GivingMatters.com - Domestic Violence
The Issue
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Domestic
Abuse Intervention Project - To learn more about |
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Domestic Violence - whether physical, sexual, emotional, or financial abuse - usually fits a pattern of someone with power controlling another person with less power.
Preventing abuse can circumvent a lifetime of confusion and pain. Because victim services are stretched to the limit and shelters are overflowing, experts throughout the area are devoting renewed resources and energy to prevention measures. Prevention includes both community awareness and education as well as early identification of and intervention with those at risk of abusing or suffering abuse.
The dynamics of domestic violence are complicated. The abuser and the victim may love one another, which makes it even more difficult to deal with abuse since the victim may be reluctant to ask law enforcement, or anyone else, for help. As dangerous as it may be, the victim may not want to end the relationship. Leaders of nonprofit organizations serving victims of domestic violence say they need more resources to assist victims, especially in rural areas.
The Facts
- It is estimated that one of five workdays women miss represents
a day missed due to domestic violence perpetrated against
them.
- The Metro Nashville Police Department receives roughly 20,000
calls about domestic violence situations each year.
- From July
1 - October 30, 2008, the domestic violence hotline received
1,037 crisis calls - up 27% from the same period a year ago.
- As
we struggle through hard economic times, local nonprofits
predict the need for domestic violence services will increase. Research
finds couples who report extensive financial strain have a
rate of violence more than 3 times that of couples with low
levels of financial strain (National Institute of Justice September
2004).
- Nearly one-third of women in the U.S. report being physically
or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point
in their lives.
- The Domestic Abuse Intervention Project in
Duluth, Minn., reports that 73% of the abusers sent to its
treatment programs by the courts were either physically abused
as children or saw their mothers being abused.
- Power can be
exerted in the form of coercion, intimidation, isolation,
blaming, withholding resources, threats and assault. Abusive
power is used to keep individuals in their place and maintain
one person’s
dominance over another. Forms of abuse can include: physical,
sexual, emotional, and/or economic.
The Faces
Anna was a young mother who walked into a domestic violence shelter in Murfreesboro holding one small child by the hand and pushing another in a stroller. She reported that her husband often hit her and threatened to take their children and their money and flee the country. During a little over two months at the shelter, Anna managed to get a driver’s license, settle her children in day care, get a job, and find an apartment.
How You Can Help
- Support victim assistance programs.
- Ensure the community is aware
of available prevention services and their positive impact.
- Support
organizations providing transportation to court, counseling and
support services for victims of abuse
and neglect.
- Encourage employer-based violence and abuse
prevention training programs.
- Aid victims of elder abuse by funding
transportation, food, visits, and phone calls.
- Sponsor child care for
people who need counseling or who want to attend prevention classes,
or volunteer with an organization that provides child care.
- Support
efforts to recruit, hire and train multilingual prevention and
treatment professionals.
- Provide financial assistance to domestic
violence shelters and counseling programs that are in danger of
closing due to funding cuts.
Return
to GivingMatters.com to learn about nonprofits addressing this issue.
