Violence against women is recognized today as a major social problem. This violence includes a wide range of violations of women's human rights including spousal violence, which is usually directed at wives or girlfriends, sexual assault and stalking. The United Nations Declaration on Violence Against Women defines it as:
             Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life (unfpa.org n.d., pg. 3).
             Although reliable data on the incidence of violence against women is scarcer, an increasing body of knowledge indicates that it is widespread and common.
             According to the National Organization for Women, women are ten times more likely than men to be victimized by a partner. Young women, women who are separated, divorced or single, and African-American women are disproportionately victims of assault and rape. Domestic violence rates are five times higher among families below poverty levels, and severe spouse abuse is twice as likely to be committed by unemployed means by those working full time (unfpa.org n.d., pg. 5). Regarding how large the problem is in the United States alone over 572,000 reports of assault by intimates are officially reported to federal officials each year, the most conservative estimates indicate two to four million women of all races and classes are battered by intimates each year. At least 170,000 of those violent incident are serious enough require hospitalization, emergency room care or doctor attention.
             Every year approximately 132,000 women report that they have been victims of rape or attempted rape, and more than half of them knew their attackers. It's estimated that two to six times women are raped, but do not report it. Every year 1.2 million women are forcibly raped by their curren...