Violence against women widespread in Western Alaska region
Studies have consistently shown that the majority of Alaska women have been abused or sexually assaulted
At least 51 percent of women in the Nome census area have experienced physical abuse at the hands of an intimate partner, sexual violence, or both, according to a new study. The numbers mirror a grim pattern of extreme rates of violence against women statewide, Alaska Dispatch News reports.
The results of the “Alaska Victimization Survey: Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence in the Nome Census Area,” authored by the University of Alaska Anchorage Justice Center and the state Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, were released in Nome Feb. 11. For more than five years, the researchers have been surveying women in regions around the state about their experiences of sexual violence and abuse in an effort to better track violence against women in Alaska.