U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics ---------------------------------------------------------- This file is text only without graphics and many of the tables. A Zip archive of the tables in this report in spreadsheet format (.csv) and the full report including tables and graphics in .pdf format are available on BJS website at: http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4801 This report is one in a series. More recent editions may be available. To view a list of all in the series go to http://bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbse&sid=78 --------------------------------------------------------- **************** Special Report **************** Intimate Partner Violence: Attributes of Victimization, 1993–2011 Shannan Catalano, Ph.D., BJS Statistician This report examines nonfatal intimate partner violence, including rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault committed by the victim’s current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend. It focuses on the attributes of intimate partner victimization as measured by the type of crime, type of attack, whether the victim was threatened before the attack, weapon use by the offender, victim injury, and medical treatment received for injuries. The report presents these characteristics as measures of the seriousness or severity of the incident. For example, victimizations involving a physical injury are considered more severe than those without a physical injury. The rate of serious intimate partner violence (rape or sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault) against females declined by 72%, from 5.9 victimizations per 1,000 females age 12 or older in 1994 to 1.6 per 1,000 in 2011 (figure 1). The majority of the decline occurred from 1994 to 2001, when the rate of serious intimate partner violence against females declined by 59%. The rate fluctuated between 2 and 3 victimizations per 1,000 from 2001 to 2011. Similar to the rate of serious intimate partner violence, the rate of simple assault against females by an intimate partner declined by 70%, from 10.3 victimizations per 1,000 females in 1994 to 3.1 per 1,000 in 2011. (See definition of intimate partner violence and crime types in Methodology.) *********************************************************** ********** Highlights ********** * From 1994 to 2011, the rate of serious intimate partner violence declined 72% for females and 64% for males. * Nonfatal serious violence comprised more than a third of intimate partner violence against females and males during the most recent 10-year period (2002-11). * An estimated two-thirds of female and male intimate partner victimizations involved a physical attack in 2002- 11; the remaining third involved an attempted attack or verbal threat of harm. * In 2002–11, 8% of female intimate partner victimizations involved some form of sexual violence during the incident. * About 4% of females and 8% of males who were victimized by an intimate partner were shot at, stabbed, or hit with a weapon in 2002–11. * In 2002–11, a larger percentage of male (27%) than female (18%) intimate partner victimizations involved a weapon. * In 2002–11, 5% of females and 19% of males were hit by an object their intimate partner held or threw at them. * An estimated 50% of females victimized by an intimate partner, compared to 44% of males, suffered an injury in 2002–11. * In 2002–11, a greater percentage of female (13%) than male (5%) intimate partner victimizations resulted in a serious injury such as internal injury, unconsciousness, or broken bones. * An average of 18% of females and 11% of males were medically treated for injuries sustained during intimate partner violent victimizations in 2002–11. *********************************************************** One dimension of severity that is not explored here is the repeated nature of these victimizations. A victim who is repeatedly assaulted either by threats or direct physical attacks may be exposed to more severe intimate partner violence than someone who experiences a single victimization, all else being equal. Estimates presented in this report do not address the potentially increased severity of repeated intimate partner violence. The report presents trend estimates based on 2-year rolling averages centered on the most recent year. For example, estimates reported for 1994 represent the average estimates for 1993 and 1994. For ease of discussion, the report refers to all 2-year estimates by the most recent year. This method generally improves the reliability and stability of estimate comparisons over time. However, estimates based on 2 years of data are still insufficient to present reliable and stable comparisons for some subgroups. For example, the number of males seriously injured by intimate partner violence during a 2-year period is not large enough to produce reliable estimates. For this reason the report focuses on 2-year trends for females only. Other tables in this report focus on a single 10-year aggregate period from 2002 through 2011 for females and males. These approaches— using rolling averages and aggregating years—increase the reliability and stability of estimates and facilitates comparisons of detailed victimization attributes. To examine the attributes of intimate partner victimization, it is important to determine how measures of seriousness differ between intimate and nonintimate violence. To enable these comparisons, the aggregate tables also include estimates of nonintimate violent victimization. These comparisons are discussed in Comparing intimate and nonintimate violent victimization of females and males in this report. The data in this report were drawn from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which collects information on nonfatal victimizations reported and not reported to the police against persons age 12 or older from a nationally representative sample of U.S. households. For additional estimates not included in this report, see the NCVS Victimization Analysis Tool (NVAT) on