Federal Partners Committee on Women and Trauma

According to a recently released report by Federal Partners Committee on Women and Trauma:

• Due to the spiraling number of people impacted and the wide range of consequences, trauma is now believed to be a public health crisis.

•  Violence is gendered: While men are most likely to experience violence from strangers, women and girls are most likely to be hurt by people they know intimately: For women in the military, the greatest risk of harm is from fellow soldiers; for an adolescent girl, it is from a person whom she loves.

• One in five girls and one in ten boys are sexually abused before adulthood. Adolescent girls between the ages of 16-19 are four times more likely than boys to be a victim of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault.

• Women are twice as likely as men to experience depression, and 54% of depression in women can be attributed to childhood abuse.

Not surprisingly, according the SAMSA's 1998-2003 research study on women and violence:

"The most effective interventions are gender-responsive – they reflect an understanding of the realities of the lives of women and girls, respond to their strengths and challenges, and use knowledge about female socialization and development to guide all aspects of program and system design."