DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

2. In the USA, about 25% of all murders involve family members.

3. More than 4 million american women are beaten annually by current and former male partners, and between 2,000 and 4,000 are murdered, according to the National Womans Abuse Prevention Center.

4. According to former U.S Surgeon, General C. Everett Koop, domestic violence is the number one health problem for American women. Causing more injuries then automobile accidents, muggings, and rapes combined.

5. It has been well documented that men who physically harm their partners also hit their children.

6. In the USA a woman is domestically violated every 7 seconds

CONSIDER THESE FACTS:

1. Although there are cases in which a women have assaulted their spouses, men commit 95% of all assaults against spouses or ex-spouses, according to a recent National Crime Survey.

2. Using data gathered by the FBI, Professor Murray Straus, co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire, found that 43% of women who are murdered are killed by another family member, most often their husbands.

3. Each year, more then one million women seek medical help for injuries caused by battering.

4. In 1992 the American Medical Association recommended that doctors should routinely screen their female patients for signs of domestic violence because it had become so common. Doctors should be aware that domestic violence may present itself not only in the form of physical injury, but in chronic pain, gynecological disturbances, or sleep and appetite disorders.

BATTERING:

According to activists who have survived battering, legal specialists and advocates, and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence battering is a pattern though fear and intimidation. It often includes the threat or the use of violence. It occurs when the batterers believe they are entitled to control their partners. Not all battering is physical. It can include a whole spectrum of behavior used to establish and maintain power, including economic abuse, sexual abuse, threats, intimidation, isolation, and exploitation of children. Whether physical or not, battering usually escalates. It may begin with threats and violent actions such as kicking a pet or smashing furniture, and then escalate to punching, sexual assault, beating, and then proceed to life threatening actions, such as breaking bones, choking and brandishing weapons.
   Some common statements made by male perpertrators of domestic violence are:

• “If you hadn’t made me mad I would not have hit you.”
• “You will never find someone to love you the way I love you.”
• “It is all your fault.”

CAN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE BE PREDICTED?

Clues to the possible development of violence can be found in the affirmative answers to these questions:

1. Did your partner grow up in a violent family?

2. Does your partner have nasty temper and does he overreact to small problems and the usual frustrations of daily life such as being deprived of a parking space or constantly geting a busy signal when trying to make an important call?

3. Does your partner have low self esteem?

4. Are there frequent examples of cruelty to animals?

5. Does your partner have rigid old fashioned ideas about the place of women in the family and does his role as undisputed dictator of the family’s way of life?

6. Are you and all women regarded as second class citizens who should know their place?

7. Does your partner want to know where you are and with whom at all times? Are you given any free time that is entirely your own?

8. Does your partner constantly takl about “getting even” with others and play with weapons as a way of showing off?

9. Does your partner show signs of rage if you cant figure out what is wanted or expected of you?

10. Does your partner alternate between kindness and cruelty in an unpredictable way?

11. Did you partner “rough you up” during dating or when you were living togethher? If he did, don’t assume you’ll be able to change abusive behavior when you’re married.

• YWCA of San Diego County
• Center for Community Solutions
• Domestic Violence Handbook
• Domestic Violence Home Page
• Domestic Violence Information Center
• Domestic Violence
• Men & Domestic Violence
• CUAV Same Sex Domestic Violence