the BJS website. **************************************** From 1994 to 2011, the rate of serious intimate partner violence against males declined by 64% **************************************** For males, the rate of serious intimate partner violence declined by 64%, from 1.1 victimizations per 1,000 in 1994 to 0.4 per 1,000 in 2011. Similar to the pattern observed for females, the majority of this decline occurred from 1994 to 2001. Rates of serious intimate partner violence against males declined by 71% from 1994 to 2001 and fluctuated between 0.4 and 1.0 victimizations per 1,000 through 2011. The rate of simple assault against males by an intimate partner decreased by 44% from 1994 to 2005, from 1.9 victimizations per 1,000 males to 1.0 per 1,000, with no further change observed in the trend through 2010. The rate of simple assault against males by an intimate partner increased from 0.7 victimization per 1,000 males age 12 or older in 2010 to 1.1 victimizations per 1,000 in 2011. **************************************** In 2002–11, nonfatal serious violence comprised more than a third of intimate partner violence experienced by females and males **************************************** From 1994 to 2011, the percentage of serious intimate partner violence experienced by females fluctuated between 28% to 42% (figure 2). On average during this period, serious intimate partner violence accounted for more than a third (34%) of intimate violence against females. Following a decline in the percentage of serious intimate partner violence against females between 1994 (36%) and 1996 (28%), no changes were observed through 2002 in the proportion of female intimate partner violence that was serious. After this period of stability, serious intimate violence increased briefly from 33% in 2002 to 42% in 2004. From 2005 to 2011, the percentage of serious intimate partner violence against females fluctuated between 28% and 36%. During the most recent 10-year period (2002–11), aggravated assault accounted for the largest percentage of serious intimate partner violence experienced by females (16%), while rape or sexual assault (10%) and robbery (9%) contributed a similar percentage (table 1). Serious violent crime accounted for 39% of intimate partner violence committed against males. As for females, aggravated assault (22%) accounted for the largest percentage of serious intimate partner violence against males. However, 16% of intimate violence against males was comprised of robbery, while rape or sexual assault accounted for the smallest percentage of intimate partner violence experienced by males (about 1%). *********************************************************** **************************************** A larger percentage of female than male homicide victims were killed by an intimate partner when the offender relationship was known **************************************** Although the majority of homicides recorded by the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Report involved male victims, a larger percentage of females than males were murdered by an intimate partner when the offender relationship was known (table 2). Of the 3,032 homicide incidents involving females in 2010, 39% were committed by an intimate, 37% were committed by a nonintimate, and 24% by an unknown offender. During the same year, of the 10,878 homicide incidents involving males, 3% were committed by an intimate, 48% by a nonintimate, and 50% by an offender with an unknown relationship to the victim. The classification of a homicide by victim-offender relationship is limited by what is known about the offender. Often the relationship between a victim and the offender is not known when an offender is not identified or apprehended during subsequent criminal investigations. From 1993 to 2010, the relationship between the victim and offender was not known or missing in 24% to 32% of homicide incidents involving female victims and 40% to 51% of homicide incidents involving male victims. Homicide is an important factor when examining the attributes of intimate partner violence. However, caution should be exercised when describing victim-offender relationships and homicide due to the limitations of missing data. *********************************************************** **************************************** In 2002–11, about 4% of females and 8% of males victimized by an intimate partner were shot at, stabbed, or hit with a weapon **************************************** From 1994 to 2011, the percentage of female victimizations involving a physical attack by an intimate partner fluctuated between 60% and 72% (figure 3). The remainder of these victimizations involved an attempted attack or threat of harm by the offender (not shown in figure). The percentage of female intimate partner victimizations in which the offender threatened a victim before the attack fluctuated between 39% and 63%. The percentage of physical attacks and threats prior to the attack followed similar patterns of increase and decrease from 1994 to 1999. From 1999 to 2007, the percentage of physical attacks against female victims of intimate partner violence steadily increased from 62% to 72%, while threats prior to the attack against female victims of intimate partner violence fluctuated between 39% and 63%. From 2007 to 2011, both physical attacks (down 16%) and threats of harm (down 30%) against female victims of intimate partner violence decreased. During the most recent 10-year period (2002-11), about 8% of female intimate partner victimizations included some form of sexual violence (table 3). In 4% of intimate partner victimizations against females, the victim was shot at, stabbed, or hit with a weapon. In approximately 5% of intimate partner violence against females, the victim was hit by an object that her intimate partner held or threw at her. Physical attacks involving hitting, slapping, or knocking the victim down accounted for the largest percentage of intimate partner violence against females (45%). For male intimate