Domestic violence: identifying the deadly silence

In the past decade, domestic violence, or intimate partner violence (IPV), has become recognized as a serious public health issue in the United States (2, 13). This devastating abuse affects 3 to 4 million individuals every year in this country alone (6, 7, 14). Millions more are affected due to the children and family who witness the abuse. Each year 3.3 million children witness domestic partner abuse and 50 to 70 percent of the perpetrators also abuse their children (7, 1). Domestic violence is a leading cause of serious injury to women, killing as many as 4,000 women each year (14, 2). Twenty-five percent of the murders in this country are related to domestic violence (14). Domestic violence represents the largest segment of unreported crime in the United States (2).