Female Victims of Violent Crime

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

ADVANCE FOR RELEASE AT 4:30 P.M. EST           BJS
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 18, 1996           202/633-3047

  WOMEN ARE VIOLENT CRIME VICTIMS AT A LOWER RATE  
   THAN MEN, BUT THE DIFFERENCE IS NARROWING
 Women Are More Likely To Be Attacked By Intimates

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- There were 10.9 million
violent crimes during 1994, with two female
victims for every three male victims, the Justice
Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
announced in a new report today.  Twenty years ago
there were two female violent crime victims for
every four male victims.  
     "The overall trend indicates that the rates
of victimization for men and women converge--the
rate for men decreasing and the rate for women
remaining relatively stable or increasing," the
report on female violent crime victimization
noted.
     During 1992 and 1993 there were an annual
average of 3.5 million female victimizations by
single offenders--2.7 million by intimates,
relatives, acquaintances or friends, compared to
800,000 offenders who were strangers.  Females
experienced seven times as many incidents of non-
fatal violence by an intimate as did males--more
than 1 million, compared to an estimated 143,000
for men. 
     Of the 10.9 million violent victimizations
during 1994, 4.7 million were against female
victims and 6.2 million against male victims. 
Among women victims there was one rape for every
270 females 12 years old and older, one robbery
for every 240 women, one assault for every 29
women and one homicide for every 23,000 women, the
BJS report said.
     Black, white and Hispanic female victims are
attacked by intimates at approximately the same
rates, as measured by the BJS National Crime
Victimization Survey.  However, family income does
make a difference--the risk is four times greater
among females with annual family incomes of less
than $10,000 than those with family incomes of
$50,000 or more.
     As for homicide, which the BJS survey does
not measure,   1995 Federal Bureau of
Investigation data show that among all female
murder victims, 26 percent were killed by husbands
or boyfriends, compared to 3 percent of all male
victims who were killed by wives or girlfriends. 
     "The murder rates for both male and female
victims of intimate violence have declined," the
report stated.  "From 1977 to 1995 the rate for
husbands, ex-husbands or boyfriends as murder
victims of an intimate partner dropped by two-
thirds.  For female murder victims of an intimate,
the decline was far less dramatic, from a rate of
1.6 per 100,000 women to 1.3 per 100,000.  These
rates were based on murders in which law 
enforcement authorities determined the
circumstances of the crimes."
     Male victimization rates exceeded those of
women in all violent crime categories except for
rape and sexual assault.  The 1994 rates per 1,000
people 12 years old and older were as follows:

                               Female     Male

    All crimes of violence       43        60
    Rape and sexual assault       4         0.2
    Robbery                       4         8      
    Assault                      35        51
       Aggravated assault         8        15     
       Simple assault            27        36
    Homicide                      0.04      0.18

     The data are from BJS's selected findings,
"Female Victims of Violent Crime" (NCJ-162602),
written by BJS statistician Diane Craven, all of
which can be obtained by news media members only
on the Internet at:      

 http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/preview/sneakpk.pdf

     It will be available to the general public
beginning at 4:30 p.m. EST, Wednesday, December
18, on the BJS Internet home page by clicking on
"What's new at BJS."  The BJS webpage address is:
 
          http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/ 

     Additional BJS materials may be obtained from
the BJS fax-on-demand system (301/251-5550) or by
calling the BJS Clearinghouse at 1-800/732-3277.  

BJS96253 (M)
After hours contact:  Stu Smith at 301/983-9354 

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