Pound Pup Legacy

I hope one day the US will do studies that show how adoptive/foster homes versus non adoptive/foster homes compare in terms of violence, neglect and safety, but until then, below are some figures that reflect family-life... adopted or not.

Domestic Homicides

• On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day. In 2000, 1,247 women were killed by an intimate partner. The same year, 440 men were killed by an intimate partner.¹⁶
• Women are much more likely than men to be killed by an intimate partner. In 2000, intimate partner homicides accounted for 33.5 percent of the murders of women and less than four percent of the murders of men.¹⁷
• Pregnant and recently pregnant women are more likely to be victims of homicide than to die of any other cause¹⁸ , and evidence exists that a significant proportion of all female homicide victims are killed by their intimate partners.¹⁹
• Research suggests that injury related deaths, including homicide and suicide, account for approximately one-third of all maternal mortality cases, while medical reasons make up the rest. But, homicide is the leading cause of death overall for pregnant women, followed by cancer, acute and chronic respiratory conditions, motor vehicle collisions and drug overdose, peripartum and postpartum cardiomyopthy, and suicide.²⁰

Health Issues

• The health-related costs of rape, physical assault, stalking and homicide committed by intimate partners exceed $5.8 billion each year. Of that amount, nearly $4.1 billion are for direct medical and mental health care services, and nearly $1.8 billion are for the indirect costs of lost productivity or wages.²¹
• About half of all female victims of intimate violence report an injury of some type, and about 20 percent of them seek medical assistance.²²
• Thirty-seven percent of women who sought treatment in emergency rooms for violence-related injuries in 1994 were injured by a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend.²³

Domestic Violence and Youth

• Approximately one in five female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner.²⁴
• Eight percent of high school age girls said “yes” when asked if “a boyfriend or date has ever forced sex against your will.”²⁵
• Forty percent of girls age 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend.²⁶
• During the 1996-1997 school year, there were an estimated 4,000 incidents of rape or other types of sexual assault in public schools across the country.²⁷

Domestic Violence and Children

• In a national survey of more than 6,000 American families, 50 percent of the men who frequently assaulted their wives also frequently abused their children.²⁸
• Slightly more than half of female victims of intimate violence live in households with children under age 12.²⁹
• Studies suggest that between 3.3 - 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence annually.³⁰

Rape

• Three in four women (76 percent) who reported they had been raped and/or physically assaulted since age 18 said that a current or former husband, cohabiting partner, or date committed the assault.³¹
• One in five (21 percent) women reported she had been raped or physically or sexually assaulted in her lifetime.³²
• Nearly one-fifth of women (18 percent) reported experiencing a completed or attempted rape at some time in their lives; one in 33 men (three percent) reported experiencing a completed or attempted rape at some time in their lives.³³
• In 2000, 48 percent of the rapes/sexual assaults committed against people age 12 and over were reported to the police.³⁴
• In 2001, 41,740 women were victims of rape/sexual assault committed by an intimate partner.³⁵
• Rapes/sexual assaults committed by strangers are more likely to be reported to the police than rapes/sexual assaults committed by “nonstrangers,” including intimate partners, other relatives and friends or acquaintances. Between 1992 and 2000, 41 percent of the rapes/sexual assaults committed by strangers were reported to the police. During the same time period, 24 percent of the rapes/sexual assaults committed by an intimate were reported.³⁶   [From:  "Domestic Violence is a Serious, Widespread Social Problem in America: The Facts", http://endabuse.org/resources/facts/

Interestingly enough, as I was trying to find the most recent statistics, I came across the following statement made by a domestic violence resource page:

One of the most common requests we receive is from students seeking statistics for their reports and from programs seeking statistics to bolster their requests for grant money and other funding. This page should point you in the right direction for finding up-to-date information covering a variety of statistical reporting on abuse issues, whether you are looking for frequently cited resources or for statistics by state.

It must be noted however, that there always remains the "gray element" in crime; that is, those incidents which occur but are never reported or are classified in ways which make it difficult to determine the true nature of the incident.

A prime example of this is domestic violence in same sex couples. Whether it's because the officer taking the report didn't know, didn't care or didn't want to "call it that", or because the parties involved were reluctant to expose the nature of the relationship, most domestic violence incidents between gays and lesbians end up classified as "assault" or "battery" - seriously skewing the true statistics and making it almost impossible to use the common statistical reports for guidance or insight into the issue.

Another often problematic example occurs when trying to extrapolate information from statistical reports where external factors play an important role, yet aren't accounted for. Any amount of research concerning victimization is bound to run into strange and misleading numbers.

An obvious example of this concerns abuse in low vs. high income families. While on the surface, it may appear that low levels of income go hand-in-hand with higher levels of domestic violence, one must keep in mind that available income has significant weight on the options available to victims. While a low-income mother with three small infants might appear on statistical reports when getting a restraining order, when entering a domestic violence shelter, or when applying for TANF services due to family violence, the white collar mother with two in college might flee to a hotel for a few weeks, file for divorce, and move back to the city where the bulk of her family resides. [From:  Abuse, Rape and Domestic Violence Aid and Resource Collection, http://www.aardvarc.org/dv/statistics.shtml]

Nowhere within the stat-pages I have found is adoption or adoptive homes mentioned, yet one has to wonder why so many assume adopted children are so well protected if no one is doing follow-up studies.  The only mention of foster care and cost of safety comes from this little statistic:

Family violence costs the nation from $5 to $10 billion annually in medical expenses, police and court costs, shelters and foster care, sick leave, absenteeism, and non-productivity. Source: Medical News, American Medical Association, January, 1992.

What are the chances much has improved since 1992?  Until we know who is NOT being reported, and who is not getting the health care they need, how successful can abuse prevention really be?

Does ANY country do follow-up studies on adoptee safety, or are those children sent-away (to a complete stranger's house) considered "safe" after an agency's home-study approval?