The phrase violence against women is a technical term used to collectively refer to violent acts that are primarily

or exclusively committed against women. Of all critical issues that loomed over 2012- environmental changes, gay marriage, gun violence, middle eastern chaos- the one that is ushering out the year is what keeps coming back to me with a sense of dread: the status of women.
The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993) states that "violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of the full advancement of women, and that violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position compared with men. Internationally, the incidence of rapes recorded by the police during 2008 varied between 0.1 in Egypt per 100,000 people and 91.6 per 100,000 people in Lesotho with 4.9 per 100,000 people inLithuania as the median. According to the American Medical Association (1995), sexual violence, and rape in particular, is considered the most underreported violent . We recoil at the murder by gang rape of a young Indian woman in far away New Delhi, which was sparking political protest in the streets of India. It is also so far away, distant from our daily concerns. But the brutality of crime makes me speechless. According to New York Times, rape increased 25% in India from 2006 to 2011, with more than 600 attacks reported in New Delhi alone in 2012.

Women are more likely to be victimized by someone that they are intimate with, commonly called "Intimate Partner Violence" or (IPV). The impact of domestic violence in the sphere of total violence against women can be understood through the example that 4070% of murders of women are committed by their husband or [31] boyfriend. Studies have shown that violence is not always perpetrated as a form of physical violence but can also be psychological and verbal. In unmarried relationships this is commonly called dating violence, whereas in the context of marriage it is called domestic violence.
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The social acceptability of domestic violence also differs by country. While in most developed countries domestic violence is considered unacceptable by most people, in many regions of the world the views are different: according to a UNICEF survey, the percentage of women aged 1549 who think that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife under certain circumstances is, for example: 90% in Afghanistan and Jordan, 87% in Mali, 86% in Guinea and Timor-Leste, 81% in Laos, [7] 80% in Central African Republic. Refusing to submit to a husband's wishes is a common reason given for justification of violence in developing countries: for instance 62.4% of women in Tajikistan justify wife beating if the wife goes out without telling the husband; 68% if she argues with him; 47.9% if she refuses to have sex with him. Acid attacks are most popular in Cambodia, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other nearby countries. Globally, at least 1500 people in 20 countries are attacked in this way yearly, 80 percent of whom are female and somewhere between 40 percent and 70 percent under 18 years of age. Because most of their victims are women, acid attacks have been characterized as a form of gender apartheid. Because of cultural preference for male,parents have aborted female fetuses, leaving the country with a skewed male female ratio in society of about 15 million men . Violence against woman is a universal phenomenon, the chapter begins describing how woman exposed to physical violence in their lifetime ranges from 12% in cina to half or more in Australia, Zambia which registers a whopping 59%.

Crime Against Women Percent Distribution during 2010 Cruelty by Husband and Relatives 44.0% Others 0.4% Dowry Death 3.9% Immoral Traffic (P) Act 1.2% Dowry Prohibition Act 2.4% Rape 10.4% Sexual Hara