'Little fights with wife': Trump downplays domestic violence — data shows it's a national epidemic | In Pics

US President Donald Trump on Monday (Sep 8) downplayed domestic violence as he went on a bizarre rant complaining about how offences by men against their wives were skewing his crime statistics. Speaking to faith leaders in Washington, he claimed that crime in Washington, DC, was down to "virtually nothing" since he sent in the National Guard a month ago. Appearing annoyed, he followed up the claim by saying that, despite this, the crime statistics fail to show crime had reduced by 100 per cent, all because law enforcement continues to record what he referred to as "lesser things" like domestic matters. But is domestic violence a "lesser thing" or a less talked-about crime affecting millions of Americans every year? This is what the data says.

Before we proceed to the horrifying statistics that show how big a problem domestic violence is in the US, we must first appreciate the irony.

Trump, during his Monday speech, flippantly commented, "If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say, 'this was a crime, see?' So now I can’t claim 100 per cent." The POTUS, who has come under fire for referring to domestic violence as "lesser things", was once accused by his ex-wife Ivana Trump of rape during a violent encounter. In her 1990 divorce deposition, Ivana Trump alleged that in 1989, "Angry over a painful scalp reduction surgery...he (Trump) assaulted her, pulling out clumps of her hair and forcing her into sex."

According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, in the US, an average of 24 people – not just women, but men too – are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner. This adds up to over 12 million women and men every year.

However, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline website, between 1994 and 2010, approximately 4 in 5 victims of domestic violence were female.

According to the Hotline, around 29 per cent of women, or 1 in 10 women, reported suffering domestic abuse, and it has had a related impact on their functioning. Meanwhile, 1 in 10, or 10 per cent of men, also reported the same.

14.8 per cent of women and 4 per cent of men said they have been injured due to intimate partner violence or domestic violence. Meanwhile, 1 in 4 women (24.3 per cent) and 1 in 7 men (13.8 per cent) reported that they were victims of severe physical violence at the hands of their intimate partner in their lifetime.

Almost half of all women and men in the US have experienced psychological aggression by an intimate partner in their lifetime (48.4% and 48.8%, respectively).