Some facts about the cost of domestic violence
In Maine the crime of domestic assault as reported to police occurs every 1 hour, 37 minutes. The costs to the community are staggering. According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
- There are 5.3 million incidents of intimate partner violence (physical assault, rape, and stalking) against women age 18 and older in the United States each year. These incidents result in 1,300 deaths and 2 million injuries, 555,000 of which require medical attention.
- Victims of intimate partner violence lose a total of nearly 8 million days of paid work (the equivalent of over 32,000 full-time jobs) and 5.6 million days of household productivity each year.
- The costs of these victimizations exceed $5.8 billion annually.
- A recent study of abusers in the workplace found that domestic violence offenders were likely to use work time and workplace resources to contact victims for abusive purposes.
- Seventy percent of men who attend batterer's intervention programs report losing work time due to domestic violence arrests.
