ATLANTA, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- On average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States, federal health officials say.
Intimate partner violence contributed to 1,295 deaths in 2010, accounting for 10 percent of all homicides for that year, a report published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report said.
Howard R. Spivak and Lynn Jenkins of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control; Kristi VanAudenhove of The Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance; Debbie Lee of Futures Without Violence and Mim Kelly and John Iskander of the CDC's office of the director; said intimate partner violence is a serious public health problem in the United States -- a problem that is preventable.
Intimate partner violence can involve physical and sexual violence, threats of physical or sexual violence, and psychological abuse, including stalking. It can occur within opposite-sex or same-sex couples and can range from one incident to an ongoing pattern of violence, the report said.
The report concluded intimate partner violence can only be addressed if the focus is shifted from responding to acts of violence to preventing violence.
