A Few Facts about Trauma

In mental health and substance abuse service settings

• As many as 80% of men and women in psychiatric hospitals have experienced physical or sexual abuse, most of them as children.
• The majority of adults diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (81%)or Dissociative Identity Disorder (90%) were abused as children.
• Up to two-thirds of both men and women in substance abuse treatment report childhood abuse or neglect.
• Nearly 90% of alcoholic women were sexually abused as children or suffered severe violence at the hands of a parent.

In childhood and adolescence

• 82% of young people in inpatient and residential treatment programs have histories of trauma.
• Violence is a significant causal factor in 10-25% of all developmental disabilities.

In the criminal justice and juvenile justice systems

• 80% of women in prison and jail have been victims of sexual and physical abuse.
• In one study, 92% of incarcerated girls reported sexual, physical or severe emotional abuse.
• Boys who experience or witness violence are 1,000 times more likely to commit violence than those who do not.

From The Damaging Consequences of Violence and Trauma, 2004, compiled by Ann Jennings, PhD. Download at Documents