partner violence, in 8% of the victimizations the victim was shot at, stabbed, or hit with a weapon, while in 19%, the victim was hit by an object that an intimate partner held or threw at him. The most common form of physical attack against male victims of intimate partner violence was being hit, slapped, or knocked down by the offender (43%). In approximately 31% of male intimate partner victimizations that involved a physical attack, the offender threatened the victim with harm prior to the attack. **************************************** In 2002–11, about 18% of female and 27% of male intimate partner violence victimizations involved an offender with a weapon **************************************** From 1994 to 2011, the percentage of weapon-related intimate partner violence against females fluctuated between 13% and 25% (figure 4). The highest percentages were observed in 2003 and 2004, when approximately a quarter of females victimized by an intimate faced an offender armed with a weapon. In 2011, 18% of female intimate partner victimizations involved an offender with a weapon, similar to the percentage observed in 1994. In 2002–11, about 5% of female intimate partner victimizations involved a firearm, 6% involved a knife, and 7% involved some other type of weapon (e.g., broken bottle, cookware, or another household object) (table 4). In contrast to females, a weapon was present in a larger percentage (27%) of male intimate partner victimizations. When analyzed by weapon type, intimate partner victimizations against males involving an offender with a knife (11%) accounted for a slightly smaller percentage of violence than those with other types of weapons (15%). **************************************** In 2002–11, a larger percentage of female (13%) than male (5%) intimate partner victimizations resulted in serious physical injury **************************************** From 1994 to 2011, the percentage of female intimate partner victimizations resulting in physical injury fluctuated between 42% and 59% (figure 5). Physical injuries suffered by female victims of intimate partner violence decreased from 56% in 1994 to 45% in 1996. From 1999 to 2006, the percentage of females physically injured during intimate partner victimization increased from 47% to a high of 59%. This period of increase was followed by a decrease, and in 2011, about 42% of females victimized by an intimate were physically injured during the incident. In 2002–11, 13% of female intimate partner victimizations resulted in serious physical injury (table 5). Internal injuries, unconsciousness, and broken bones accounted for about 5%; gunshot and knife wounds accounted for 1%; and sexual violence accounted for 7%. Bruises, cuts, and other injuries accounted for 46% of female intimate partner violence. During the same period, 44% of male intimate partner victimizations resulted in a physical injury. About 5% of the victimizations resulted in serious physical injury. Gunshot and knife wounds accounted for 2% of serious injury against males. Bruises, cuts, and other injuries accounted for 41% of male intimate partner violence. **************************************** In 2002–11, a larger percentage of female (18%) than male (11%) victims were treated for injuries sustained during intimate partner violence **************************************** After a brief decrease between 1994 and 1996, the percentage of female intimate partner victimizations in which the victim sought medical treatment was relatively stable from 1997 to 2001, fluctuating from 18% to 21% (figure 6). In 2003, about 27% of females victimized by an intimate partner received treatment for injuries. The percentage decreased to 13% from 2003 to 2009 and then increased to 18% in 2011. In 2002–11, an estimated 18% of females victimized by an intimate partner received medical treatment. A similar percentage of females victimized by an intimate partner were treated at the scene, the victim’s home, or the home of a neighbor or friend (8%) or in a formal hospital setting (8%) (table 6). Another 2% of females victimized by an intimate partner received treatment at a medical office, local clinic, or health unit. Compared to females, a smaller percentage (11%) of males victimized by an intimate partner received medical treatment. Of male intimate partner victimizations, 6% received treatment at the scene, the victim’s home, or the home of a neighbor or friend, and 4% were treated in a hospital setting. *********************************************************** **************************************** Comparing intimate and nonintimate violent victimization of females and males **************************************** * This section presents aggregated estimates from 2002-11 and compares intimate and nonintimate victimization by sex. Serious violence against females accounted for a similar percentage of intimate partner violence (35%) and nonintimate violence (34%) (table 7). * A larger percentage of males experienced serious violence when victimized by an intimate (39%) than by a nonintimate (32%). * A larger percentage of females were physically attacked when victimized by an intimate partner (67%) than by a nonintimate offender (40%). * A larger percentage of males were physically attacked when victimized by an intimate partner (65%) than by a nonintimate offender (40%). * A larger percentage of females were threatened prior to a victimization by an intimate (52%) than a nonintimate (34%) offender. * A larger percentage of males were threatened prior to a victimization by an nonintimate (39%) than a intimate (31%). * A larger percentage of females faced an offender with a weapon when victimized by a nonintimate (20%) than by an intimate (18%). No statistically significant differences were detected in the percentage of male intimate and nonintimate victimizations involving weapons. * A larger percentage of females were injured when the offender was an intimate (50%) than a nonintimate (24%). * A larger percentage of males were injured when the offender