When Love Hurts
Amidst all the October Breast Cancer Awareness events last month, another "cause," if you will, got overlooked in the shuffle. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, October was also Domestic Violent Awareness Month.
What is Domestic Violence? "Sometimes referred to as domestic abuse...(it) occurs when a family member, partner or ex-partner attempts to physically or psychologically dominate another. Domestic violence occurs in all cultures; people of all races, ethnicities, religions, and classes can be perpetrators of domestic violence. Domestic violence is perpetrated by, and on, both men and women, and occurs in same-sex and opposite-sex relationships (wikipedia, emphasis added)."
In other words, this is abuse that could happen to any one of us.
Some frightening statistics (source - Virginians Against Domestic Violence):
5.3 million (Number of times American women are abused or stalked by an intimate parnter each year)
555 thousand (Number of serious injuries caused by domestic violence)
145 thousand (Number of women hosptalized for those injuries)
12 hundred (Number killed)
73 percent (Percentage of domestic vilence indicdents that go unreported)
8.8 million (Number of children who witness domestic violence each year)
30 percent (Percentage by which being abused as a child increases the chances of being arrested for vilent acts as an adult - and boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own partners and children when they become adults)
4.1 billion (Dollars spent yearly on medical and mental health care as a direct result of domestic violence)
What can we do to help? TAKE ACTION NOW. Go to the NCADV website, and see what can be done (see the "take action" section near the bottom for all kinds of ideas).
The next victim could be your mother, your sister, your best friend, your daughter...or you.
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