Violence Against Women on the Rise in U.S.

Analysis by Human Rights Watch shows a frightening set of trends.

"Among all violent crimes, domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault showed the largest increases."

Other crimes except for simple assault decreased over the two year period of the survey.

"The projected number of violent crimes committed by intimate partners against women increased from 389,100 in 2005 to 554,260 in the 2007 report. By comparison, the number of violent crimes against men by intimate partners went down."

Business as usual puts women at more risk than men.

Methodology for the survey was changed to respond to past criticism. There may be an increase in reorted numbers due to underreporting with the old survey method. No matter what the cause the numbers remain much too high to be acceptable. New methods of reporting and much greater means of protecting women reporting violent crimes must be developed in our society. We must not allow this to continue.

By Possum's diary of Daily Kos