was an intimate (44%) than a nonintimate (22%). * A larger percentage of females suffered serious physical injuries when the offender was an intimate (13%) than a nonintimate (5%). * A similar percentage of males suffered serious physical injuries whether the offender was an intimate (5%) or a nonintimate (4%). * A larger percentage of females sought treatment for their injuries when victimized by an intimate partner (18%) than a nonintimate offender (10%). * A similar percentage of males sought treatment for injuries when victimized by an intimate (11%) or a nonintimate (10%). *********************************************************** **************** Methodology **************** The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is a data collection conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The NCVS is a self- report survey in which interviewed persons are asked about the number and characteristics of victimizations experienced during the past 6 months. The NCVS collects information on nonfatal personal crimes (rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault) and property crimes (burglary, larceny-theft, arson, motor vehicle theft, and other theft) both reported and not reported to police. In addition to providing annual level and change estimates on criminal victimization, the NCVS is the primary source of information on the nature of criminal victimization incidents. Survey respondents provide information about themselves (such as age, sex, race and ethnicity, marital status, education level, and income) and whether they experienced victimization. Information is collected for each victimization incident about the offender (such as age, race and ethnicity, sex, and victim-offender relationship), characteristics of the crime (including time and place of occurrence, use of weapons, nature of injury, and economic consequences), whether the crime was reported to police, reasons the crime was or was not reported, and experiences with the criminal justice system. The NCVS is administered to persons age 12 or older from a nationally representative sample of households in the United States. The NCVS defines a household as a group of members who all reside at a sampled address. Persons are considered household members when the sampled address is their usual place of residence at the time of the interview and when they have no usual place of residence elsewhere. Once selected, households remain in the sample for 3 years, and eligible persons in these households are interviewed every 6 months for a total of seven interviews. New households rotate into the sample on an ongoing basis to replace outgoing households that have been in the sample for the 3- year period. The sample includes persons living in group quarters, such as dormitories, rooming houses, and religious group dwellings, and excludes persons living in military barracks and institutional settings, such as correctional or hospital facilities, and the homeless. (For more detail, see the Survey Methodology for Criminal Victimization in the United States, 2008, NCJ 231173, BJS website, May 2011.) In 2011, about 143,120 persons age 12 or older from 79,800 households across the country were interviewed during the year. The response rate was 88% of eligible individuals and 90% of eligible households. Victimizations that occurred outside of the United States were excluded from this report. From 1993 to 2011, 291 (0.7%) of the total 43,805 unweighted nonfatal violent victimizations occurred outside of the United States and were excluded from the analysis. Weighting adjustments for estimating personal victimization **************************************** Estimates in this report use data from the 1993 to 2011 NCVS data files weighted to produce annual estimates of victimization for persons age 12 or older living in U.S. households. Because the NCVS relies on a sample rather than a census of the entire U.S. population, weights are designed to inflate sample point estimates to known population totals and to compensate for survey nonresponse and other aspects of the sample design. The NCVS data files include both person and household weights. Household weights provide an estimate of the total U.S. household population. Person weights provide an estimate of the population represented by each person in the sample. Person weights are most frequently used to compute estimates of criminal victimizations of persons in the total population. Both household and person weights, after proper adjustment, are also used to form the denominator in calculations of crime rates. Victimization weights used in this analysis account for the number of persons present during an incident and for repeat victims of series incidents. The weight counts series incidents as the actual number of incidents reported by the victim, up to a maximum of 10 incidents. Series victimizations are similar in type but occur with such frequency that a victim is unable to recall each individual event or to describe each event in detail. Survey procedures allow NCVS interviewers to identify and classify these similar victimizations as series victimizations and to collect detailed information on only the most recent incident in the series. In 2011, about 3% of all victimizations were series incidents. Weighting series incidents as the number of incidents up to a maximum of 10 incidents produces more reliable estimates of crime levels, while the cap at 10 minimizes the effect of extreme outliers on the rates. Additional information on the series enumeration is detailed in Methods for Counting High- Frequency Repeat Victimizations in the National Crime Victimization Survey, NCJ 237308, BJS website, April 2012. Standard error computations **************************************** When national estimates are derived from a sample, as is the case with the NCVS, caution must be taken when comparing one estimate to another estimate or when comparing estimates over time. Although one estimate may be larger than another, estimates based on a sample have some degree