More than 40% of Black women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime, according to the Institute of Women’s Policy Research’s Status of Black Women in the United States.
In comparison, 31.5% of all women will experience domestic violence.
A report from the National Center for Victims of Crime found that 53.8% of Black women had experienced psychological abuse, while 41.2% of Black women had experienced physical abuse.
More disturbingly, Black women are 2.5 times more likely to be murdered by men than white women.
In the overwhelming majority of these cases — 92% — the person who killed them knew their victim. 56% of these homicides were committed by a current or former intimate partner. Nearly all —92% — of these killings were intra-racial, which means that they were committed by a Black man against a Black woman.
With statistics like these, the Black Women’s Health Project determined that domestic violence is the number one health issue facing Black women.
Prevalence of Teen Dating Violence (TDV)
TDV can include physical violence, sexual violence, stalking, and psychological aggression. Repeated texting to threaten, stalk someone and/or posting sexual pictures online without the consent of the partner are actions that also fall under the umbrella of teen dating violence (Breiding et al., 2015).
Teen Dating Violence in the Black Community
- About 8% of high school students reported experiencing physical dating violence where they were purposely hurt (including being hit, slammed into something, or injured with an object or weapon) by someone they dated (Basile et al., 2020).
- For both physical and sexual violence, the prevalence was higher among girls than boys. 9.3% of girls and 7% boys experience physical dating violence. As for sexual dating violence the gap is even wider with girls experiencing sexual violence at three times the rate of boys, 12.6% of girls compared to 3.8% of boys experienced sexual violence (Basile et al., 2020).
- About 8% of youth reported experiencing sexual dating violence where they were forced to do sexual acts such a as kissing, touching, and sexual intercourse by someone they dated and about 7% reported being forced to have sex in their lifetime (Basile et al., 2020).
Youth who identified as LGBTQIA+, or were questioning their gender identity, experienced higher rates of physical and sexual dating violence compared to the teens who identified as heterosexual (Basile et al., 2020).
Ujima Foundation