September 9, 2013 | Violence Against Women

Women, AIDS and Domestic Violence

New White House report: Women with HIV are more likely to be abused

If you're a woman and living with HIV, the odds are you will also be the victim of domestic violence. That’s the gist of a new report released by the President's Working Group on the Intersection of HIV/AIDS, Violence against Women and Girls, and Gender-Related Health Disparities.

According to the report, more than 1 in 3 women in the United States has experienced rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in her lifetime; of these women, 69% report experiencing intimate partner violence at age 25 or younger, and 22% experience IPV for the first time as girls between the ages of 11 and 17 years. Furthermore, approximately 280,000 women in the United States were living with HIV in 2009, with an estimated 15% unaware of their status. Women account for 20% of new HIV infections in the United States, with over three-quarters of these new infections occurring among black and Latina women.

By themselves, these statistics represent a compelling call to action, but the particular prevalence of intimate partner violence among women living with HIV further reinforces the need to address the intersection of HIV/AIDS and violence against women and girls: 56% of women living with HIV, compared to the national prevalence of 36%, have experienced violence by an intimate partner.

Read a summary and the full report on the White House website.