of sampling error. The sampling error of an estimate depends on several factors, including the amount of variation in the responses, the size of the sample, and the size of the subgroup for which the estimate is computed. When the sampling error around the estimates is taken into consideration, the estimates that appear dif ferent may, in fact, not be statistically different. One measure of the sampling error associated with an estimate is the standard error. The standard error can vary from one estimate to the next. In general, for a given metric, an estimate with a small standard error provides a more reliable approximation of the true value than an estimate with a large standard error. Estimates with relatively large standard errors are associated with less precision and reliability and should be interpreted with caution. In order to generate standard errors around estimates from the NCVS, the Census Bureau produced generalized variance function (GVF) parameters for BJS. The GVFs take into account aspects of the NCVS complex sample design and represent the curve fitted to a selection of individual standard errors based on the Jackknife Repeated Replication technique. The GVF parameters were used to generate standard errors for each point estimate (such as counts, percentages, and rates) in the report. For average annual estimates, standard errors were based on the ratio of the sums of victimizations and respondents across years. In this report, BJS conducted tests to determine whether differences in estimated numbers and percentages were statistically significant once sampling error was taken into account. Using statistical programs developed specifically for the NCVS, all comparisons in the text were tested for significance. The primary test procedure used was Student’s t-statistic, which tests the difference between two sample estimates. To ensure that the observed differences between estimates were larger than might be expected due to sampling variation, BJS set the significance level at the 95% confidence level. Data users can use the estimates and the standard errors of the estimates provided in this report to generate a confidence interval around the estimate as a measure of the margin of error. The following example illustrates how standard errors can be used to generate confidence intervals: * According to the NCVS, in 2011, the rate intimate partner violence against females was 4.7 victimizations per 1,000 females age 12 or older (see appendix table 1). Using the GVFs, BJS determined that the estimate has a standard error of 0.32 (see appendix table 2). A confidence interval around the estimate was generated by multiplying the standard error by ±1.96 (the t-score of a normal, two-tailed distribution that excludes 2.5% at either end of the distribution). Therefore, the confidence interval around the 4.7 estimate from 2011 is 4.7 ± .63 (0.32 X 1.96) or (4.07 to 5.33). In other words, if different samples using the same procedures were taken from the U.S. population in 2011, 95% of the time the rate of intimate partner victimization against females would fall between 4.07 and 5.33 per 1,000. In this report, BJS also calculated a coefficient of variation (CV) for all estimates, representing the ratio of the standard error to the estimate. CVs provide a measure of reliability and a means to compare the precision of estimates across measures with differing levels or metrics. In cases where the CV was greater than 50% or the unweighted sample had 10 or fewer cases, the estimate was noted with a “!” symbol (interpret data with caution; estimate is based on 10 or fewer sample cases, or the coefficient of variation exceeds 50%). Many of the variables examined in this report may be related to one another and to other variables not included in the analyses. Complex relationships among variables were not fully explored in this report and warrant more extensive analysis. Readers are cautioned not to draw causal inferences based on the results presented. Intimate partner violence and crime types defined **************************************** As defined in the NCVS, intimate partner violence includes rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault (see definitions below) committed by an offender who is the victim’s current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend. For some victims, intimates are primarily restricted to boyfriends and girlfriends. Others may be inclined to perceive romantic relationships as friends or acquaintances rather than ascribing the level of intimacy associated with a boyfriend or girlfriend. Therefore, the characteristics of intimate partner violence as defined in this report may differ based on how the respondent perceives the relationship with the offender. Crime types defined Rape--Unlawful penetration of a person against the will of the victim, with use or threatened use of force, or attempting such an act. Includes psychological coercion and physical force. Forced sexual intercourse means vaginal, anal, or oral penetration by the offender. Also includes incidents where penetration is from a foreign object, such as a bottle. Includes male and female victims, and both heterosexual and same-sex rape. Attempted rape includes verbal threats of rape. (Rape and sexual assault are combined into one victimization measure.) Robbery--The unlawful taking or attempted taking of property that is in the immediate possession of another, by force or threat of force, with or without a weapon, and with or without injury. Aggravated assault--An attack or attempted attack with a weapon, regardless of whether the victim is injured, or an attack without a weapon when serious injury results. Simple assault--An attack or attempted attack without a weapon that results in either no injury, minor injury (e.g., bruises, black eyes, cuts, scratches, or swelling) or an undetermined injury requiring less than 2 days of hospitalization Attacks, attempted attacks, and threats of harm **************************************** The NCVS used a two-part screening