BLOOMBERG: The Global Crisis of Domestic Violence Can Be Stopped
Across countries, the percentage of women who believe that wife beating is acceptable has been falling, in some cases rapidly. In Burkina Faso the proportion who felt husbands could beat wives for arguing with them fell from around one-half to less than a third from 2003 to 2010. Only three countries worldwide had legislation against domestic violence in 1989; today the number is 76. In the developing countries with such legislation that were surveyed, 40 percent of women accept domestic violence, compared with 57 percent in the sample countries without legislation.
That the U.S.—a peaceful, rich country that made domestic violence a federal crime in 1996—still sees such high rates of violence against women suggests the world has a long way to go to stamp out the scourges of sexual and domestic attack. Yet each additional year that a country has domestic violence legislation in place is associated with a reduced prevalence of about 2 percent. Add declining rates of other types of violence around the planet—generally falling homicide rates and fewer civil wars—and there’s reason for optimism that trends toward lower violence against women will continue.