The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has released a data brief, “Self-Reported Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence in Minnesota,” which summarizes findings from the MDH-sponsored Community Survey of Health and Safety of Minnesota Women, conducted in June .

Two thousand women, aged 18-44, were interviewed by telephone about their experiences with intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual violence (SV) during the 12 months preceding the survey. This is the first time MDH has conducted a statewide survey to estimate the number of Minnesota women who are victims of such violence.

About three percent of the women interviewed by telephone said they had experienced IPV during , and one percent said they had experienced SV. For purposes of the survey, IPV was defined as a physical assault by an intimate partner, such as a current or former husband, boyfriend or partner (including same-sex partner). SV is defined as an attempted or completed non-consensual sex act.

If these percentages are projected to the population, approximately 30,000 women are estimated to have experienced IPV, and 10,000 women are estimated to have experienced SV during that year. These findings are consistent with other state and national surveys. Although nearly three-quarters of the IPV victims reported that they had sustained injuries, only 38 percent sought medical treatment. All women who had experienced sexual violence were considered to be injured, but only 23 percent sought medical care. An intimate partner was mentioned as the perpetrator by about one-fifth of SV victims.

“Thousands of Minnesotans are affected each year by intimate partner or sexual violence,” said Minnesota Commissioner of Health Dianne Mandernach. “Continuing to collect good data on the scope of the problem can help us better focus the state’s prevention efforts.”

Victims or individuals with concerns are encouraged to seek assistance or a referral from the Minnesota 24-Hour Domestic Violence Crisis Line (1-) or RAINN, a national sexual abuse hotline that automatically refers to local program by caller’s area code (1-).

The MDH Injury and Violence Prevention Unit conducted the survey to supplement its other data on IPV and SV, which includes statistics on how many victims seek medical treatment. The data brief also reports on IPV and SV findings of the Minnesota Crime Survey, ; the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), ; the Minnesota Student Survey, ; the Oregon Women’s Health and Safety Survey, ; and the National Violence Against Women Survey, .

MDH works with numerous state and local organizations to help address the problems of sexual and domestic violence in Minnesota. In collaboration with its partners, the department has developed five-year objectives for health care and public health systems, and a comprehensive sexual violence prevention resource kit for communities.

Sexual assault prevention activities recently funded by MDH include parent education programs conducted by the Center for Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment, a curriculum and video for Asian youth and adults developed by Asian Media Access, online safety presentations and information developed by the Jacob Wetterling Foundation, and the STOP IT NOW! Minnesota child sexual abuse prevention campaign.

The state provides grants to address sexual assault, general crime, abused children, battered women and domestic abuse. Minnesota Gov. Pawlenty’s proposed budget for the next biennium seeks to restore funding for these services to their previous level of $5.184 million per year.

Source: Minnesota Department of Health