Violence: Problem and Context

Violence operates at many levels. Its viciousness manifests not only in the individual acts of violence portrayed so constantly in the media, but also at the institutional, systemic, and international levels, where groups and targeted categories of people endure chronic harms, injustices, and hardships. Examples of systemic harm include economic exploitation and poverty, unequal treatment under the law, prevalent human rights violations, and repressive military actions. These more insidious, often socially accepted harms frequently lay the groundwork for outbursts of individual or group violence that erupt in seemingly disconnected circumstances worldwide.

- Violence and Development Project Bulletin , May 1997, available at https://www.socialworkers.org/practice/violence/violproj.asp

Statistically, women are the primary victims of domestic and sexual violence. Although women can be perpetrators of domestic violence, 95 percent of victims of intimate partner violence are women (McKenzie, 1995, p.9). Approximately 25 percent of women have been raped or physically assaulted by an intimate partner (CDC, 2003).

Additionally, every year an estimated 896,000 children experience child maltreatment (USDHHS, 2004), although the National Incidence Study indicates that as many as 1,553,800 may be abused or neglected (Sedlak & Broadhurst, 1996). More than 60 percent of child maltreatment is directly related to neglect, although physical, sexual, and emotional abuse get more attention from the public, policymakers, and the research community.

Child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, and violence against women are interrelated; often occurring within the same households. It is estimated that in 45 to 70 percent of cases in which there is domestic violence, child maltreatment also occurs (Foley, Berns, Test, Bragg, & Schechter, 2000). A national survey of more than 6,000 U.S. families revealed that 50 percent of men who frequently assaulted their partners also abused their children (American Humane Association, 1995).

The NASW Practice Research Network (PRN) survey of the Association's members indicated that only one percent [reported working in the field of] violence as their primary practice area (February 2003, NASW News ).