DATE: Monday, August 25, 1997               TAG: 9708250099

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   96 lines

NEW REPORT POINTS TO UNDER-REPORTING OF DOMESTIC ABUSE

Almost half of the 1.4 million victims of violence or suspected violence treated in hospital emergency rooms in 1994 were hurt by someone they knew, the Justice Department says.

The report released Sunday also found that 17 percent of the victims, about 243,000 people, suffered injuries inflicted by someone with whom they had an intimate relationship - a spouse, former spouse, or a current or former boyfriend or girlfriend.

Victims of abuse by spouses or former spouses were 7 percent of the total. In that group, women victims outnumbered men by 9-to-1, the study said. Nearly 10 percent of the 1.4 million victims of violence were hurt by a boyfriend or girlfriend, and women were almost eight times more likely than men to fall into this category.

Relatives, such as a parent or child, were the attackers in 8 percent of the cases, the study found, while nearly a quarter, or 23 percent of the victims, were abused by friends or acquaintances. Another 23 percent were hurt by strangers. No relationship between assailant and victim was recorded in 30 percent of the cases, which could include additional cases of domestic abuse and other attacks by people known to the victim.

The findings were based on emergency room visits in 1994 at a nationwide sample of 31 hospitals that provide 24-hour service and have staffs trained to record the cause and circumstances of every injury, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The study was undertaken to ``augment available estimates of certain types of more serious violence, such as domestic violence and sexual assault, that have been shown to be difficult to measure,'' the bureau said.

The findings provide ``sobering proof'' that domestic violence is seriously under-reported, said Bonnie J. Campbell, director of Justice's Violence Against Women Office.

Although Campbell said she was ``encouraged that the medical profession is taking a greater role in addressing domestic violence,'' she said much work remains.

``We need to redouble our efforts to engage emergency room personnel in the battle to end domestic abuse,'' she said.

Campbell is working with the American Medical Association and other medical organizations to develop procedures for emergency room physicians on how to handle cases of suspected abuse, said Justice Department spokesman Gregory King. The procedures could be ready by late fall, he said.

The report, the first of its kind, showed numbers that were four times higher than the estimates measured by the National Crime Victimization Survey, the Justice Department said. The survey is one of the nation's principal sources of crime victim information.

The report, by statistician Michael Rand of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, said that its higher numbers were ``not surprising'' because it focused on intentional injuries, ``regardless of whether the victim perceived the event to have been criminal in nature.''

``Many of the victims, including those of long-term abuse, are unable or unwilling, because of fear or embarrassment, to report such abuse to authorities or to programs that measure these victimizations,'' the report added.

In addition to the 1,335,900 confirmed victims of violence, the study said there were 81,700 who turned up at the hospital with ``injuries that had probably been - or were suspected of having been - sustained from acts of violence.'' The total of 1,417,600 represented 3.6 percent of all injury-related emergency room visits in 1994.

The study found that almost half of the victims of violent injuries were under age 25. Blacks were disproportionately represented, accounting for 24 percent of those treated for such injuries while constituting 13 percent of the population, the report noted.

Only non-fatal injuries were counted. About three out of five were inflicted without a weapon, most often the result of a punch or a kick. About 5 percent of the victims were treated for gunshot wounds. The highest number of attacks occurred in the summer: June, July and August. Self-inflicted injuries and those caused by police ``in the line of duty'' were not counted.

The study also found:

Almost all of the patients were released right after treatment. About 7 percent were hospitalized.

Nearly all of the victims, or 94 percent of the 1.4 million, were injured during assaults.

Five percent were hurt during rapes or sexual assaults, and 2 percent were hurt during robberies.

About 5 percent of those treated for violence-related injuries were children under 12.

Nearly 22,000 children were treated because of a suspected or actual rape or sexual assault. MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Associated Press and

The Washington Post. ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC

VIOLENCE-RELATED INJURIES

SOURCE: Bureau of Justice Staitstics

[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.] KEYWORDS: INJURIES REPORT STUDY VIOLENCE DOMESTIC ABUSE

STATISTICS

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