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ISSUES
Violence against women is a Serious, Widespread Social Problem in America: The
Facts
Each year 4 million American women suffer from serious physical assault by an intimate.
Nearly 1 in 3 adult women experience at least one physical assault by a partner
during adulthood.
1 in 3 women also report being sexually abused and/or raped by a husband or boyfriend.
Domestic Violence crosses ethnic, racial, age, national origin, sexual orientation,
religious and socioeconomic lines.
Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault are direct links to woman being
homeless in Hampton Roads.
Domestic violence is the #1 cause of homeless females. Statistics indicate that
more than 25% of women in emergency and transitional homes or shelters were victims
of domestic violence.
Emergency shelters are only the beginning of the road to recovery from being homeless,
hopeless and domestic violence. Because Federal legislation mandates a maximum of 45
days in an emergency shelter, many women leave the shelters with nowhere to turn after
a brutal beating or violent rape. Transitional homes, such as Barrett, are an important
link in the societal continuum - assisting battered women along the path to workforce
re-entry, self-sufficiency and societal contribution.
In all of the transitional homes in Hampton Roads, we have 225 beds for the homeless
and victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. As of 2006, there were over 2,900
woman homeless in Hampton Roads in need of these beds.
(Sources: Cities of VB, Chesapeake,
Norfolk, Portsmouth; Bureau of Justice; American Psychological Assn)
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