What is Domestic Violence?
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Domestic violence (DV) (also called intimate partner violence (IPV)) is willful abusive behavior that occurs as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another. It can include physical violence, sexual assault, threats, intimidation, and emotional abuse.
Domestic violence does not discriminate. Victims of domestic violence can be of any gender, race, age, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic background, and education level. It can arise in any relationship—marriage, cohabitation, or a dating relationship.
The dangers of domestic violence are heightened when intimate partners have access to guns. The mere presence of a gun in a domestic violation situation increases the risk that a survivor will be killed by 500%. Below are more statistics on domestic violence and access to firearms.
DV and Gun Statistics
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Did you know?
1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men have been victims of severe physical violence (e.g. beating, burning, strangling) by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
35% of all women killed by men are killed by intimate partners with guns.
Between 1990 and 2005, guns were used to kill more than two-thirds of spouse and ex-spouse homicide victims.
Abused women are five times more likely to be killed if their abuser owns a gun.
Domestic violence assaults involving a gun are 12 times more likely to result in death than those involving other weapons or bodily force.
Women in the United States are 16 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than in peer countries.
In 2015, 55% of the 1,352 intimate partner homicides were committed with guns.
In 2011, nearly two-thirds of women killed with guns were killed by their intimate partner.
In an average month, 50 American women are shot to death by intimate partners, and many more are injured. Nearly 1 million women alive today have been shot, or shot at, by an intimate partner.
About 4.5 million American women alive today have been threatened with a gun by an intimate partner.
Between 2007-2016, 687 women were killed by an intimate partner with a firearm in Texas.
In 2012, 114 Texas women were killed by intimate partners, more than 10% of national total.
In 2016, 146 women were killed by men in Texas, and 68% of those were killed with a firearm.
Texas is ranked 9th in the United States for male-perpetrated female homicide.
Harris County ranks the highest in the state for domestic violence murders with 29 women killed by men in 2016.
92% of women murdered in Texas knew their killer. Of those, 35% were married to him, 32% were dating him, 18% had formerly dated him, 12% were separated from him, and 3% were formerly married to him.
40% of women killed in 2016 had made attempts to end their relationship or were in the process of leaving when they were murdered.
Gun violence affects all age groups – in 2016, the youngest woman killed by a gun in an abusive relationship was 15, the oldest was 92, and the average was 37.
Eight women a month are killed by a gun in domestic violence situations in Texas.
Firearms accounted for the murders of 1,717 women in Texas from 2002 to 2011.
A woman in Texas living with a gun in the home is three times more likely to be murdered than one with no gun in the home.
2017 Texas Council on Family Violence Report
The Texas Council on Family Violence is recognized as a statewide expert on domestic violence. For the past 38 years, it has documented and analyzed data on deaths of women at the hands of a male intimate partner.* This analysis has evolved to a robust annual report that includes raw data, data analysis, and policy recommendations.
Counties with the most domestic violence fatalities:
Harris: 29
Bexar: 18
Tarrant: 12
Dallas: 8
Collin: 7
In Texas, a woman was killed by her intimate partner every 2.5 days.
65% of perpetrators used a firearm to murder their partner
* Not all domestic violence is perpetrated by males. However, statistics show that men are much more likely to commit domestic violence against women. Because of this, we have used gendered pronouns for consistency.
