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UCLA Survey Estimates 11 Million Adult Californians Personally Know Victim of Domestic ViolenceDate: February 18, 2003Contact: Dan Page (email)Phone: (310) 794-2265 A UCLA School of Public Health survey estimates that nearly 11 million adult Californians - 45.5 percent of the state's adult population - personally know a victim of domestic violence. Of that total, 86.5 percent reported knowing a victim who incurred physical harm, and only 18.3 percent of the injured victims sought medical care. The survey of personal awareness of violence involving intimate partners emphasizes the breadth of the state and national domestic-violence crisis - a public health dilemma that often is difficult to quantify and address due to cultural, societal and other factors that discourage reporting by victims. The survey results and analysis were reported in the Winter 2003 edition of the peer-reviewed Journal of American Medical Women's Association. "An often overlooked resource in domestic-violence intervention and prevention efforts is the victim's social support network of friends, relatives and co-workers," said Susan B. Sorenson, professor of community health sciences at the UCLA School of Public Health. "Those individuals may be powerful allies in helping - or hindering - victims of domestic violence. In addition to medical and legal resources at their disposal, health-care providers should encourage victims to identify and use their own social networks for safety and emotional support. "Such efforts can increase the level of support and options available to domestic-violence victims, as well as increase community awareness, involvement and investment in reducing domestic violence. Over time, such efforts may eventually lead to changes in social norms within a community - namely, less tolerance for domestic violence and less consideration of the practice as a private family matter." The National Institute of Justice reports that nearly 1.3 million women and 825,000 men are physically assaulted by intimate partners each year in the United States. The UCLA study, part of a larger survey funded by the California Department of Health Services, is the first peer-reviewed study to examine the extent to which Americans know victims of domestic violence. A total of 3,713 California adults (including similar numbers of whites, blacks, Hispanics, Korean Americans, Vietnamese Americans and other Asian Americans) completed the random telephone survey between April 2000 and March 2001, a response rate of 50.5 percent. Respondents were asked whether a friend, relative or co-workers had been threatened or harmed by an intimate partner. Among other survey findings:
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