Question

Explain why reports of family violence might not be representative of actual occurrences. Why is this difficult to assess? How might our current social conditions impact this phenomena?

Answer 1

The impact of violence --- lives lost
and health harmed
In 2000, an estimated 1.6 million people world-
wide lost their lives to violence – a rate of nearly
28.8 per 100 000 (see Table 1). Around half of
these deaths were suicides, nearly one-third were
homicides, and about one-fifth were casualties of
armed conflict.
Of course not everyone is equally at risk from
violence, and a closer look at the problem reveals
who the principal victims were and where they
lived. Males accounted for three-quarters of all
victims of homicide, and had rates more than three
times those among females. The highest homicide
rates in the world – at 19.4 per 100 000 – were
found among males aged 15–29 years (see
Table 2). Homicide rates among males tend to
decline with age; however, for women, the rate is
around 4 per 100 000 across all age groups, with
the exception of the group aged 5–14 years, where
it is about 2 per 100 000.
Rates for suicide, in contrast, tend to increase with
age for both sexes (see Table 2). The highest rates of
suicide – 44.9 per 100 000 – were found among
men aged 60 years and older, more than double the
rates among women of the same age (22.1 per
100 000). In contrast, in the 15–29-year-old age
group, the rate was 15.6 per 100 000 among males
and 12.2 per 100 000 among females.