ever being beaten by a partner; of those, 58% report that they were beaten often or
sometimes.
Uganda 41% of women report being beaten or physically harmed by a partner; 41% of men report beating their partners.
Chile
Columbia Mexico
Latin America and the Caribbean
26% report at least one episode of violence by a partner, 11% report at least one episode of severe violence,
and 15% of women report at least one episode of less severe violence.
19% of women have been physically assaulted by their partners in their lifetimes.
30% report at least one episode of physical violence by a partner; 13% report physical violence within the last year.
Figure 11.7 Events of Domestic Violence against Women in Selected Countries. Levels of domestic violence against women clearly vary from country to country.
Source: World Health Organiza- tion, 1997.
or outside (Heller, Kempe, and Krugman, 1999; Pryor, 1999). Reported child sexual abuse in the United States has skyrocketed in recent years. Between 1976 and 1997, the number of reported child abuse cases rose from 662,000 to over 3 million. Statistics collected nationally indicate that 47 out of every 1,000 children are reported annually as victims of child maltreatment (Wang and Daro, 1998). Child sexual abuse goes beyond physical contact. Some children are forced into pornography or are made to view pornography in the presence of the abuser. What’s worse, the abuser is usually someone the child trusts—a parent, friend of the family, child-care giver, brother.
At least four million women are battered by their husbands annually, probably many more. Over four thousand women each year are beaten to death. The extent of physical abuse is underestimated in part because three- fourths of spousal violence occurs during separation or after divorce, and most research is conducted among married couples.
Is abuse always directed against women? Husband abuse is fre- quently overlooked in studies of physical abuse. Although marriages in the United States are generally male dominated, it seems there is equality in the