strategy. First, a screener was administered to a respondent, and if a potential crime was identified, a detailed incident form was then administered to the respondent to gather additional detail on the characteristics of the incident. The details gathered by the incident form were used in an algorithm that subsequently classified the event into specific crime types. During administration of the detailed incident form, respondents were asked a series of questions regarding attacks, attempted attacks, and threats of harm that they may have experienced during the crime. Respondents were first asked whether a physical attack occurred, and if so, the nature of the physical attack. For this report, response options for the type of attack in the NCVS were combined into similar categories of physical attack. See survey questions below. Q. 24. Did the offender hit you, knock you down or actually attack you in any way? Yes No Q. 29a.­ How were you attacked? Respondents who were attacked were asked if the offender threatened them prior to the attack: Q. 30a. Did the offender THREATEN to hurt you before you were actually attacked? Yes No Other Victims who were attacked were not subsequently asked detailed information regarding the type of threat that preceded the attack. In addition, it is not possible to ascertain from the survey whether the threat of harm immediately preceded the attack or whether the victim was threatened days, weeks, or even months earlier. Victims who were not physically attacked were subsequently asked if the offender attempted to attack them or threatened them with harm. The victim was then asked to describe the nature of the attempted attack or threat. These victimizations are excluded from estimates of intimate partner violence involving physical attacks. Methodological changes to the NCVS in 2006 **************************************** Methodological changes implemented in 2006 may have affected the crime estimates for that year to such an extent that they are not comparable to estimates from other years. Evaluation of 2007 and later data from the NCVS conducted by BJS and the Census Bureau found a high degree of confidence that estimates for 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 are consistent with and comparable to estimates for 2005 and previous years. For more information, see Criminal Victimization, 2006, NCJ 219413, BJS website, December 2007; Criminal Victimization, 2007, NCJ 224390, BJS website, December 2008; Criminal Victimization, 2008, NCJ 227777, BJS website, September 2009; Criminal Victimization, 2009, NCJ 231327, BJS website, October 2010; Criminal Victimization, 2010, NCJ 235508, BJS website, September 2011; and Criminal Victimization, 2011, NCJ 239437, BJS website, October 2012. Although caution is warranted when comparing data from 2006 to other years, the combination of 2-year rolling averages and 10 years of aggregated data in this report diminishes the potential variation between 2006 and later years. Slight increases are observed when comparing averaged 2005–06 and 2006–07 estimates. However, these increases do not change the findings when the long-term trends are examined. The effect of 2006 methodological changes on the aggregated 2002 to 2011 analyses is less pronounced. In general, findings do not change significantly if the year 2006 is excluded from the analysis. The 2002 to 2011 average annual number of intimate partner victimizations, attacks by an intimate partner, and injuries sustained during intimate partner violence were not significantly different from the annual averages when 2006 data were excluded. FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR) **************************************** The homicide data in this report are from the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR), which are a part of the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. Supplemental data about homicide incidents are submitted monthly with details on location, victim, and offender characteristics. These reports include information on the reporting agency and its residential population, county and Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) codes, geographical division, and population group; on the age, race, and sex of victims and offenders; and on the victim-offender relationship, weapon use, and circumstance of the crime. From 1993 to 2010, contributing agencies provided supplemental data for 282,009 (or 88.7%) of the estimated 318,098 homicides. Homicide includes murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, or the willful killing of one human being by another. This report excludes deaths caused by negligence, suicide, or accident; justifiable homicides; and attempts to murder. These homicide data are based solely on police investigation, as opposed to the determination of a court, medical examiner, coroner, jury, or other judicial body. Not all agencies that report offense information to the FBI also submit supplemental data on homicides. To compensate for nonreported homicides, BJS weighted the total number of homicide victims included in the SHR data to match the FBI’s state and national estimates of the total number of homicide victims. *********************************************************** The Bureau of Justice Statistics, located in the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, collects, analyses, and disseminates statistical information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government. William J. Sabol is acting director. This report was written by Shannan Catalano. Jennifer Truman verified the report. Vanessa Curto and Morgan Young edited the report. Barbara Quinn produced the report. November 2013, NCJ 243300 *********************************************************** *********************************************************** Office of Justice Programs Innovation • Partnerships • Safer Neighborhoods www.ojp.usdoj.gov *********************************************************** ********************** 11/6/2013/JER/ 12:40 **********************